Hello Once Again,
My new song is called Laugh Seurat. Here is the journey that led to such a strange song title. I, at times, receive “instruments” from innovative artists for FREE. On occasion, this arrival occurs at the same point I am deep in the throes and messiness of music creation.
Several weeks ago I received a strange instrument called Seurat Midi developed by Jason Grier (pictured above). He has freely allowed the use of his samples and instrument to the general public. “Demonstration Disc is a new album by Jason Grier. It’s also a collection of over 1800 samples and generative Ableton Live music tools which Grier spent the past four years carving, cutting and coding from studio recordings of acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings, found sounds and more. As part of the album’s release, Grier is making the entire project available as a free download. He has even provided tutorials and has expansion packs planned, making this a unique, open source project that will continue to evolve.”(1)
I actually, to this day, don’t really understand how the instrument works or its potential. However, being a certified tech geek I did horse around with it a bit. This instrument essentially creates patterns from chaos using any natural sound as a starting point. I chose an alto saxophone to test the waters. It created a random pattern you can hear in the bridge of the song. It reminds me of sounds you might hear as an orchestra begins its tuning process. I included it in my song only because this instrument was the creative spark that initially propelled the song forward out of oblivion. You can here it very briefly in the bridge for a short moment. I edited most of it out. Like I said, it was the creative spark, NOT a center piece in the song AND I am most likely using the instrument totally wrong. Oh Well.
Jason Grier called his instrument Seurat Midi in homage to Georges-Pierre Seurat. This, of course, made me very curious about Mr. Seurat. I found out he is a “……French post-impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his innovative use of drawing media and for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism.”(2) This art is best looked at as opposed to discussed. I thought it was very cool and was very fun to experience but lets move onward.
As I developed my song and lyrics a recurring theme of “crazy laugh of madness” kept percolating to the top of my creative meanderings and musical sculpting. I guess you can now see where this is going. At the end I was left with a finished song and a decision to make regarding a title for the song. I decided on:
LAUGH SEURAT
Thank You for spending a moment with me I hope you enjoy my latest song. Have a Fantastic Week and Happy Holidays!
Dave
references:
(1) ableton.com.(2017, 04 October). Jason Grier: Download his unique sound library. Blog. Retrieved from https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/jason-grier-demonstration-disc/?utm_source=2017-10-single-item-jason-grier&utm_medium=email&utm_term=std-suite-en&utm_content=header&utm_campaign=editorial-newsletter&&sc_src=email_2236504&sc_lid=132209893&sc_uid=QCAGPbTDye&sc_llid=76861&sc_eh=e8eb2a4ccfa404231
(2) Wikipedia.Georges Seurat. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat