This short collection is about learning, memory and rain.

I’d been working on a new group of compositions and was getting to a point of complexity where I’d stopped enjoying the process. As a break, I started playing playing around with a M4L device called ‘Less Concepts’. This tool uses Cellular Automata to decide what notes to play and when. More and more over the last few releases I’ve been using generative M4L tools and MIDI devices as an ‘in the box’ modular setup, but with this script I found myself drawn in as soon as I started using it.

These four tracks were created by digging my folders for old unfinished ideas that were not going anywhere, gutting them to a bare minimum, a lead or single sound. I’d then patch with this device, and together, found that everything I was landing on, especially the patterns with more varying convergences, were really meditative. There are only minimal accompaniments on top.

There are some pseudo-binaural moments where overdubbing and hard-panning on multiple takes have moved around the stereo field. The generative nature of no two takes being the same means the different channels dance back and forth at various points.

Although initially started as a learning exercise, I thought these pieces were worth sharing. They began longer and messier, so in an effort to give them some kind of form I built them around field recordings of Kyoto, a city I’d love to revisit. The rain to me conjures memories of peace and of waiting, hoping for change.

Those other tracks are still coming, hopefully early next year.