electronic music by John Christian

It Lives!

2009-11-02T20:29:00.004Z

Susbarbatus was launched at Hampshire Jam on Saturday, if launched is not overstating plopping it onto the SMD stall. Initial reactions seem pretty positive. Dave took some more stock so for now SMD is the only place to get a copy. I will start making contact with the other distributors soon.

Here's a potted description, although if you've read the other postings here some of this will be familiar:

My original idea was to work on the material performed at HJ5 and quickly release an album that would be more or less a new improved version of the Bohunt CDR. This didn't go to plan, not least because it wasn't meant to take three years! Susbarbatus does have a couple of tracks that are based on that material, but in significantly more polished form. There's also a live track from HJ. The remainder of the album is brand new material.

The backbone of the album is made up of heavily sequencer driven tracks (no surprise there then). They are more structured and melodic than my work with AirSculpture but I've tried to retain the same kind of energy. There's also a track of deep-space ambience for a change of pace. The closing track is all sequencer, but in a way that evokes Steve Reich more than the Berlin School (or maybe just Love on a Real Train!).

I don't have any immediate plans to make this available as a download.

The beginning of the end

2009-10-11T22:21:00.005+01:00

At last! I have finished my solo album, which is now titled "Susbarbatus". Assuming I get all of the gubbins into the post it should be ready for Hampshire Jam. Yes, still a real physical disc - I'll worry about whether it should be a download too later.

Stylistically it's definitely not an AirSculpture album; the music is rather more structured and even melodic in places. If you have Bohunt it won't come as a total surprise - in fact the first couple of tracks are refined versions of Bohunt tracks and there's a live track from HJ5. Originally this was going to be just a polished up version of tha material but that plan didn't exactly come off (or it might have come out a couple of years sooner). These tracks have evolved quite a lot, and the new tracks are quite different.

More soon, I'm sure. This is probably time to updade the johnchristian.org site to be more than just bloggage. Although with HJ and a Frank-a-delic gig upcoming you know what will happen...

Tales of Unicorns

2009-09-02T11:47:00.009+01:00

I used to use a MOTU 828 mk.2 audio interface. It was a wonderful tool, ran flawlessly on several different machines and was built like a tank. The only negatives were down to that tankishness; it's rather huge and weighs a ton, and is full of features that I'd probably never use.

In time they added the only slightly misnamed UltraLite, which is still built like a tank and only weighs about half a ton and can go into luggage without taking up all of the sock space. It dropped some features but left all the ones I actually wanted. That's the one I really wanted... but not enough to part with the 828.

When I arrived at the Ricochet Gathering at Yellowstone and was eventually reunited with my luggage (a story in itself) the 828 died on arrival. It flashed its lights once, sighed, and shuffled off to whatever afterlife is reserved for such devices (actually I know exactly where that is - gathering dust in my studio...). I don't know what happened for certain but I'm sure it was something to do with being examined by customs. It had been set to 230v which might make a difference; perhaps when it didn't turn on with US voltage they tried using a hammer instead.

Thankfully one of the attendees was able to loan me a very nice box so I was able to play something. But on returning home I had to do something about it, and decided it gave me an excuse to get that UltraLite. Of course I intended to get the 828 looked at. Exactly two years down the line, I still do...

The UltraLite seemed great, with just one exception. Every now and then it freaks out completely, firing random noise at full volume on all of its outputs. I suspected a software problem (it only happened when running Live, but then that's pretty much all I run these days). Well, long story short, almost everything possible has been swapped around, and the problem still happens. It is sporadic, and not especially frequent, but I can't really risk putting it though a PA; I've been lucky so far but I think it probably is how the cones on my monitors got shredded at the sessions where we recorded Doom Bar.

The clincher is that I've now found more references on the web to this fault, and MOTU don't seem to want to fix it, or even acknowledge it as a real problem. Now I can't really get too mad when I'm being my useless self - I haven't reported the problem to them, so I've certainly not personally got an answer that I'm not happy with. But Hampshire Jam is looming and I need something I can use without risking spoiling the entire event. I need to limit it to just spoiling out set, as usual! So I've stumped up for yet another box, this time an Echo Audiofire. Touch wood that this works out - I already have an Indigo IO PC card interface which works fine (but doesn't have enough inputs and outputs for the Big Rig events).

So this is not exactly a rant, but an expression of disappointment and a bit of caveat emptor. There was a time when I'd have recommended the MOTU gear like a shot; now I'd say you need to take care, do some research, and be ready to send it back if you need to. Which is sad. Still great hardware though.

And with luck I'll get the 828 fixed, the UltraLite problem will be resolved, and I'll have more audio interfaces than I know what to do with.

Frank-a-delic

2009-08-11T22:58:00.004+01:00

As I mentioned in the last post (about 300 years ago) I have joined up with another band. It couldn't be much less like AirSculpture; a 14 piece (more or less) slab of chaos playing mostly covers, but everything messed around with. And just heaps of fun. It's great to be doing something that is so far outside of my comfort zone, like actually learning pieces of music. Some are even presented as those squiggly tadpoles on telegraph poles. You know what I'm talking about.

I've just got back from my second gig with the Franks (and the first was more of a mild intro as I only played on a couple of songs) - a rip-roaring evening of bouncing up and down in a complete sweat box.

So now it's back to electronic mode; Hampshire Jam is on the horizon. Just a couple of tracks to do... and should be some more Frank-a-delic before the year is out too. Watch this space!

The difficult second (first?) album

2009-05-19T11:07:00.002+01:00

It's an astonishingly long time since I posted anything, even for me. So just a random update on the off-chance anyone is reading. If nothing else it reminds me how to log in to the thing...

I am slogging on with the solo album. I think of it as the first "real" album, so it shouldn't be so hard especially as some of the material is refined versions of what appeared on Bohunt. There's about 45 minutes of more or less finished music. With any luck I'll be able to wrap it up in time for HJ8. Yeah, right...

Meanwhile I've just had a rehearsal with a non-EM group that I'll be appearing with. Just a tiny contribution this time round, but hopefuly the start of something very different.

Philly Pictures

2007-02-23T17:34:00.000Z

While I'm here... there are some fantastic photos of the Philly concert by Jeff Towne over at the Gatherings site. Like this, for instance:

Susbarbatus

2007-02-23T17:12:00.000Z

The last batch of Bohunt Sabotage CDs have gone out to SMD today. I finally got round to burning the last batch, and when I came to pack them up found that the leftovers from the trip to the USA were still there - I was sure I'd sent them. Anyway, that's it, once they're gone, they're gone.

I've started working on the first track for the album proper. It is based on the first part of Bohunt, which is called Susbarbatus. This currently involves adding layers to the original material (and happily the new laptop is allowing me to add lots!). Once I've got enough in place I'll start trimming it down and working up a structure.

Calm after the storm

2006-12-05T22:54:00.000Z

The trip to Philly for the Gatherings was every bit as good as the first time. Maybe better. Thanks to a generous loan (cheers, Vince!) we took to stage with a huge .com modular system as well as the kit we'd managed to get over in our luggage and yet more borrowed gear. We kept the first part fairly laid back and ambient; the second set was a sequencer storm that was gratifyingly well received. This followed up with a couple of hours of late night music on the Stars End show. By the time we'd packed up, I was starting to halucinate from lack of sleep...

Now the dust has settled, it's quite nice to have nothing in the immediate future to worry about (except christmas shopping). Time to get to work on The Album.

Jam Tomorrow

2006-11-12T20:19:00.000Z

A bit later than I intended, but a few quick thoughts on the rest of HJ - for what it's worth.

One of the downsides of getting out of the audience and onto the stage is that I end up missing some great music. After I finished, I broke down straight into the car, and took it away so I wouldn't have to drive again. The rain decided to hurl down on the way back. I didn't mind. Then I was still too hyped to sit still in the auditorium and so I missed the whole of the F&S set which by all accounts was (unsurprisingly) a stormer.

For the Volt set, things weren't much more organised. We went out for some food during the break and they'd started before we got back. We listened from the foyer, and it gradually dawned on me that it was becoming rather good.

Finally, Redshift. I made sure I was in a seat for this one. It was a slightly darker, weirder Redshift this time. Sequences were mangled by a pitch shifter, some really great moody atmospheres. And of course, that Moog power. It's always a delight and a mystery how Mark manages to coax sounds of such clarity and energy from the beast. It's not as easy as it looks...

