Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

9/20/2005                     On the advent of cell phone video: Is it a new medium? How does it affect perception?  [Musing On Music Mostly LLM: Prompt: " Discuss the evolution of film and video and its effect on perception "]      9/20/2016             What all musicians should love is the process, both at compositional and performance levels. Sometimes I love the potential in ideas that I get, even if the first demos don’t fully express or resolve them. If all I get is a nice set of changes, I feel a sense of satisfaction and/or relief that the muse is still there.             9/20/2017             Orange Peel, 19 x 25 inches, acrylic on paper with iridescent copper patina. (Third in the ‘Leaf’ series (Goldleaf, Silverleaf). Copper patina makes the work bright and pastel in sunlight and darker and dramatic...

Very often when I'm taking photographs of architecture I take note of the interstitial space between buildings (or sculptures), and how they frame the sky to the edges of the photograph.   In 2015, I experimented by cutting the shapes on a laser cutter with translucent blue Plexiglas. The next phase of the project will involve mounting them within frames. In certain ways, they are an homage to Joseph Cornell’s cut paper silhouettes as in “Varietes de Mineralogie”  or the silhouettes in the Ledger Book of William Bache . In terms of human universals they are a "classification of space"  *** Prototypes with 4 blue LEDs powered by 2 AA batteries. Since they draw so little power, they can stay lit for months, although they progressively fade, which is an interesting "happy accident". A "sunset" frame would be interesting.    VIEW MORE IMAGES Also see Architectural Deconstruction If you would like to follow this project, please subscribe to my Mailing Lis...

  DGDG is an interesting tuning to experiment with. You could view it as an "Open G" for bass (or G5), or as a combination of bass and cello tunings, or a "cello sandwich" with fifths bookended by fourths, or as "Drop D-G").  It has a nice movable major 7th chord using a combination of fretted notes and natural harmonics (in this case alternating a major third apart), and demonstrates how you can use alternate tunings to generate song ideas, even on a bass. I probably would not have discovered the two oscillating chords on other instruments. Once I start to track up an idea it starts to change. I had used it for a heavier proggy arrangement, using strumming, which can work well as rhythm guitar parts. What started as delicate noodling while watching a movie turned into something much heavier with some added synth atmospheres.  Lead Sheet (Tab)

  A new piece in DGDG tuning for 2 basses, one playing the melody and harmonics and the other a "bass" part. Both should be played in this tuning, but it can be played in standard tuning. New Churches by meta4s

                        Next in the series of orchestral miniatures. Astrolabe No. 19 by meta4s

  A 6-bar bass line that modulates down by a major third 3 times, then repeats. Score: Power Of Three by meta4s

  Another one of my instrumentals initially driven by a title and a few lyrics, but never singing on it (not me). I was watching a video of David Lynch talking about his morning routine and why he still smokes. The title idea was Meditation, Coffee and Cigarettes which suggested a tango or Latin feel, with some lap steel (which Lynch loves). In the outro, I came up with a repeating phrase played in octaves on a Jaco-y fretless based on the 2-chord vamp in the song proper.   Frontiers by Lee Barry

  Very often after I finish a mix I experiment with different treatments. Sometimes I arrange them for ensembles, in this case a string piece (either quartet of string orchestra), or just an outro vamp . This is the released version --a riff on Pink Floyd's Astronomy Domine in some minimal ways. That track was released in 1967, but the vibe was very mid-60s psychedelia. I noticed a shift around 1966 when songs were sounding darker and using more minor seconds, which early metal picked up on, primarily Black Sabbath.  It's also interesting to trace its evolution: originally it started as a bluesy guitar piece, "Drugstore Prints" , low-quality machine photo prints from Walgreen's, reflected in the lo-fi sound.  Dynaxiom 1622 applies: A piece of art or music is a touchstone for a future context. In essence, it awaits unknown connections and circumstances that might occur in the future--with meanings that the original artist might not have realized. (Always consider ...

  An example of a re-use of other writing, in this case a response to a Quora post about sailing around the globe, then used as a metaphor for being "On the Road".  Frontiers by Lee Barry The Road by meta4s *** The AI versions. Horrible. This is an example where AI music just doesn't deliver. It's produced, as opposed to my bedroom version, but the music itself sucks. It doesn't understand 12/8 feel. The prompt: A 12/8 blues shuffle with a distinct Americana vibe, building intensity up until the outro vamp, trading solos on guitar and sax , R&B, Male Vocals, Choir, Harmonized Vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric Guitar, Piano, Organ, Saxophone, Keyboard, Steel Guitar  

  A "scoring" of Michael Heizer's "City" complex in Nevada. (Music For Places II) From a lecture by the art historian Kirk Varnedoe: "Part of my art is based on an awareness that we live in a nuclear era," Heizer says in an interview in 1984. "We're probably living at the end of civilization." His project in the Nevada desert, a great monumental series of abstract forms, equates the erosive force of centuries— the blunting of ruins and grand residues of past societies—with the explosive force of the present. He makes clear that Complex One is situated close to a nuclear blast site, and that its angled front wall is designed to serve as a blast shield, deflecting the power of a nuclear bomb." Heizer's elemental forms collapse time into a view colored by a millennial, almost apocalyptic sense of the present.  Lap Steel Mix: