Who The Hell Am I?

[benr]

Hi,
So, I guess it makes sense to start with the basics, then work backwards. My name is Ben Robertson, I was born in Scotland and I am 19 years old.

I play trombone (well sort of, I was grade 7 but I havent picked one up in over 2 years now) and bagpipes. Oh yeah and I have been doing experimental/avant-garde/noise/fuck for around 3 and a half years I think, first with my experimental avant-garde jazz genre whore doom funk orchestral blues metal band Art of Kaos, and more recently solo experimenal noise/drone/whatever as Pleiades.

theyre here: soundcloud.com/artofkaos and here: soundcloud.com/pleiades_ben

When I'm not at Uni, I like to play PC games, mountain climb, mountain run, play pipes, make music and drink rum. And tea. I love tea. I also really like food, its just so damn good.

What don't I like...I hate fast food, its disgusting and I dont like the concept of putting that inside me, I dont like bare feet near me when I eat. I hate liars.

my music preferences vary based on what i'm doing, how tired I am, and how hungry I am. But some bands I invariably like are: Tool, Lamb of God, Biffy Clyro, Godspeed Ye! Black Emperors, A Silver Mt.Zion, Isis, Callisto, Cunninlynguists, Celph Titled, Pelican, Mono, Aerogramme, Talk Talk, Te', Kammerflimmer Kollektief, The Stone Roses and Infected Mushroom.

What else...

Er, when I was little I used to try and swallow forks, I have scars on the inside of my mouth from that.

During one of my first encounters with a proper tin whistle, I got it lodged in the back of my throat and had to go to hospital to get it taken out, while blood spurted out everywhere. I was 5.

I am sectorally heterochromatic, I have one blue eye and one 80% brown 20% blue eye.


Erm...

Oh, my left thumb is double jointed, as are my 2nd and 3rd toes on each foot.

I guess that will do. I hope some other people post here, I would like to get to know some fellow experimentalists. Or maybe just mentalists.

-Ben-

[benr]

On the radio? Wow. Fucking awesome.

102.5FM? When does the show run and will I be able to get it up north, or is it only London area? (I gleaned this information from that guardian article, aren't I resourceful) is there a podcast or something?

And yeah, I know what you mean, the recording is...shit. I just used what I could get my hands on, which was a 4 year old webcam mike. It was also recorded in a wooden shed with a cement mixer outside. (you can hear it in one of the tracks but i left it cause it came out ok after going through WaveLab).

Thanks a lot for appreciating my music and putting some of it on your show , i honestly never expected anything like that. Very much appreciated.

As for experimental bagpipes, I listened to that track you linked just now, with the Uilleann pipes, and it does have a nice effect when played like that. I don't own a set of uilleanns, I only have Great Highlands, which are particularly hard to record well, you need internally placed drone pickups, and a chanter pickup that can withstand the sheer volume, or a pretty good instrument mike with all the trimmings.

I have actually done some ad lib pipe stuff before, with a blues/jazz band in Spain, which turned out ok. I dont think I have a copy of it anywhere though. The main problem I would have with encorporating some pipes into my music is that I live in a flat in Edinburgh, playing experimental Great Highland Bagpipes would likely result in an ASBO. Seriously. But yes I am open to the idea, I've never really been a great fan of the boring 2/4s and 4/4s that marching pipe bands play anyway, and tend to avoid them as much as possible.

I'm more into this kinda pipe music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8caeW1WShg0 Gordon Duncan - The Bellydancer

which makes great use of the GHBs ability to, when modified, play in some great keys. Gordon Duncan is also a hero of mine.

In the near future I am intending to invest in some decent hardware, mainly an instrument mike and some 2nd hand cheap amps, for testing out ciruit bent instruments on before I risk decent amps on them. Circuit bending is something I really want to incorporate into future compositions.

Just a shame I'm a broke student.

Again, cheers for your positive comments, I have one question though:

You actually stapled your thumbs physically together? That must have been pretty horrific.

