Added soundcloud account

In order to make sharing this music a bit easier, I signed up for soundcloud.com, a kind of Flikr-for-audio site. It looks pretty useful, and I'm going through my old posts and adding an embedded player that links the song to its host on SC. Now I won't have to leach quite so much off of ~eo~ph()g, which had been a source of some guilt for me. I'm also experimenting with a new email address. It shouldn't be a major transition for anybody, don't worry about it, this is more for me than anyone else. I will resume posting stuff fairly soon.

WIP #7 - "Pivot"

This is just a simple electronica jam I did during my spring break in Alexandria.  The name "Pivot" is a kind of lame homage to one of my favorite electronica composers, William Orbit, whose style and aesthetics has definitely influenced me tremendously.  A lot of this song needs to be polished up; in a system upgrade I lost a lot of the sound effects I was using, and I find it a bit... well, flat, maybe.  Right now the only live instrument is my bass playing, which I think could be a lot better, and I should probably add some guitars and other stuff.

http://haoma.neonphog.com/music/demos/pivot.mp3

Pivot by brotherwren

WIP #6 - Fiveeight

This song definitely needs a title. It's a really fun song based off a riff in a slightly unusual time signature, what I think would be 13/8, because it is essentially a 6/8 beat with an extra eighth note at the end, i.e., 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3-4 repeat. I love the extra space this beat gives me to play with, and although the song is, up to now, purely instrumental, I could totally see adding lyrics, which could make the spacey quality of the song really pop out. However, it works well as is, too, although I think it could do with less synth-y sounds. The bass and guitar, of course, are live.

http://haoma.neonphog.com/music/demos/fiveeight.mp3

Any suggestions on how the song could develop, or a good title, are more than welcome.

Thirteen by brotherwren

WIP #5 - Waltz'n

This is a really, really old song Kevin and I wrote together. It's really reflective of our early songwriting, with a lot of different parts and not a whole lot of the verse-chorus thing. I just did this today for fun, there's a lot of sloppy playing and mistakes, but it's gratifying to compare it to the demo we did ten years ago and see how much better it sounds. :) It's not an easy song for me to sing, I think I'll have to warm up into this if I'm going to do it.

http://haoma.neonphog.com/music/demos/waltzn.mp3

Waltz'n by brotherwren

Lyrics:

I waltz with the wind, her light fingertips on my waist
A waltz in the wind, and the brush of her lips on my face
I feel the winds blow and I see the ground flow far below me
And all I can see is the beauty there waiting for me

Like birds and the bees flying high above trees
Or a beautiful dove I'm in love
Now I look down see the ground and I freeze
Oh my, I'm too high

I tumble and fall in my panic and fear
And I think that she blew me a kiss
And her beauty and grace I can see in her face
As I beg her to dance with me more
"I'll miss you!" I cry as I see her recede
And her beauty fades into the mist
And straining my ears to hear her reply
I don't even hear a goodbye

{All I can hear is the rush of the air
And the sound of my tears as I cry}

With a thud and a crunch, I gracefully crash to the land.
The waltz in the wind has left me standing alone on the sand.
And impossibly high, I see a few clouds floating by
Through the blueness and sunshine, the birds gently drift through the sky

"I hate you!" I cry, shake my fist at the sky,
But I stop.. and I breathe, and I sigh..
And straining my ears to hear her reply,
I hear her soft whisper "Goodbye..."

WIP #4 - Parallels in Spacetime

This is one of my more fully-developed songs; you may have heard it in an earlier, instrumental form a few years ago.  I'm really curious to hear what people think about this song in particular, since it is as close to being "done" as anything on this site.  How does it flow?  How are the lyrics, both in content and delivery?  Balance issues?  I may redo the drum tracks, but I'm pretty happy with the instrumentation otherwise.


Parallels in Spacetime by brotherwren

http://haoma.neonphog.com/music/demos/parallels.mp3

Lyrics

you could try to sleep
close the door and dim the lights
and try not to forget what came over me

i could try to pause, i
essentialize and redact the lies and
stop at the sudden smell of clover

these moments hanging high
like electric lights in a sunlit sky
arrive and recall what is missing

another day is gone
another night to spend alone another
time another time another time another time another

(bridge)

you could try to sleep
the solitude of a sightless smile
and hope for dreams to come and take you over

i could look at you and think
why i didn't think i'd fall
and take a look behind at my footsteps

(bridge)

you could try to dream
lose yourself in another time
and maybe find another life to enter

i could do the same
for time is just another dream
and maybe you are waiting for me there

illuminate, but never blind
these electric lights in a sunlit sky
i swore that i never would be that way

we could intertwine
intersect between the lines
we could be parallels in space-time

and oh,
what a wonderful thought we shared that night
and oh,
what a powerful loss we could barely face
and oh,
what a comfortable sigh behind closed eyes
and oh,
what a vulnerable time to be alive

WIP #3 - Kzing

Why Kzing? It's about as meaningless as this song. Maybe I'll rename it; thoughts?

Features:

• heavily distorted violin solos
• ethereal strings
• synthesized harpsichords and trumpets
• audio of me riding a CTA bus

You see?  Random.

http://haoma.neonphog.com/music/demos/kzing.mp3

Kzing by brotherwren

WIP Track #2 - Azan

It seems only fitting that I should be coming back to this during Ramadan.  I wrote it while living in Cairo, and the whole song is centered around my impression of the Adhan.  I was walking down a local street near my apartment one day, and there was one mu'azzin giving the call to prayer at that moment that totally struck me.  He would take one note and just SIT there, only moving up a half-tone every now and then for ornamentation as he finished his phrases.  The sheer beauty and simplicity of two adjacent notes captured me, and I got home determined to somehow get it out there in my own music.  Thus this sound-collage, "Azan," was born.  In it, I tried to recreate some of the characteristics of the Adhan in Cairo that stand out most to me: the intermittent flow between relative quiet and sudden sonic upheaval; the cacophonous joy of a hundred voices lifted, each independent of the other yet all directed towards the same object and purpose; the simple structure, decorated by vocal embellishment; the unexpected magic that can come out of notes that don't (at first glance for a Western ear) go together.

This is a recent incarnation---I have added vocal tracks and made it murkier (which I'm okay with, this is also a characteristic of the Adhan in big cities).  I also made the syth tracks a little less discordant.  At first, it really did sound like the "Jaws" theme, or something out of a cheesy zombie movie.  Back to nice happy major chords.  I'm really curious to hear what people like and dislike in this song; it's not the most conventional piece, but it is really simple, perhaps to the point of boredom.

Azan by brotherwren

It is time
Azan
Silence breaks
Shatters in sound

Carry me
Azan
Above streets
Pull me down

It is time
Azan
Day is long
Give me pause

Sleep by me
Azan
Night is come
Announce dawn

It is time
Azan
Heavy sky
Cast off by voice

It is time
Azan
Nothing
Changes