126. 12" Ambiance For Strings 8 tracks released February 2008**

The irony of this title is that upon listening to this album, one will hear no strings at all. Nevertheless the whole record is performed and composed with just the fretted electric bass equipped with the MIDI interface. In that sense it is a pure strings album.

The original hope in adding MIDI capability to the bass was that I would have access to orchestral and synthetic sounds in the studio on the bass rather than just keyboards, on which I have less facility. The other hope was that I would be able to perform parts in a digital language for easy transcription / notation in computer software. Unfortunately the MIDI technology for bass is very imperfect and therefore limited in terms of what it can export to software programs (themselves imperfect).

The main imperfection of MIDI bass performance is that it can only track rhythmically up to a certain speed and density. It is also just unreliable in terms of sound on time. This is the infinitely frustrating limitation also found in recording software known therein as 'latency'. In software the latency is very consistent to the degree that the whole performance can be shifted some fraction of a second after the fact and can be put back on the beat. This is a common procedure for many who record on computers, but I personally resented the unmusical experience of such problems enough to keep me away from software recording to this day. But in MIDI it is actually worse - inconsistent latency with unplayed artifacts to boot.

This album is an instance of having a broad pallete of sounds, but still constricted by enormous musical limitations. Originally to be a purely ambient album, rhythm and percussion eventually come in because after all, meterless washes of sound are hard to sustain, both from the performance and listening perspective. I still like to create within such limitations, as it forces exciting problem-solving surprises.


Side A
AFS part one
AFS part two
AFS part three
AFS part four
Side B
AFS part five
AFS part six
AFS part seven
AFS part eight

Grant Clarkson - MIDI basses
all compositions by Grant Clarkson
recorded January - February 2008 Licitysplit Studios
copyright 2008 Grant Clarkson



127. 3 12" Metamorphosis 4 tracks released July 2008*****

My first "triple album" - inspired by my frst experience at the Opera - Richard Wagner's 'Tanhausser'. Metamorphosis' three "acts" parallel those in Tanhausser. Wagner's first act takes place in a kind of heaven (The Cellestial Plane), the second in the royal palace (The Kings Court), and the third has Tanhausser on a pilgrimage to Rome (Into the Wood). Mine is titled Metamorphosis in the dramatic sense of transformation of character by epic events or rites of passage.

Though I certainly did not write an "opera" with words and singing characters, I did use certain structural elements from that opera experience to become part of this project.

Act I has an "overture" with themes that develop over the rest of the work. The bass is kind of the central "character" with many solo "arias". The featured character besides the bass is different for each act; flute for The Celestial Plane, French horn for The King's Court, and oboe for Into the Wood, with all returning in harmony for the finale. I played all the instruments on this album in order that it might be true 'composition' in the sense that the whole thing has one author. The flute, organ, french horn, trumpet, oboe, and miscilaneous percussion are all from the MIDI bass.

Also I thought it would be fun to put the whole thing on my website for free MP3 download, rather the 'listen-only' way done before. The whole thing clocks in at two hours. Put it on your IPod and I'll see you in the shuffle.

P.S. I might have attempted a more serious promotion / distribution plan with this one, but in the end I didn't feel Act I was strong enough. If you only download one act, I would reccomend ACT III.



Metamorphosis Overture
The Celestial Plane
The Kings Court
Into The Wood

Grant Clarkson - drum programmes, bass, rhodes, guitar, MIDI oboe, French horn, organ,
flute, percussion
all compositions by Grant Clarkson
recorded February - July 2008 Licitysplit Studios
copyright 2008 Grant Clarkson



130. 12" Babel 10 ten tracks released November 2008 ***

Metamorphosis did left me with some creative exhaustion. I was not ready to do any serious 'composition' ; especially long pieces with themes intended to carry 'message' or strong 'feeling'.

What happened here was four minute pieces with no coherent stylistic thread going through. 'Babel' is a somewhat cynical allusion to the idea of juxtaposing unrelated foreign things next to each other, knowing that this juxtaposition does not yield any new or higher meaning.

The operative word for the proceedings was 'detachment'. The sessions were very short and propelled by habitual work methods, not any thought of the result. But the songs ended up being hand-stitched quite carefully and were mixed and archived one at a time.

In terms of instrumental content, the fretted Fender, aka 'Church' was the bass of choice. I've come to really enjoy that bass. It has cut significantly into the Pedulla's share of stage time. Then came the Rhodes and the guitar. I've been trying a little harder on the Rhodes this year. Accepting the fact that getting a good part down is hard work for me, I choose to face it down because the results are worth it.

After this record I'm going to stop mentioning the "MIDI bass" in the liner notes. Unless horn players are credited, the 'horn' parts are me on the MIDI bass. This album features three different MIDI lineups; trombone & tenor sax, trumpet & bari sax, and chromatic harmonica & organ. Suffice to say, the MIDI move has been a great thing for expanding my compositional pallete - I get to write and perform horn section parts now!




Side A
Catalina Island
Dark Night of the Soul
Here Comes the Magistrate
Turning Around
Burning Brifges
Side B
Wolves in Sheeps Clothing
Night Flight
Babel
Big Daddy
La Frontera

Grant Clarkson - drum programmes, bass, rhodes, guitar, MIDI bass, digital percussion
all compositions by Grant Clarkson
recorded August - November 2008 Licitysplit Studios
copyright 2008 Grant Clarkson



131. 10" The Bill Ray EP 4 tracks released December 2008 ****

Bill recorded these drum parts in a studio, and then sent me files of them over the internet which I then put on my deck to complete in any way I could dream up.

Bill and I have collaborated quite a bit before, but it has been a while. I think this method and this project is the best we have done together. For me having done so much composing with drum machines, this batch had all that going for it and so much more.

Bil has very heavy chops, and some of these tunes have very interesting corners and surprises in the drum parts which I relished latching onto.

Since commencing this EP, Bill gotten some press for this method, and from what I read most of the other recording artists used 'samples' from Bill's solo drum tracks, but I used the entire performances; said performances being integral to the resulting compositions.


Side A
Don't Load In With A Skateboard Anymore
Float Like A Butterfly? Sting Like A Bee
Side B
Two on Six
Live From the 24th Floor

Bill Ray - Drums
Grant Clarkson - bass, rhodes, guitar, MIDI bass - trombone, tenor sax, trumpet, bari sax,
flute
all compositions by Grant Clarkson
recorded November - December 2008 Licitysplit Studios
copyright 2008 Grant Clarkson

~~~~~~~~~~~If you would like a copy of any of these CDs, please write me and we can make arrangements. ~~~~~~~~~~~~