A Day that will live in Alchemy: 10 June 2024

12 Months of Mornings

The 12 Months of Mornings project continues, now already 5 tracks strong, during this time of year blessed with bright mornings but not always great weather. Luckily, that doesn’t have too much an effect on the ability of those おはよオーリバー (Good Morning) shots to be turned into some interesting music, which frequently even surprises myself.

In June 2024 the photo for June 10th made the cut and it eventually ended sounding like this:

For convenience all tracks are also up on youtube. Other streaming services will be added once the year is complete. The main release is still via bandcamp!

So, how did it come to sound like this?

The additive resynthesis window in Alchemy, showing the image (pixelated and no longer polychrome), loop points (yellow) and some basic parameters)

On this occasion I decided to forego some of the tools I relied more heavily upon on for some of the previous tracks, such as Photosounder, SoundArt etc. Instead all the fundamental sounds were created using Camel Audio’s fantastic Alchemy Synth. (Sadly now only available as part of Logic, as the Camel Audio was sold to Apple & the VSTi was discontinued – but luckily I still have it from when I did beta testing and it still works!)

Various different instances of Alchemy were used, all based on the same resynthesis oscillator using the image of June 10th 2024, but with different settings & treated with different effects.

Alchemy can load images for resynthesis into its oscillators and with that create some very unique and interesting sounds. Unlike some of the standalone programs, the waveform created via additive (fft-) resynthesis, works like a regular oscillator, can be modulated with LFOs and envelopes, is routed through the filter and VCA and, viola, you have a nice sound!

The arrangement window looking almost deceptively simple. That’s only the automation for one track showing…

The composition was inspired/based on the picture in a loose interpretation. But I think you can still see/hear similarities with the structure of the track and the image if read from right to left (yes, let’s not always read left to right in a Eurocentric way!)

Do have a listen to this latest, and all the tracks! And if you are able, please consider supporting the project by buying the album on Bandcamp!

Do follow on Twittre &/or BlueSky where the photos are posted each morning – your likes, comments, reposts etc all have an influence on which photo gets chosen each month!

Depth Sounding

I’ve already mentioned the pre-release in my latest post and am now happy to announce that Depth Sounding (Live at Hofburg, Vienna) is out in all its Kaiserliche – & Konigliche Pracht (if you pardon my German):

The Multi-track recording of the live performance was mixed & mastered and has kindly been released by Graz based friends and label Bruitversum.

A few images from the event – me performing live, being photographed by my dad, a view of my very minimal setup and some impressions from the private view of Spacegroup Architects’ “Vertiefung (Adding Depth)” exhibition. (Photos own & dfkt)

Depth Sounding (Live at Hofburg) is available via Bandcamp:

https://bruitversum.bandcamp.com/album/depth-sounding

It’s also available via the major streaming services:

https://ditto.fm/depth-sounding-live-at-hofburg-vienna

And on youtube:

Please enjoy listening. And I hope I’ll soon be able to play more live concerts!

じゃあまた。

A New Morning after a night in the Teufelskammer, escape via Burg-hopping.

Good news everyone. Quite a few items, once again, as I didn’t manage to post about them one by one. Now there’s a lot of new music to tell you about:

A recent sign of life from my Death Librarian project that I’m very thrilled to be able to tell you about, not the least because it’s the first DL track to appear on physical media:

Teufelskammer (Devil’s chamber), an exclusive track inspired by the Teufelskammer at Austria’s Schloss Tratzberg and its surrounding story, was released last Saturday on limited edition tape and digital on the excellent Dustopian Frequencies label’s “Ghost Stories 3” compilation.
Check it out here, and if you’re quick, grab one of the remaining limited tapes! If you a player…

And then, once you’ve spent a night in the Teufelskammer (and haven’t been dragged to hell), you might wake up to another morning turned into sound.

Yes, the latest track from the 12 Months of Mornings project has been completed and is ready to listen. You can head to youtube, where I’ve uploaded all the tracks so far and will keep adding, and have a listen there:

Or, even better, go to bandcamp where you can treat yourself to owning the whole album. The sooner you get it, the cheaper as the price goes up by 50P with each new track added:

And as it’s the last day of June, don’t forget that you can still have a say in which picture is chosen next by looking at them on twtttrX or BluSky and liking/sharing/commenting for a point each. And follow for the next months, if you don’t already do. Read more about the project here and here.

May’s picture was, making for some nice variety, taken in Austria during a two week’s stay there end of May, first week of June….

