Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

Virga by Lee Barry       You gave me strength In times of need Love’s mean­ing is our own It's always shown But never known Finding each other  By keeping to ourselves We searched We found A place  In mind Before that was forever blind We act We’re brave We cared For days In each We found A better way In a place that no one knows Where no one seemed to care A misplaced desire The real world of love Not the one we knew before Grieving in Grieving  out A song no one sang We sing it now today As if to say It was something we always knew We searched We found A place  In mind Before that was forever blind We act We’re brave We cared For days In each We found A better way In a place that no one knows Where no one seemed to care A misplaced desire The real world of love Not the one we knew before

Bass removed--only guitar and keyboard parts, with added ambient padding. Sometimes randomly placing a found voice against existing music brings out the hidden musical aspects of the spoken word. Saturnine Alt 1

Final Mix with all instruments Tempo=126, D Dorian Chords: ||: Dm - F - Gsus - D :||: C - G/B - F - Dm || Bb - C - F -G | Bb - C - F - Dm ||

Started with a bass line on a fretless in D dorian (with borrowed chords from natural minor). I added a 'circular' loop of a hammer dulcimer sound for a Saturn-like treatment. (Sounds like Sting circa 1995) Saturnine

Sometimes the best thing is to remove all the overdubs and strip it down to its African roots. Most African music is built up from a rhythmic mesh of polyrhythmic layers. usually in 12/8. This is a variation of that in 16/8. Sussed (Mix 8)

Fretlesses (fretlii) removed and organ part added. Sussed (Mix 5)

Added a Rhodes track (a synth one), with a slinky blue note which contrasts with the Steely Dan-ish 7ths in the B phrase. In a rough mix, the parts still don't get along well. The genesis of the idea was played on a bass, and the keyboard parts mask the fretless melody. In any event, they are good bones. Sussed 4

Added rhythm and slide guitar parts, as well as a sub bass part. It now has an U2 'Edge' edge. Sussed 2

Idea based on bass harmonics (again) set against a repeating Phil Glass-like loop. I then played a line on the fretless against the loop. (Due to the humid weather the fretless has a nice growl...) Chords are Dmaj7-A-Fdim-Amin-Fmaj7-Fdim Mercury (1)

This uses several alt keyboard and synth tracks, and has a bluesier sound to it, taking advantage of the diminished chord. The rhythm is cha-cha or perhaps Brazilian in feel. I treated the fretless towards the end with a wah. The Broken Spector

Here is the third mix with a roughly conceived rhythm and slide part. I still tend to prefer the previous mix without guitars, but I might be able to erase some of it away. The track still has some of its alternate tuning quality, even as it gravitates to normal tuning. The original tracks with bass harmonics in the alternate tuning are omitted, but the jazz bass part is still there, panned right. Brocken Spectre 3

Spring will soon be here, and so will tornadoes. I took a melodic approach to a fretless bassline (B Dorian), and added an ominous swirling atmosphere around it. The electric piano with tremolo is an obvious reference to 'Riders on the Storm' or 'Midnight Rider' (Allman Brothers). Sometimes cliches work because you expect them to be there. ***

This is the second alt mix using some of the atmosphere tracks from 'Glint' with added 'liquid piano'. The piece trails off 70s Floyd style, with pitchbend and manipulation of envelope and VCF and VCO controls on liquid piano. Moonbows

A new tuning (F-Ab-C-F--an open F minor chord). The harmonics make the tuning interesting.  The 'A' figure are harmonics played at the fifth and seventh fret on the Ab, C, and F strings. The 'B' idea consists of stopped notes at the ninth and twelfth fret. Since I do not yet have tab template for this tuning it is difficult to notate here, but the images of hand positions will give you an idea of how it is played.   Hand Position 1 (5th Fret Harmonics):         Hand Position 2 (7th Fret Harmonics):            Hand Position 3 (9th Fret Stopped):       Hand Position 4 (12th Fret Stopped):   I used this tuning on The Brocken Spectre on my Virga album. Obviously, the key is F Minor (with occasional b5). The genesis of the idea was layered ostinati using harmonics. A Fretless part was added last (standard tuning).     A possible riff, which uses mostly open strings and double st...

I was going for something evoking a prehistoric beast in a tropical landscape. I think I did it. Basses always make things heavier. Play Me The original bass parts in the alternate tuning are still there but mixed low and have lots of effects on them. Their interaction with the fretless makes for some sour clashes at certain points, and sounds interesting that way. Here is a picture of our subject:

I sampled each natural harmonic at frets 2, 4, 5, 7 and 12 and set them looping Eno-style beginning at 0:00. Since each sample is of a different duration, there are some occasional rhythmic collisions, which I softened with a long reverb. Again, I collaged in atmosphere, and played an additional synth part with pitch-bend. Play Me

Virga was initially conceived as an improvisation in the altered tuning E-F#-B-F# on a 1962 Jazz Bass. My experiments in this tuning so far have been with the natural harmonics, which gravitate towards extended B Major and F# Major tonalities. Play Me The chiming quality of the harmonics somehow suggested rain. I already had Virga on my list of titles and used it as a springboard. (Virga are the wispy sheets of rain that fall from clouds, and is an acronym for Variable Intensity Rain Gradient Aloft ). As with all my ambient pieces, I often collage in various samples and sound files, in this case samples of held notes and field recordings. In many ways, this has developed into what sounds like a knock-off of 'Portrait of Tracy'. This is a bit different from Jaco's piece in that while he used lower open strings and fretted notes in a bottom-up fashion, I am playing melodies on the top string, and hitting harmonics below it in a top-down fashion.