Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

My musical response a year ago dome while working on Camera Ion , so uses elements from it. The title relates to the idea of reprisals, reactions, tit-for-tat. This could be a movement in a larger work, which wouldn't be all depressing. Reactionarium by meta4s

 Second in a series of videos for the Nostalgia Galaxy album.

    We have left, and the summer has left us as well The sun was in the sky, and now its just another star. Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry

  Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry

  Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry Video 45s:   Side A: https://youtube.com/shorts/IWMx_xzi7nY?feature=share  Side B: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l_cEzSxclm0  A light road For a dark night The dark soul Of the white night The dark soul Meets the bright light

What I call the "C-Bass" is essentially a transposing instrument where the key is a major third above concert pitch. So D Dorian is played as in F# Dorian.

  Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry Working Mixes/October Tracks: 10/8/2023 The four new guitar tracks push it in another direction. The organ parts make it sound fairly R&B. The other versions are drastically different.  I also stumbled on a happy accident: I took some of the tracks and placed just an F-natural against the whole thing and there were interesting dissonances. I placed some of the same guitar parts against it and started to turn out pretty dark. While composing the string arrangement I used some of those figures as well like some of the the cello and bass parts against it. It sounds pretty sinister actually. What was most interesting was that it happened on the day after the Hamas invasion. I thought it was very appropriate, but generally, I don't do political work, but if I'm in the right hemisphere (as it were) I'm more apt to not dismiss that kind of thing. It's not that I'm forcing it--it's just that it's in the back o...

  October 7 2023 (Draft 2) by meta4s

  The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise - Giovanni di Paolo 1445 It's always interesting to review the evolution of a piece. This one started on an acoustic guitar using only the working title Silent Satellite. As I was tracking it and doing the synth parts, I came upon a patch titled Radio Angel and it fit perfectly with what I was doing, and is now the final title. Harmonically it's interesting because it uses minor keys a minor third apart (B minor and D minor) and both the relative and parallel modes, so D major and D minor. B major could possibly work as well in a more angular way. "Silent satellite" is still in the lyrics so I thought that was a good solution. As I got deeper into tracking the piece it began to gather more meaning. Very often while I'm in the middle of recording all the other parts, I may stumble on a new acoustic guitar part. I've gotten into the habit of having the "camera" armed and ready to take a ...

  Final Mixes: Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry 3/23/2023  A few weeks ago I was noodling around on a guitar and a Japanese-sounding idea emerged, using the Phrygian mode (Greek but sounds Japanese) and I have been developing it in dribs and drabs. Ukiyo-e was on my title list and I used it as a working title.  Recently, I watched the film Minamata . Very often I'll play guitar while watching films (especially if I think they can be watched peripherally) and sometimes what I'm watching will inform the music in interesting ways. Would I have still developed the song in a similar way watching another kind of movie? Perhaps. But if you're a "combinatorial" artist, where things get "assembled" over time, a synchronicity occurs and it develops a new life and takes off in new directions.  Not that Ukiyo-e has anything to do with Minamata . I could change the title to something with more pathos, but I never go as...

  Tempo=126 Lyrics (in non-instrumental version): Cloudy days so far away The scent of a distant rain, sent in the air We got here from there There's no way back there from here As space men, we're starving for air   [A reference to Elon Musk, the solar system is his toy. Miles From Mars is a reference to my album and the theme is the same: we are miles from Mars--so close but so far away. The quixotic pursuit of a Mars colony is the dark side]. Toys in the hands of a man Man in the hands of a toy Land is a toy in the hands of a man We are biological things We are not machines We are miles from Mars Dark side of the Mars Dark side of the Mars   Texture of air, texture of light Tones of voice and fragrance of sea Mountains and lakes--which you are--permanently removed A longing for life that could have been Desire for life without a care Life in the place it was meant to be Dark side of the Mars Dark side of the Mars We are such delicate things We are miles from Mars (S...

