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Posts Tagged ‘classical’

‘Everything’s Fine’: A New Piano Set

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Salon de la Guerre is releasing a couple of albums this month. One is a set of rock and pop pieces, but I’ve also got a new collection of piano songs I’ve been working on for the past few months. Half of these are sung songs in the conventional singer-songwriter vein, while five of the songs are classical-music-inspired improvisations. This new album, Everything’s Fine, hits the streams today and you can find it on Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify.

I have to apologize for the sound quality on a couple of the songs. As I’ve explained before in other posts, I’m not a trained piano player, and my improvisations are not the kind of things I can easily repeat. When I sit down at the keyboard, I often don’t know whether I’m going to make something wonderful or a piece of dreck, and yet I roll tape anyway and hope for nice surprises. However, that strategy came back to bite me a couple of times this year, especially when I recorded two songs I quite liked while I was also suffering from a raging flu. After I played back these pieces I found that 1) I was extremely proud of what I’d made and 2) you could here sniffing and snorting all over the place. Ugh.

I turned to my software—Goldwave and Logic Pro—to try to get rid of the respiratory background sound effects, and while I succeeded, the sound of these songs got quite muffled. I took a gamble that the nuances and emotion behind the playing would be enough to win my tiny audience over anyway.

I should also note that I while I try not to be treacly or sentimental in my music, a lot of these songs came out on the sad side. Perhaps it’s appropriate since I’ve had some sad news over the last week and perhaps want to wear my heart on my sleeve a little. But I’m hoping to cure the blues when I release a more upbeat album next week called Carnival (which I discussed a few days ago).

I’m including lyrics to the title track of my new album, which is now available on all the major streaming services in digital format only. All the songs were composed and performed this year. Enjoy.

Everything’s Fine
(music and lyrics by Eric R. Rasmussen, copyright 2025)

Everything’s fine
Though the bar is on fire
And the dogs are lapping wine
Everything’s fine

Though the fish they swim in trees
And the whales are in the vines
Everything’s fine

We drink from a hose
And a quack he broke our nose
To look better in the spoon
To make new lovers swoon
But this face is no longer mine
Everything’s fine

Just like somebody’s loss
Is somebody’s gain
I’ll keep my emotions in line
Everything’s fine

A new nose out of reach
And now so is the beach
And we cannot swim there in time
Everything’s fine

You changed your phone number
And now I wait for slumber
In vain on the edge of a dime
Everything’s fine

Your last message was meek
But your morals they were weak
So you packed them up and left them all behind
Everything’s fine

Like a bar that’s on fire
A squirrel fried on a wire
And the vultures are waiting all in line
Everything’s fine

Just like somebody’s loss
Is somebody’s gain
I’ll keep my emotions in line
Everything’s fine

A new nose out of reach
And now so is the beach
And we cannot swim there in time
Everything’s fine



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A New Classical Album From Salon de la Guerre

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , , , on May 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The new music barrage continues. Earlier this week, Salon de la Guerre (the name I use for my musical act) released its 37th album, called The Tug Fork War. The album is now available for streaming on YouTube, Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora, among other platforms. You can also make Tiktok videos with it (at least until that platform is banned).

In the past, my classical albums have used thematic concepts and they usually outlined the story of a character and his or her adventures (someone whose identity and story lines are revealed only from the song titles). The new album didn’t seem to have any narrative qualities and instead was tapped from a stream of pure abstraction and my love of Sergei Prokofiev’s work. The title is a very veiled reference to a piece of Americana, but there’s no need to read too much into it.

As always, this was an excuse for me to discover new stuff: specifically to find more dynamic ways to voice the notes in my computer software and get them to sound less like … computer software. (The album was created on Logic Pro X and GarageBand, some of it made with a scoring tool and some of it played by me on an iPhone screen keyboard. … Yes, I sometimes make music the way other people play video games.) Maybe the day will come when I can actually score a work for a live string quartet, but I file that dream under “Things I would do if I had a geyser of money shooting up from my sink drains and toilet, horror movie style.” As the Minutemen might have said, over here at Chez Rasmussen, we jam econo.

I’m including the first track of The Tug Fork War here. But, as I promised, there’s more to come. This week I also have an electronica work coming out with futuristic themes. Aren’t you lucky! Until then, watch this space for random smatterings of poetry and the occasional comedy bit.

(The cover photo of the model on The Tug Fork War was taken by VladimirFLoyd.)

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New Classical Pretensions From Salon De La Guerre

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , , , on December 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

In a few weeks, Salon de la Guerre will release a new album, another electronic symphony. This one is called Uncle Ernie’s Progress, and I’m hoping to release it in January or February. I created the album at my home studio in November and December.