… which is also a brilliant segue:

Taking us to our “Last not least” – as announcements go:

I did hint at Burg-hopping, and while I didn’t visit the Teufelskammer at Castle Tratzberg in person on this occasion, I did hop east – while in Austria – and paid an actual visit to Vienna’s Imperial Palace also know as Die Hofburg. There I did a short live performance for the private view (Vernisage) of “Vertiefung (Adding Depth)” by London based Space Group Architects at Redoutensaal Foyer.

Performing live at private view “Vertiefung (Adding Depth)” at Hofburg, Vienna
focus


While the private view was only open to a small audience, the live set was recorded on multi-track, carefully mixed and is now being made available to all to hear via Graz, Austria based label bruitversum. Featuring two ambient/kankyo ongaku inspired tracks originally created for a previous project by Spacegroup Architects at London’s famous Regent Street, plus reworks of samples and sound material from two previous EPs, 13 Objects and Lithophonurgia sinistra, into new mash-up versions.

Pre-orders for Depth Sounding (Live at Hofburg, Vienna) are open and the full release is on July 5th. Do head over to bandcamp and check it out, please.

As always, thanks for reading through to the end! Don’t forget to like, subscribe… oh wait, other platform. But do follow on bandcamp, streaming services, socials etc. You’ll thank me later!
Links in linktree.

New Music: Hidarimix, Redelivery and more Mornings

Salutations,
just a brief, if I can avoid getting sidetracked mid-writ… oh is that a tangent I could veer off on…ing (darn, too late!) update of what’s new out there in the world, musicwise.

12 Months of Mornings

16th April 2024, the third track in my year long 12 Months of Mornings project was finished and uploaded to the ever growing Bandcamp Album (with the price going up with every track added now, aka get in early!) last Sunday 12th May. I’ll do a proper report on this project again soon, but just a quick sentence or two:

I first created some sounds from the original image, then processed these through external pedals, especially the Hologram Microcosm and Eventide’s H90 (two relatively recent additions to the lab), then recorded those back into the DAW. From there I used, sampled, treated these sounds whichever way inspiration hit me, to produce this pulsating, glitched, grooving fight of light against darkness. (No bucolic mornings here). Check it out

But wait, there’s more. A while ago I worked on quite a number of remixes, some are still waiting to come out, but two have recently been released.

Nachtstrom & v93r – Zweikaese Hidarimix​.​wav

From the re-release of Nachtstrom & v93r – Organicum, legendary release from out of the aeons that was recently remastered, remixed and now (pre-)released on Bruitversum. My very first remix to get a proper release was of Dr. Nachtstrom, a track of his second album on Mego, which got a remix companion “N8.Strom Remixed” on Graz based label Park in 2001. And at the release party for that album in Vienna I first met v93r (Farmers Manual) and we did a short, some say ill fated live jam together.

Lastly, I got an email this morning that Gadgetbag 2 [Refill + Remix] by long standing friend Firnwald has been released on the People Can Listen label. Alongside Gadgetbag 2 [Refill + Remix]. Both great releases you should check out, but I’m honored by the inclusion of my “Attempted Redelivery” mix of “Deliverance”, included on #2. Check it out here:

Until next time. Enjoy, share, buy music and be excellent to each other!

http://linktr.ee/tomorohhidari

Prepared Mezzo-Forte: Live Rehearsal Shared

Just a quick announcement that I’ve uploaded a recording of the live rehearsal for last Weekend’s amazing CRUX AV Festival at Rich Mix, where I had the pleasure to perform for one of the EMOM Slots on Sunday.

Performing at CRUX AV Festival EMOM, Rich Mix, London 13.04.2024 – Photo Crux Crew

There’s an outer-space-esque photo for you to look at, courtesy of the amazing Crux AV team who organized an amazing festival.
Once again I didn’t record the actual live performance, but I did record a few run-throughs of the rehearsal and uploaded the best version to SoundCloud for you to enjoy:

Tracklist:
1) Intro/Lithophonurgia Sinistra V
2) Anikim (ライブ)
3) AverroesPlasticity

1 Reworked from Lithophonurgia Sinistra aka Stoned Tones
2 & 3 Reworked from Oblivion Engine

Check out the originals!!

For those of you who like looking at gear set-ups:

The next UK live appearance is tentatively penciled in for June 22nd in London. Details TBC.
Still looking for gigs in Austria last week of May/First Week of June. Hit me up if you want me to play!
Watch this space and follow on Socials/Bandcamp/Etc. http://linktr.ee/tomorohhidari