And I drank some beer. And ate some curry. And lo; it was good.

Jammy Smears

2006-10-24T17:32:00.000+01:00

A few days have passed, so it must be time to reflect on the Hampshire Jam.

It was an uncessarily early start, as I woke up around 5 am with my head full of music. Got up and made use of the time listing the patches for each section of the set. Broke the rig down from the studio and prepared to load the car. The incessant drizzle chose that moment to turn into a downpour that only stopped moments after we'd recluctantly loaded up. Nothing ended up with water pouring out of it anyway.

Liphook isn't much more than an hours drive away, so we were soon at the millenium hall. The other acts were there but had only just started setting stuff up. I waited for Redshift and F&S to do what they wanted then quickly assembled my little rig. The soundcheck was quick too, just a quick blast of a couple of sections that I thought would cover the extremes of the sound palette. A quick walk round the hall and it sounded great. Job done. With hindsight it might have been better to have prepared some prerecorded played parts so I could check the lead sounds too.

Some hours later, and it is starting. I have used the gap to write a stack of sticky notes to remind me what I need to do during each bridge, and the keys for the parts that follow. The last action before going and hiding backstage is to check that all of the initial patches are right and to set the faders in the right place for the start.

Steve does the intro, and I'm on. Amazingly I've felt relaxed all the way through; the nerves just never came. Start up the Live set and the intro swells in. I hit the keyboard and the wrong bloody sound comes out. Fortunately it worked and I was able to go with it (not at all what I had planned though - the sounds on Bohunt Sabotage are what it should have been). When I had a moment to check, I found the wrong patches on a couple of the instruments. I have no idea how that could have happened.

I managed to fit in a few more mistakes, but the set is flexible enough for none of them to have had a serious effect. For instance, the first sequence had two distinct sections, playing sweeping chords then moving onto the lead-line. I totally forgot the first and went straight into solo mode. The most annoying was forgetting to start my recorder. This might have meant not having a complete recording (Tony and John on the desk fixed that) but worse, that was meant to be my set timer. I had to guess how long I'd been on, so in the end I played a bit longer than planned. Better than rushing through it in 30 minutes and then having nothing left to play I guess.

But despite these attempts to wreck it, everything seemed to go very smoothly. Not too many keyboard accidents, and the leads seemed to flow nicely. I couldn't see the audience well through the lights but I could make out some tapping of feet and nodding of heads. I made it to the final fade, and (phew) was rewarded by a big wall of applause.

Given I had been on a while, I kept the encore short. It was a bit rougher, but that was kind of the idea. It was well recieved too. Finally off and backstage for a beer.

More on the rest of HJ later.

Star of Stage and Screen

2006-10-24T08:07:00.000+01:00

Grant Middleton has kindly posted a short video clip of the HJ set. Here it is, if this new fangled Web 2.1 Service Pack 5 stuff works as advertised. Or you could look here where you will also find a short snippet after Steve's intro, and footage of the rest of the acts. The Redshift clip is unsurprisingly excellent. Oh, and the audio is out of sync, it's not just a bad mime!

(Requires Javascript, Flash, yada yada).

Bohunt Sabotage

2006-10-23T11:31:00.000+01:00

Hampshire Jam is done and dusted, and seemed to go very well. I'll write some more when I get a moment, and when I've come down.

I did manage to get some music recorded to release at the gig. The initial run was 50 copies, with another 50 to follow. It's called "Bohunt Sabotage" and it consists of a single take playthrough of the main set, plus another version of the moody "Los Ashes" section because I didn't like the way that turned out (mostly because the Virtual Prophet had managed to go completely out of tune - so much for stable soft synths). There are a few moments of finger trouble and a couple of minor glitches which is why I thought it warranted a limited CD-R release. But bar those I really do like it, especially when I got it loud on the living room hifi.

On the day I was a little disappointed in the sales. I think the arrival of two or three Redshift discs (depending on how you count them) drained people's pockets too quickly. Afterwards, I passed most of the remainder to SMD, and they sold out within 25 minutes of being announced! I kept a few copies, so they will be going to SMD for some of the people who replied too late, and the second batch of 50 will follow on as soon as I can burn them. If you want to get hold of a copy then please contact SMD. I do intend keeping some to sell before the Gathering in Philly but there won't be many.