While the project started out with Frank Zappa vibes (it included lots of marimba parts) I soon returned to my favorite classical music instrumental standbys, including GarageBand’s version of an erhu and string arrangements. The album was made on both GarageBand and Logic Pro. Though it’s all instrumental, the album, like my other classical albums, follows the adventures of an extended family. I do this for thematic and dramatic reasons, and also practical ones: The albums with the family titles (with figures in half shadow) are my classical albums. This is the only way I know to keep you from mistaking this stuff for my rock music, aside from changing the name of my act altogether when I’m doing classical works. (Some friends have suggested I get rid of my band name for all projects. Hmph! So I showed them! I even trademarked it! Do not doubt the strength of my wrong-headed convictions, philistines!)

An update! While my original post included a new song from Uncle Ernie’s Progress, I recently came across an article in The New York Times about the ways song pirates were stealing other people’s music and releasing it under their own names. For that reason, I’m going to cut back on offering sneak previews, which would make it easier for thieves to publish my stuff on the major platforms. I’m sorry if you came across a dead link, but I’ve removed all hints of Uncle Ernie’s Progress from Sound Cloud for now.

Cover photo credit: SoumenNath

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A String Quartet For Your Dog

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , on November 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Dog photo by Irina Kashaeva

I know that I promised you a pop music album, and damn it, I’m trying to live up to that promise. But in the meantime, I’ve managed to string together another classical piece.

The Dog Opus is my 30th album, and it just hit the virtual shelves. It was conceived as a string quartet but synthesized on my computer. I was inspired by Sergei Prokofiev’s “String Quartet No. 1” (Opus 50) and “String Quartet No. 2” (Opus 92, “Kabardinian.”) I used the two violin synthesizers on Apple’s Logic Pro X, as well as the electronic viola and cello. I am not sure how well these would transpose to actual instruments, but I do have the score, and maybe someday in the future if I found amenable musicians … who knows? I’ll leave smarter people than I to decide what key I’m playing in.

Why a dog quartet? Well, I was running out of the family members I normally put on my classical works.

The Dog Opus, released under the name of my musical act Salon de la Guerre, is now available on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and other places where music is streamed and (still) sold.

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‘The Black Sheep Symphony’ Now Available

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , on September 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Check out The Black Sheep Symphony, a modern classical work I composed over the summer. It’s now available now available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and YouTube and appears under the name of my musical act, “Salon de la Guerre.” This is my 28th album and my fourth symphony. It was composed, arranged and produced by yours truly.

It’s a sequel of sorts to my albums Gravitas: A Life, The Widowhood of Bunny and Infinity Boy.

I’ve got a couple of other albums following close on the heels of this one if this isn’t quite your bag. One’s pop and one’s ambient. If you’re into it … enjoy!

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The Black Sheep Symphony

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , on September 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

In the next few weeks, I’ll be putting out a crazy amount of music, including my 28th, 29th and 30th albums. The first one is another contemporary classical piece called The Black Sheep Symphony, part of a series of sorts I’ve developed around a fictional family and their individual biographies (it started in 2016 with Gravitas: A Life, followed by The Widowhood of Bunny in 2017 and Infinity Boy in 2019. The new work continues with some of those same musical themes, but also allowed me the opportunity to get familiar with my new music software Logic Pro.

I have no mission statement for this music nor theory of tonal or microtonal music to discuss, just an abiding love for Prokofiev and Stravinsky and occasionally the mercurial Harry Partch.

The album that will follow this one is a 20-song collection of pop music, but I’ll leave that discussion for another time.

Like many people, my family has endured a bit of turmoil over the past 18 months (though our issues were not directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic). I even thought I might have to stop making music for a while. But then I found a lot of time at home with a new computer and new software–whose musical notation function has allowed me to compose every day and done wonders for my creative flow.

Again, if you’re into it, here’s a sample of The Black Sheep Symphony. As usual, it was composed, arranged and produced by yours truly. (Photo credit: Tatyana Maximova.)

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The Rumors Are True: I Have Another Album Out

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , , , on August 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Golem Vs. DuendeThe 23rd album by Salon de la Guerre is now available in the racks of the virtual music stores of the world.

Golem Vs. Duende is my attempt to make a collage of music from environmental sounds. It’s also my attempt to show my appreciation for the microtonal music of Harry Partch while acknowledging that his music was precisely notated, and mine is not. In fact, my samples of found sounds–from my house, from wooden fences, from the New York City subway–are spontaneously created and probably more resemble the minimalism of John Cage, whom Partch hated. They were, after all, pursuing two completely different approaches. Who wants to be lumped together with their aesthetic enemies?

