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Posts Tagged ‘symphonic’

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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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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