[benr]

Sound, I'll make a note to tune in and spread the word too.

That Brain Routh is one talented lad eh? excellent stuff, thanks for the linky

[benr]

Nah, it was great to hear my own music over the radio, especially 'Soft Knee Compressor, Gate' because although it is an Art of Kaos track, it's one I did entirely on my own and I've always been fond of it. Learning 4 or 5 German speeches was a pain though lol.

Aye, when I recorded pipes for that jazz/blues band, we just used an instrument mike, and like I say it turned out ok. The drones were just a bit obscured, but then, I'm not gonna be recording a piping CD so that probably doesnt matter anyway. I suppose i've just had Chanter/Drone Pickup drilled into me by Pipe Bands for the last 5 years.

I'm working on buying recording equipment, money is scarce at the moment because of Uni, but it's in the pipeline, and yeah, I know a lot more about the mastering side of things now than me or Gabe did during the AoK era, 3 and a bit years ago. I guess it was experimental in its purest form, because we literally had no idea what was going on, we just liked how it sounded so kept going I dont even have the shitty mike used previously anymore, so i'm just recording things in my brain for now. It's quite frustrating.

Thanks for being so enthusiastic about my music by the way, I wasn't expecting it to be recieved this well at all. Before I stuck it on soundcloud it hadn't even been heard by many people outside my friend group and er...I can only think of two people who liked it, one of those was in the band, so aye, this is great.

[benr]

I'm doing Psychology, just started 2nd year a month ago. We're doing cognitive psychology and developmental psychology mainly at the moment, but later on in 3rd year there are modules in music psychology which sounds *really* interesting.

I still kinda want to go to the Plochton Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music which I passed an audition for when I was 16, but Higher Powers decided I was too young to leave home. Also I wouldn't have any time to do...anything else...people I know there have said its a 24/7 commitment. I was also considering doing Music at Uni, but i needed grade 6+ piano and grade 6+ in another instrument from a list they provided. Bagpipes weren't on the list and arent graded in the same way other instruments are and was I hell dragging trombone through a uni course. I think trombones a great instrument and all, but playing it is boring for me.

So yeah, I did psychology because its interesting and it turns out the timetable (at least so far) leaves me with a huge amount of free time. Free time is good time.

I could always buy a sound engineering book to properly educate myself, or download one.

When we were still doing AoK we were thinking about how to do live shows, we eventually decided we could play via laptops (like Merzbow) but, to add a bit of citrus zest to the show, buy/make LOADS of extremely complicated looking hardware, set them up with mikes and cables and flashy LEDs and massive PA racks, aerials, spinning parts, levers and wheels, except none of it actually does anything, it would just look really really complicated. Our other idea was to simply play the music off WMP or something and portray the message we had in mind via the medium of improv experimental dance...in elaborate costumes.

We never got a gig.

[benr]

Aye thats all stuff I know now anyway, And ive always used Cubase so i'm fine with that.

AoK wont be getting any gigs, but Im intending to recruit/find a few people and make a new band, and work on pleiades inbetween.

[benr]

Aye will do, thanks for your support

[smetak]

Greetings,

I'm in my early 40s and live off the Coast of South America and have recently decided to pick up my old eletric guitar to make some noise.

I've been playing guitar, with a good deal of intervals (life, so it seems, is not the easiest of games and music, not rarely, has to be forced onto the side due to more urgent matters), for about a quater of a century - never have been very good at it. Played since my teens in various post-punk and experimental bands.

My influence is quite vast, ranging from Henry Kaiser, Derek Bailey and the like to Motorhead, Zoviet France and Juan García Esquivel - and have been obsessed with the Durutti Column for over twenty years (I am to see a doctor about this). As long as there is something a tad new to be heard, I'll give it my time. No problem there.

I have recently added some of my stuff to soundcloud:

soundcloud.com/wsmetak

Nothing that will necessarily make the charts, but, still a few snippets of what I attempt to do; any comments on my oeuvre will be much appreciated!