Also, I have not abandoned the 12-tone chromatic scale in my music, and I’d shudder to think of what Partch himself might make of me citing him as an influence. He’d probably call me a hapless poseur and beat me senseless with one of his homemade instruments.

So this new work is modernist classical–and it’s not. I hope it’s challenging but also fun. I hope it has depth but is not boring. I hope it informs the rock and pop and country albums I plan to keep making in the future. While I wish Salon de la Guerre had more listeners (and think a lot of you who aren’t hearing my more radio-friendly songs are missing out), I’m also happy to have the kind of obscurity that allows me to do whatever the hell I want with music for the time being. Because the weird stuff helps me make breakthroughs with the rocking stuff. I am currently on the same page with my small group of listeners in at least one respect: We have no expectations.

You can find Golem Vs. Duende on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and Bandcamp. Here’s a sample:

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My New Album

Posted in Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , , , on March 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Golem Vs. DuendeIn a few weeks, I will release my 23rd album, Golem Vs. Duende. It comprises 10 movements of microtonal experiments and musique concrète.

For this new album, I took iPhone samples of my home environment and the New York City subway; it employs the percussive use of scissors, pots and pans, fences, doors, escalators and all other sorts of found objects that allow me to play the wannabe microtones my piano and guitar would not. I just recently discovered Maestro Harry Partch and his ingenious system of tones. However, I have not developed my own musical notation system nor have I built my own instruments with 43 pitches per octave. So I had to make due with playing the non-instruments around me. Then I mixed back into it my more traditional melodies on piano and synthesizer.

If I were to continue on this course, I would likely move it back around to pop music or work the approach into some type of roots music. I don’t have the musical training, but I have strategies. If this is your first time listening to my music, I should remind you that I’m all over the map, and that most of these experiments feed my alternative rock albums.

In this time of despair, I still see endless possibility. Though my family feels a little cooped up during the quarantine, we are creative and have plenty of things to do at home. So that’s what I’m going to depend on in these crazy times: My imagination.

The album was composed and performed by me at my home studio (and on location) in early 2020. I also did the cover art.

Listen to a sample of the album here:

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My Latest Symphony Is Now Available

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , , , on December 6, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Infinity BoyThis week I hit a couple of milestones. I’ve reached one of those fun ages with a gawping new zero in it. And I’ve also released my 22nd album, containing my third symphony.

It’s called Infinity Boy. Like my other two faux-symphonic efforts Gravitas: A Life and The Widowhood of Bunny, it’s an electronic work with pretenses toward being a string orchestra piece or string quartet. It’s also the only way I can musically express my love of Prokofiev given my current limitations: I can’t play violin or write musical notation for it. I hope time is not running out for me to cure those shortcomings in the future (note my other milestone), but it’s not likely I will. I don’t usually stand up for philistinism, but I did indeed try transcribing one of my pop songs once, and it took almost two hours to get through the first verse. Considering that I’ve put out more than 16 hours of music arranged for multiple instruments, you might forgive me for not pursuing a huge musical notation project in the immediate future. I gather some people think you’re not a real composer unless you can write it down. I appreciate those who can, but no, it’s not more important than the act of simply making art by any means necessary.

Infinity Boy came about mostly because I was frustrated in my attempts to create a jazz album (who do you have to blow to rent a saxophone in this town nowadays?) With extra nervous energy and time on the train, I start putting out my classical appreciation albums. Anyway, I hope you like it, and if not, maybe just give it a listen as a way of saying happy birthday to me. As my grandparents might say, I sure am getting tall.

As usual, the piece was written, arranged, produced and performed by yours truly in Apple’s GarageBand for iPhone. The work was completed between August and November 2019 in my home studio. All performances are on keyboard.

A sample:

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I Wrote A Symphony

Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, tagged , , , on June 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

I know you did not believe me when I said I had written a lot of music in the last three months, dear reader. For documentary proof, I submit to you my first symphony, which I completed over the last month. It’s called “Gravitas: A Life,” and it was my way of stress-testing my iPhone software as well as seeing if I could write a long-form musical piece. I’m happy with the results.

I’ve put the entire thing on YouTube to share it with friends and get feedback. In a month or two, I plan to put it on CD Baby after doing a bit more mastering (there are a few treble problems I’d like to fix, since I’m all about that bass).

I’m not sure if it’s a real classical piece, a pitch for me as a writer of film scores or a bit of muzak, but you might enjoy listening to it as background music or for contemplation, if nothing else. Enjoy. And if you do, please leave comments here or on YouTube and feel free to share it with your friends. Hurry, before I start charging for it!

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