After that, I don't know exactly what I'll do, but this material will probably come out in one form or another. There is a lot of space for improvisation in the material, though, so it certainly will not be exactly the same.

Countdown... T-4 days

2006-10-17T16:16:00.000+01:00

Things do appear to be shaping up nicely. I was left to my own devices on Saturday, and it was a very productive time. I think the set is basically complete bar a couple of bridges, and the process of getting the right sounds to hand. These are closely related things - I need to have a break to change sounds because once I'm playing it's hard to spare a hand to tweak the sounds. This is not helped by the Imposcar suddenly deciding to glitch the playback when it changes
patches, something I've never noticed before. I think I have a way round that, but it's more time consuming than just selecting the next patch from the keyboard. I think I can mitigate the problems by running two instances, one on each keyboard, so I don't need to change sounds in mid-section.

Despite a few rough joins where there are no bridges, I've played it through end to end. It's long enough, which is a bonus, and I think I like it. It has quite a different feel to airsculpture music, so I hope it goes down well with the hard-core Berlin school mob at HJ. I'm starting to wonder if I can get a clean mix done and burn some CDRs for sale at the gig, but first things first!

Two weeks to the Hampshire Jam

2006-10-10T22:33:00.000+01:00

Not even two weeks, more like 11 days. Don't panic!

I've been slowly accumulating sequencer parts in Live. As my hands will be busy I've been trying to come up with grooves that are interesting enough to run for a while without hands-on tweaking. Things really came together when I took my laptop and the Edirol keyboard on holiday and started assembling them into a set. There's now about a dozen phases, all comfortable to play over. Still quite a lot to do - bridges, and finding suitable sounds for playing over each. I've been tending to use the same handful of patches while preparing, so I need at least distinct sound or two at least for each phase.

Currently everything is coming from the laptop. I'm not sure whether I'll rope in some hardware synths at the last minute. If I do end up with just a laptop and a couple of controller keyboards, it will be interesting to see what the audience reaction is. I hope it will be positive, as long as the sounds coming out are good enough. It will certainly be a contrast to the Redshift gear pile!

I was given a choice to either go on first or third. I chose first - I think I'd rather get it over with, and enjoy the rest of the festival rather than suffering through the morning set (and proabably being too hyped to enjoy Redshift!).

No time for this!

2006-10-10T14:06:00.000+01:00

OK, so I've created a blog. This might make it easier to update the webpage. I've no time for this, though, I've got a gig to do!

But I'm nothing if not ready for a bit of a displacement activity, so I've copied the hand-rolled entries from johnchristian.org into this blog and time-machined them back to the correct dates.

Blinks and Kicks

2006-05-30T15:04:00.000+01:00

Blink, and half a year goes past. A couple more gigs under our belts - Awakenings in Leeds and the Leicester Space Centre. The Leeds set turned into an intense sequencer-fest on the spur of the moment, and it went down extremely well. The NSC one kind of went the same way, despite our intentions to try to inject a bit more subtlety. A couple of technical problems forced our hand, and the sequencers came to the fore early on. We sort of knew that the set would end this way - we had the two synth.com modulars with us and wanted to showcase that sound. And yes, all the bits are in place and working, except for the monumentally fiddly Normalization module which I keep putting off.

Reactions were a little mixed - some people loved it but it was a bit much for others. Sorry to that latter group - it wasn't exactly a plan!

So, I'm settling down with a nice comfortable gap before we head off to Philly for the Gathering. Plenty of time to collect together some new sounds, maybe upgrade the PC. And then, out of the blue, I am invited to play a solo set at the 5th Hampshire Jam. Eep! Of course, I have to say yes. Steve has called my bluff, and given me the kick up the bum that might just make me pull my finger out and come up with some solo music. Given the first entry on this page, I only have myself to blame! Really, I am very excited by the prospect and only slightly terrified. I'm sure that will increase as October gets closer.

