It’s taking me a lot longer than I’d hoped to set up the studio at the new house. For one thing, several pieces of equipment were damaged in the move - nothing super tragic, but imagine how easy it is to save a new file when you don’t have a working keyboard. More importantly, I’m having trouble sorting out where to put the various elements of my studio setup in the new room. I’m arguing with myself about where exactly to place synths versus guitar stands and the end result is that I haven’t really gotten anything done.
But, somehow, I managed to write an ending to the Mandelirium fractal zoom. The earlier zoom was zo large und zo complexz that it hadn’t finished rendering by showtime. So I faded out the soundtrack accordingly. Now, however, the zoom is complete with an ending, so I had the daunting task of assembling a suitable conclusion… all while my studio is in utter disarray.
Anyway, perched atop a pile of tangled cables, instruments scattered on the floor around me, I pieced together an ending that, I think, fits pretty well. For the keen-eared, there are also a few subtle but significant changes in the earlier bits of the song. It goes live tonight, and I’ve lost count of how many sold-out shows that makes in a row, but it’s something in the high seventies, I think. The Fractal Foundation rocks!
This one happened pretty quickly. Based on the crazy multidimensional nature of the fractal zoom, I decided I wanted to try something rhythmically unusual. So I laid down a 5/4 drum line to form the basic structure of the piece. Then I added layers of bass from the synthesizer and what I hope was an appropriately spacey guitar line. In this, Cut 3, all parts are present except for the fills during the crazy shifting fractal, and the layered solo in the middle.
Then, pretty happy with how things were shaping up, I added the crazy fills on the Nord synth, and then the layered solo starting at about 30 seconds in. Pretty simple.
So my unacceptably long, enforced vacation is finally at an end. We have moved into a new house, I’m 95% done with my new studio, and I’ve finished a stack of new fractal videos that I’m eager to share. Here’s the first, entitled Mandelirium. As always, the real thing in the gigantic planetarium dome is much more impressive, so if you get a chance to catch the Fractal Foundation’s show, I of course highly recommend it.
This is the latest fractal from my brother and the Fractal Foundation. It premieres tonight, at the Fractal Foundation’s one gazillionth sold-out show at the planetarium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I had an awful lot of fun doing this music, so much so that I think I’ll dedicate a Song Evolution post to the topic next week.