At this moment, I am rather timidly forming a band with a local DJ, who "plays" the Korg Kaos Pad and assorted noise boxes, a vetern guitarist from a rather obscure prog-rock band and a journalist who's into field recording. We are beginning to rehearse and, hopefully, will record some of our mess in the near future.

Aside from music and drinking coffee, don't really do too much these days.

And that's about it for the intro.

All the best, w.

[smetak]

Parla!

I live in Rio - how I ended up here is a long and sad story (I should have kept my sorry arse in Vancouver, BC, but had to come back for various reasons). Rio is an urban disaster, a dirty, violent and ugly city, which should be avoided at all costs. There are some interesting places in Brazil, but not Rio - take it from me, you wouldn't want to come here. Anyway, if you do, drop me a line and we can chat over an expresso - will be my pleasure.

cheers, w.

[smetak]

And any feedback on my noise is much, much appreciated!!!

[sundayports]

New Experimental/stoner songs by sunday ports, online now... check it out and you will love it!
www.triplejunearthed.com/sundayPorts

[psylocke24]

Hello everyone I just registered here.

[rasmix]

Hello I just signed up i here I make abstract and eclectic electronic based music. soundcloud.com/ras-mix i have been leaning more in a dub direction lately, and music concrete too. Hello again

[tricyanide]

Hello.
I just joined this forum just out of curiousity and to get a bit more involved in 'the music scene' (whatever that may be). My real name is André, i live in the Netherlands and listening and making music is my greatest passion, among photography. Listening to all different kinds of music like Depeche Mode, Yello, Killing Joke, Combichrist, Dead Can Dance, In the Nursery, Danko Jones, Foetus, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly and Ween. Making music: The Chaos Industry tcindustry.com (electronic industrial), From the Fields (dark ambient) and tricyanide www.tricyanide.com (experimental).

Hoping to meet different music enthousiasts from around the world.
Cheers.
André

P.s.: excuse my non-fluent english, i'm Dutch.

[lopezdonado]

Hello lovely people,

Thanks a bunch to the forum administrator(s) for putting out this well needed forum on experimental music ;D

my name is Lopez-DoNaDo and I am an experimental composer born in Venezuela and based at Brisbane-Australia.

i studied music/film composition at the Caracas Conservatorium and also studied IT. Although a come from an academic background my compositional outcomes are far from the convention - hence me landing here

looking forward to contribute and learn back from you people ...

my works can be found at these sites:

lopez-donado.com
lopezdonado.wordpress.com/
www.youtube.com/user/lopez230973
soundcloud.com/lopez-donado
listn.to/LopezDoNaDo

More formally my bio is as follows:
________________________________
While studying music theory/composition at the Music Conservatory of Caracas Jose Angel Lamas, Dr. Jesus Lopez-Donado received his BSc (Hons) in Electronics Engineering from the Simon Bolivar University (Venezuela) in 1997, later, his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence applied to signal processing from the University of Ulster (UK), in 2003 and his postgraduate certificate in education from the same institution in 2004. He has exhibited several installations and performed with a number of experimental bands. In February 2000 he joined the School of Information Engineering at the University of Ulster as a lecturer in multimedia and bioinformatics. He then emigrated to australia and became an A/Prof at USQ. He has being associate editor in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and an invited editor for the IEEE Transactions’ series and the journal of computational creativity. His research interests are in,computational creativity (biological complexity applied to music), bioinformatics, medicine and generative music. He has published over 30 articles, one edited book (available here) and one monograph (available here). Pursuing more humanistic goals, he undertook post-graduate medical studies (2007-2010) at Griffith University Australia and now practice as a medical practitioner. He believes that, despite an ubiquitous demand for specialization in modern society, the idea of a modern homo universalis (polymath) is still fundamental and achievable by fully integrating artistic, humanistic and scientific endeavors within a sole ideological framework.
_________________________


Love and peace,

Lopez-Donado