Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

  A cut-up of various diary entries, in this case, April 28ths. It also references a passage from W.G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn , where he mentions sunken willows.  "Through Brundall, Buckenham and Cantley, where, at the end of a straight roadway, a sugar-beet refinery with a belching smokestack sits in a green field like a steamer at a wharf, the line follows the River Yare, till at Reedham it crosses the water and, in a wide curve, enters the vast flatland that stretches southeast down to the sea. Save for the odd solitary cottage there is nothing to be seen but the grass and the rippling reeds, one or two sunken willows, and some ruined conical brick buildings, like relics of an extinct civilization."  "It was on a grey, overcast day in August 1992 that I traveled down to the coast in one of the old diesel trains, grimed with oil and soot up to the windows, which ran from Norwich to Lowestoft at that time. The few passengers that there were sat in the half-light on th...

  Artificial intelligence is obviously more capable of evoking emotions than it was only a year ago. With this song, it's typically a cut-up of various diary entries, in this case, April 28ths. It also references a passage from W.G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn , where he mentions sunken willows. The original title was Through Brundall on to Cantley , but the sunken willows image captured the mood perfectly. I also think that it's a nice combination of poetry and lyric, where they can kind of function the same way, with fragments of images, such as the fragmented nature of dream imagery. It's what's termed as “Sebaldian”--having to do with Sebald’s dreamy prose. The photography is also interesting, and was taken in the mid to late 19th century in the same area as the path that was taken in Rings of Saturn through towns in East Anglia (Cantley). The playlist also includes an ambient mix, which takes just the vocal set against various field recordings of wind and waves.  ...

2/22/1999 The most interesting thing about a piece of music is how it develops and how well it positions itself in the landscape of all other music. Music never had "salons" but it's that kind of effect. 2/22/2013  Finished Macrophage . It looked demonic a few days ago with the plain Red Cross in blood red but “white washing” it with a “Mondrian Stripe” "healed" it up.   2/22/2018 Working on Rings of Saturn track re: Dunwich. Apparently, a huge hurricane-like storm devastated the area in the 13th century: "On New Year's Eve 1285, a storm tide devastated the lower town and the portside so terribly that for months afterwards no one could tell where the land ended and the sea began..." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-35549952   2/22/2025 The more theory you know isn’t going to make the art better. I like my level of mastery in music, and it allows me to create art at that level. What’s the point of learning just for the sake of learning, ...

2/19/2002 Lyric: If it wasn't for the misery that we feel we'd be made of steel.             2/19/2016 What I realize when I see savants play music is that musical ability doesn’t necessarily arise from structured learning. All people probably have infinite potential, but some individuals have feedback loops in the brain that cause a piquancy in certain abilities. The musical genius has the ability to shorten the distance between sound memory/processing and the fingers. Musicians' ears are naturally attuned to ambient rhythms in the environment. City environments are particularly rich in pitched elements such as squeaking brakes, car horns, and at stoplights—a Cagean symphony of car stereos. Ambient sounds in rural environments, such as the sounds of fast trains, are well known to have influenced many rhythms in folk and pop music. I call it “Window Music” because sounds outside sometimes blend in with what you’re listening to inside, even if in your headph...

 Music generated by AI  using a short cryptic poem I had written, as a "score" for a Sebald photograph (Benacre Broad?) taken around the time of Rings of Saturn , and has a the typical "Sebaldian" saturnine quality, then arranged for string quartet on a lark as a "shortet", a minute in length. String Shortet No. __ ("Vintage of the Vinyl") by meta4s

December 15ths  6/15/1886 (Thomas Sullivan) Silence becomes survival. English words carry less risk than native tongues amid demonization.     6/15/2019 Aerial:                                        6/15/2021 One of the problems I have with using too much programming in music is that I tend to get bogged down in things that aren’t of a musical nature. We have to decide where we want to focus our problem solving so that it’s not interfering with creativity. They can’t be co-mingled as they’re in conflict more than they are in having similarities. That’s the problem I have with using too much AI in music: we’re too focused on the data and programming. [6/15/2025: Programming is no longer an issue–it’s the writing of prompts, which I find kind of strange in music, e.g. "Begin with a soft ambient intro, gradually layer in warm bass tones, and introduce a soaring lead melo...

A short 'itinerary' from Somerleyton to Blundeston. While drinking in the beauty of Somerleyton, he turns to reverie about the barren Arctic, then Blundeston Prison. (pp. 33-36) "The intoxicating scent of linden blossom is wafted up from the great avenue. Below, you see the steep roofs tiled with dark blue slate, and in the snow-white glow from the shimmering glasshouses the level blackness of the lawns. Further off in the park drift the shadows of Lebanese cedars; in the deer enclosure, the wary animals keep one eye open in their sleep; and beyond the furthermost perimeter, away toward the horizon, the marshes extend and the sails of the mills are turning in the wind." *** "The stuffed polar bear in the entrance hall stands over three yards tall. With its yellowish and moth-eaten fur, it resembles a ghost bowed by sorrows. There are indeed moments, as one passes through the rooms open to the public at Somerleyton, when one is not quite sure whether one...

"The Dunwich of the present day is what remains of a town that was one of the most important ports in Europe in the Middle Ages." to "Dunwich, with its towers and many thousand souls, has dissolved into water, sand and thin air. If you look out from the cliff-top across the sea towards where the town must once have been, you can sense the immense power of emptiness." (Audio: 12:12-end) Curvilinea by Lee Barry