  Masdar Strip (From Elevations & Aerials ) The "lyrics" are generated with ChatGPT: "Write a short speech about the future" As we stand at the precipice of the future, I am filled with a sense of both excitement and uncertainty. The world is changing at an unprecedented pace, and it's hard to predict exactly what lies ahead.  However, one thing is clear: the future will be shaped by the choices we make today. Every decision we make, both as individuals and as a society, has the power to shape the world we live in tomorrow.  We are already seeing incredible advancements in technology, from artificial intelligence to renewable energy to space exploration. These innovations have the potential to transform our lives for the better, but they also bring new challenges and ethical dilemmas that we must grapple with.  At the same time, we are facing urgent global issues such as climate change, political instability, and inequality. These problems require bold and d...

    What I still find remarkable every time I write songs is the evolution of them. This piece started in 2015 under another working title and went through many different phases. My new way of working on songs is to do them in standard notation where I can work out the song arrangement in detail, then use that as a blueprint (or a very elaborate "click track") for the recording. "Dying To Connect" was a random title that I applied to it, then wrote lyrics based on it. It's about the lengths we go to stay connected--in a time where connection is ostensibly easy yet ironically more difficult as the social media landscape changes. But the sense of urgency can remain. The found voice at the end swimming in reverb delays uses the "Amy" TTS voice: The docking station will close in 30 minutes and we will be accepting no more passengers. Say goodbye to loved ones as soon as possible.   I know that sounds like bleak, but when I was working on the track I lost s...

  Usually alternate versions occur after the song is written, but in this case a song with lyrics was derived from an instrumental. The lyrics are inspired by how downtowns are getting slathered with vinyl appliques, in which stores put their back to the street, perhaps a presage of life in the metaverse where everything will be in the uncanny valley, making the experience of being in a place flat, cold, and one-dimensional.  We now have a Wild Fork (occupying the space of a former Gap store), which I think is creepy, with everything shrink-wrapped and in freezers. In the future, perhaps the wrap will be a flexible screen or something you interact with in a VR space.

  The Video 45 score:

9/26/1999 Interview with Sting on BBC about his new album Brand New Day . Said he had all the music done first and added lyrics later, then he went on long walks. Said music has a narrative even without words–like the tune, Fill ‘Er Up , it starts out country, goes to techno, then gospel. It’s a collage of context.  Said he’s a permanent student of music. (We all have to be permanent students of something).  Poetry is saying things in strange ways for your own amusement, yet it can mean so much more to someone else.      Music is an extension of our ability to hear. [ “Discuss the Umwelt” ] 9/26/2011 Exhibition at Gagosian of Dylan's paintings. The sources are suspect. After you've been creating for decades, an artist is bound to run out of ideas in the "usual" way--that you sit quietly and wait for "signs" and everything falls into place and the masterpiece completes itself within 15 minutes. It could take 15 days, weeks, months, or even years for a piece t...

  A 2-chord Joe (Am/Ebmaj7(#11)) using two chord scales: A minor pentatonic (or A natural minor) and Eb Lydian. Or you could use a C major scale alternating with a Bb major scale, or C major pentatonic and Bb major pentatonic. The key is to alternate between the B-natural and Bb and E-natural and Eb as the chords change. In some metaphorical way, the Bs and the Es are "mirror reflections" or opposites.   Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry   Video:  

 "Brian" Mix: Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry  Final Mix: Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry  Rough Mixes (November):   Possible lyric: Disaster movies It's what it's like to live in the world Subconscious movies It's what it's like to live in the frame Disaster movies Why we fight to live in the world Your favorite movies Inside your television and mistaken for your mind Paintings so surreal Abstractions in the marks Projection uses light But ends up in the dark Disaster movies The flicker of the fear in your brain Psychotic reaction Life without illusion is no life at all Disaster movies It's what it's like to live in the frame Subconscious movies Inside your television And mistaken for your mind Paintings so surreal Abstractions in the marks Projection uses light But ends up in the dark   If all the disaster movies that we've seen over the past fifty years are in fact projections—as they have been in many cases (most notably 911), the...

A piece generated from a few of my Dynaxioms on photography. 2006. Photos are confection for memory; You can't avoid being seduced by them. You want to forget, but the beautiful photo haunts you forever. If you lost a great city, you should destroy all the old photos as well. [Anything can be reconstructed from memory, and gives room for innovation that wouldn't have been there in the first version]. (9/12/2001) 0023. Sometimes history books (and films) say more about history than history itself. Recording history is like remembering a dream--with fragments stitched together into a narrative that develops a life of their own.   Sum 1: Nostalgia Galaxy by Lee Barry