William Ellery Channing once said, "Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage."
Searching the Internet database of quotes to find a compelling opening for the written account of my experience in participating in Genetic Transurfin' 24 was far more easier, and breezier (if I may), than the actual process of composing under the second instruction of the compilation's guidelines.
When first reading the instructions, I thought to myself, 'this is a wonderful idea, I can do that, I totally got this...' I soon found out, however, that trying to remain in a projected mental state was a little more difficult and challenging at times than my initial thought.
I originally planned to just make one pair of tracks for the comp. I had recently received my Akai MPC One in the mail a few days before and thought that using this new machine-which I still barely scratched the surface in learning its features-would be the perfect medium to use for making my pair of tracks for this particular compilation. My reasoning being that I can easily cover the first instruction (of being in the here and now mental state) with the naivety that I bring to the table when behind the MPC. The result is track 'SongMode120bpm' which also happens to be the first completed track I ever rendered by using the MPC One's Song Mode. I was simply keeping in the here and now by grabbing pre-made drum kits, plugin presets, and samples that sounded good for me to use, and even plugged in my guitar and recorded a couple of chops to use in the track.
The projected mental state track, 'Seq86bpm66bars mpc one', draws from wonder and excitement as whatever I consumed the day before had me feeling really meh the next day. I figured that even though I didn't feel like working on the comp track that moment, that in theory makes it the perfect moment to attempt instruction two, to project my mental state to the wonder and excitement I felt the day before when I happened to be studying up on a couple MPC features that will help me immensely with the flow of my compositions. I found myself having to redirect my mental state as I seemed to keep drifting back to the here and now. Maybe it was because I became overly occupied with attempting execute the production tips the day before, not sure, but I did have to redirect myself often. To the point where after I finished the track, I decided to try step one and two on a different medium. Tones.fm
Tones.fm is a web app that let's you mindlessly make minimalist nice and quaint sounding pentatonic music. For me, making a track in the here and now is super easy with tones.fm '2021-03-31 19.43.51 tones.fm' is the result of the first instruction
What I found interesting was that perceived mood of the first track directly inspired the chosen mental state of the second track '2021-03-31 19.58.56 tones.fm' The chosen mental state happened to be not positive too. The first tones track inspired me to draw from a recent situation at work where I had a question for my boss, but forgot to ask, but really wanted to know the answer and now have to wait until I get another chance to ask. Basically the mental state of uncertainty mixed with anxiety fueled the projected mental state track made within tones.fm. This mental state was easier for me to remain in.
The thought crossed my mind, 'well, I did a pair using a full song production approach, and a pair using a more minimalist approach by using a simple little web music making app...perhaps I'll quickly compose another pair manually with a single instrument this time...'
The final pair were made with SoundPrism on the iPad. The first track, '2021-03-31 20.08.11 soundprism', Again, super easy to be in the here and now. I did find it difficult to pick a chosen recent mental state for the second track which is '2021-03-31 20.13.08 soundprism' Again I went for a more negative mental state than my current one (which was a generally happy state otherwise) I went for a state that has feelings of bitterness mixed with disappointment. I found it did take a couple redirections to return to this state, even within the short time it took to create it. Probably because I kept wondering if my projected mental state is having any influence to the mood, or if I started the mood thinking it would match the projected state.
I'm looking forward to listening to the compilation when it comes out as I'd like to hear how other musicians projected their mental states, and maybe it's something that my ears wouldn't know the difference between which ones are the current mental states, and which one are the projected ones. I'd also be interested in knowing if there's any personal significance of my inclination to project myself into a more negative recent mental state instead of opting for choosing a more positive one. Or maybe I totally misunderstood the guidelines lol It's all fun though. This was a blast!"
- Origami Repetika
"Gonna be kinda vague but one track was done in not thinking about an unpleasant experience and was made in a fairly good mood. The other was made thinking about how my day would have been if I didn't accidentally dig to deep down a rabbithole, metaphorically speaking. Tried to make it in as good a mood as possible. They sound fairly similar since the tracks were either made in a fairly good mood or thinking about what should have been a fairly good day. The tracks are named using roman numerals since I don't want to bring the exact experience up."
- Lord Cernunnos
This album makes you feel like you're inside an old computer that is on it's last legs. Everything is glitchy, aggressive, and decaying around you. There are only a few moments where it feels something is still functioning and intact, only to be followed by more sounds of disrepair. Truly a special experience. icu8some2
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