Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

5/2/1969, Friday   Beatles at both Lime Grove Studios and EMI. At EMI, recorded basic track takes of a ‘Something’ re-make. Work from 7-11, then to 1-3:30A. 5/2/1995  (Eno Diary) “Noticing myself suddenly thinking I see fascism in the tightness in people’s faces - signs of the beginning of racism.” [5/2/2025: Now in the US. Unimaginable in 1995, but the seeds were perhaps there.]   5/2/2021  For Bijou:                                       5/2/2026  Pictures of the TV:  

3/30/1998   The whole idea of generative art forms brings to mind Eric Drexler’s book about molecular engineering in nanotechnology where you can “grow” matter and assign them to be specific objects. You define the parameters and then cultivate the soil and water the seeds.  [3/30/2026: This is essentially what the Songday series is about: Find a rhythmic riff and that becomes the seed].  3/30/1999   3/30/2006 Old Cal's, Wells and Van Buren There is a small window to the right of the entrance, which had a "blues shrine" in it with a broken guitar and a Sinatra record. There was a story behind this, I'm sure, and we'll never know it.  3/30/2021 Music For Photographs--a Robert Frank   Route 285 is a north-south state road in New Mexico that's mostly a barren landscape and is in the vicinity of Area 51, and I wanted to incorporate that "vibe". At the end, I shift from Eb Major to Eb Minor which I think works well with the vibe of the photo, and the dark...

More human-in-the-loop with AI. Music is AI-generated from my lyric, then I arranged it for other instruments. The AI version is guitar atmosphere swimming in reverb. Some December (12/10/2021) by meta4s

  Northwest Indiana Factories from Navy Pier - 11/3/2012 When I was working on the Music For Photographs album, I curated a collection of iconic photos and then wrote original music for them. Photographs For Music is the reverse of that--where I’m pairing my original music with my photos taken on certain days (for example 11/3/2012), which also puts them in the Songday series. I’m also embedding a short video within them that relate to them directly or peripherally, and connected with a QR code. This is an interesting way to re-contextualize preexisting content.  *** Urban Biota . Music finished on 3/28/2014 from Music For Places II as a "score" for a photograph by Gregory Crewdson . Instillation . Uses a Meatyard photo of his wife and child at the piano wearing the usual masks. I used the Instillation track which was an alt-mix of Imitation Man (Dome City)--just the piano track. I think it works nicely. This one was hard to do because the still has to be “instilled” for ...

  Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

   What once had the working title of Sea of Horizontals , is now Boden Sea 1993 . Apparently, this image was used for the cover of U2's No Line on the Horizon , which I learned only recently. A great photo has a resonance. Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

 A "Standard" blues. It's an extended mix with diegetic elements (in the "world" of scene), as if you were perhaps inside the gas station in earshot of the street, with 2 radios playing, one an excerpt from The Jean Shepherd Show in 1963, and the same track looped back in, with a binaural recording of street sounds. The Station 2015 More Amarillo   Part of the mythology of the United States is its highway system built postwar and one of the more popular roadways as we know is Route 66, one of the main thoroughfares to the west coast. There's this idea of heading west that I've come across in various books as a metaphor for moving towards the future. It's interesting that it is more of a universal and not unique to the United States. One of the images that I picked for the album was taken on Route 66 while the artist was heading west from Oklahoma to California. The photo is in effect a milestone from that point in his life where he steps out of the c...

    The original image idea for this piece wasn't taken in New Mexico. It was a snapshot of Rudy Van Gelder's house at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was where Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme .     The Robert Frank photo seemed to fit better with the mood that was emerging as I tracked it. The piece abruptly shifts to the minor mode at the end and becomes very spooky. I used a radio clip from 1955 as perhaps would have been on in his car. There appears to be a cloud in the distance, with streaks of rain falling, which I see as perhaps being "omenesque". Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry The image is decidedly contrasty. If you look at the images on the internet, you'll see a wide range of contrasts, some very light and some even sepia-toned. What I thought was interesting about the contrast issue is that it informed the mode switch in an abstract way. The assumption is that this photograph was taken at night and was ins...

  Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry       A possible arrangement for string quartet (for the Astrolabe series): Astrolabe (Part 17), By Lee Barry by meta4s

  Possible lyrics: Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez A burning of the sky At the roadside A moment that remains Forever in our mind's eye Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez Inversion of the sun At the right time The light against a cross Emblazoned on the black sky   According to Adams, the original capture was on Halloween 1941.   How it looks in daylight 2021: The video: The original idea for the song came to me on a weekend outing to the Saganashkee Slough on June 6, 2021. The slough is a small lake in the Palos Forest Preserves southwest of Chicago. "We're goin' to the Saganashkee Slough" was the riff, and when I got home I notated it. It turned out much different, although this version with the meter changes is cool too. Also interesting--given that this ultimately became the "score" for the Ansel Adams photo, there are two dates on it: 11/1/1941 and 6/6/2021. Thoughts and ideas can sometimes encode the place in which they ...

This track is based on the photo series and book of the same title by Ed Ruscha. Left and Right are the orientations out a car window and would be hard-panned/antiphonal in the recording. The genesis of the piece was from singing the title as if it was a chorus, then played all minor chords against it for a somewhat "Bond" vibe, with a music production at that time (1966), with a AM radio compressed sound. It's the shortest pop song I've ever written at 1:48, and even has a middle-8.  The numbers recited at the beginning are text-to-speech, a kind of anachronism because obviously it didn't exist then. I chose British voices because I wanted an Avengers vibe (Emma Peel/John Steed) replete with sticky Cecil B. DeMille strings and french horns. At the end as an outro I did a short guitar duet ( Havenhurst ) based on the bridge chords which crossfades between a lofi radio sound to full stereo. Behind the guitars is a binaural field recording of traffic ...

 The reason I wanted to set music to this photo (and subsequent painting) is perhaps with the same wonder and fascination of the original artist. This style of architecture (the dingbat, each with a unique signature) is decidedly Southern California: modern, streamlined, care-free, "breezy", and leisurely. ("Beautiful blue skies and golden sunshine--all along the way...") At the beginning of the piece is one of David Lynch's daily weather reports, as a kind of DJ leader. It's interesting that when I was doing the airy synth parts, the weather was exactly like the weather in L.A. per Lynch's weather report. The Shortet: Bronson Tropics (Shortet) by meta4s

A piece using the Hungarian Gypsy scale (or mostly harmonic minor). The actual track is not piano. This is just an arrangement for it, and follows the same structure. The place: Montmartre, Bar de la Lune, 1932 Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

It is difficult to chose the iconic Brassai photographs because all his work is iconic in my view. But this is the first one titled Brassai 1934. (You can Google the title to find the image). The actual location is Avenue de l'Observatoire in Paris. Brassai was the photographer the best captured the idea of "noir" in my opinion, and probably was the inspiration for many cinematographers of noir films. So this is doubly interesting for me--writing "noir" music based on noir photos that influenced films that composers scored to.   Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry It's interesting how you can get harmonic complexity by moving one chord shape in context with open strings. (DADGAD) Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry  

      Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry   Lead Sheet:       Videos: A Jimmy Webb/Glenn Campbell vibe. (Think Fender Bass VI for this guitar sound): Guitar Video No. 13 An earlier string arrangement for Dorothea .  

Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry Lead Sheet:   A David Lynch-inspired work from 2004, based on a "Phrygian Blues" using 2 main chords, Am and Bbmaj7(#11), with a standard minor turnaround, originally titled "Vintage Smoking". In 2012 I made a music video of it, then re-used some of that footage in the new videos.