For those who care about such things, here's another studio shot. You know who you are. The Arrick is still unpatched after coming back from the NSC gig. The top keyboard below the window is an Elka Rhapsody, one of the classic TD sound sources. It's been passed around the band, and now it's my turn. It's fun to play around with Encore sounds but it will probably end up in storage until I have the space for such luxuries. Maybe I'll record something first, just to get it out of my system. And it needs a good sampling first!

The cluster on the right form the mainstay of my live rig: Laptop, Nord Modular, Nova, Electribe, Drehbank and rack with MOTU 828II and Lexicon. The Roland A-37 and Prophecy serve as controllers. Until I have at least the skeleton of part of a set, that's where the focus will be.

Delayed Gratification

2005-12-04T14:50:00.000Z

The Edirol saga dragged on, and on. Eventually, I had to give up and cancel the order and nip out and buy it from Andertons in Guildford. There wasn't much difference in price, so I should have gone there in the first place. Still, it was was worth the wait - the tiny keyboard fits nicely into a suitcase and is remarkably playable. I've now taken it to LA on business, to La Gomera for the Ricochet gathering, and to Madiera on vacation. A very useful little device.

The sequencer modules are here and temporarily screwed in place, but I still haven't got round to cabling everything up internally. I guess that must be top of the todo list... But the studio is feeling more comfortable, and is actually plumbed in so that it actually makes sounds. A good feature for a studio to have, I think.

Dorlogs

2005-08-04T14:52:00.000+01:00

Not much of an update... Here's a picture of the modular. No idea why I feel the need to post it, as this
is only meant to be a temporary page and I've not told anyone about it. Well, if I put some words in maybe
someone will find it by googling for "Exploding Dorlog" or something.

The top box is waiting for the Q960 sequencer and Q962 sequential switch that are due in September or so. It's looking extra-empty because the power modules I meant to order didn't come, entirely due to my messing around with the order. I'd better get round to getting them, otherwise it's a very nice expensive wooden box.

And don't ask about the dog...

Meanwhile, the keyboard is out of stock and not due for a week. Oh well, not really worth trying to order elsewhere.

Nothing tangible

2005-08-03T14:47:00.000+01:00

The laptop is back, and working. I've adopted Ableton Live as my software of choice. It seems to be rock solid, playing flawlessly until the point you run out of processing power (which is sadly, all too soon). For band use, it is the only VSTi host we've found that synchronises to MIDI clocks reliably. It was a suprise bonus that I found it so comfortable to use for music creation.

The studio is still not quite usable. There's just not quite enough space to get everything to hand. As it is currently set up, I can't get to a mixer so the interesting gear (including the Arrick) isn't plumbed in. So for now, I'm limited to what I can do on the laptop with no keyboard. This isn't so bad, I'm taking the time to create sounds and sequences that I can use later. I've ordered an Edirol PCR-M1 mini controller keyboard, so I can do more complete pieces on the laptop alone (and do better at creating sounds aimed at playing by hand). Also on the way, are a couple of large wooden 19" racks from Thomann , which should let me rearrange the studio in a useful way.

So, nothing tangible to report, but I feel more positive anyway.

An optimistic place

2005-01-01T13:00:00.000Z

This site is an optimistic place. That's to say, blind optimism that John is going to ever get round to producing anything more than a homeopathic quantity of music.

After ten years as a member of UK synth trio airsculpture, John's solo output consists of exactly one track, a four minute slice of off the wall sequencing called "Heathkit Interocitor". This appeared on the Beyond Me compilation (which you can still buy here amongst other places). Despite this, it still seemed worth grabbing the domain. If nothing else, the .com variations have already been snarfed by bookbinders or jewellers (who, to be fair, probably have bound more than one book or forged more than one ring in the last decade). He who hesitates could be lost, or at least lumbered with an unfashionable address. And we wouldn't want that. Anyway, the non-profit org suffix nicely sums up the amount of money to be made from electronic music - at least until there's a 'crippling-loss' one to use.

So what's the current excuse status? Well, right now my studio is mostly disabled as I'm trying to merge it in with my office to free up a room. Now I don't work as a freelancer, let alone from home, it's a bit of an unneccesary luxury. Of course, the compact rig that I used for the Gatherings concert in Philly doesn't really need a full studio, and should be easily capable of recording an album in the local pub. Nah, far too easy. My laptop has suffered video card failure and needs to be sent off for repair. It's always something.