Cedar Rain

[Balder]

A couple months ago, I told Lol I was planning to purchase a mixer for my computer so I could improve the quality of the songs / videos I was making.  I finally purchased one, and this is my first attempt -- a meditative song using my cedar flute and the sound of a spring thunderstorm.

 

[UPDATE:  View my latest revision of the video below here: Cedar Rain (Revised).]

 

 

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[kelamuni]

and raven said, moon has not been with us for some time, wolf...

wolf said, moon has been captured by the green people that come from the sky..

and so raven and wolf set out to find moon...

[kelamuni]

nice playing, buddy.

i would slow the tempo down though if the point is meditation or relaxation. otherwise its background music to raven and wolf type material. hahaha. just a suggestion. l like it though.

[kelamuni]

maybe you could write childrens stories using flora and fauna from the american northwest, and have some buddhist moral incorporated into each story ala aesop. yer son could act as a consultant. then you could use this music and yer own art work as background. youd hafta find some crusty 1st nations dude to narrate them though.

[kelamuni]

... and so raven and wolf discovered that moon dwelt within their own hearts all along. just as when you walk along a path at night, and it appears as if the moon follows you the whole time, so does moon dwell in the heart of all creatures... the hazy moon of enlightenment.

(enter cedar flute...)

 

[Hertzschuch]

Beautifull Balder.

 

Sinchronystically....I also bought a mixer last week. And did this peace...LOL

 

 

[Balder]

Not a bad idea, Kela!  Although you might be pulling my leg, at least with some of the details (!), my son actually would be a good go-to guy for feedback on such a project.  The other week, we finished the book I was reading to him (for his nightly bedtime story) and hadn't picked up a new one, so I grabbed a book of "Coyote Tales" from my shelf and read him a couple, not sure if he would relate to them (as a Star Wars / Wii-generation kid), and he actually really enjoyed them and every now and then asks for more.

About the song, I wasn't actually trying to create meditation music per se, but my wife had said when she listened to it that it relaxed her and gave her a feeling of traveling far in her mind, out to the valleys around her family home in Nepal, so I described it as 'meditative.'  But it's pretty similar to other New Age Amerindian flute music, so I agree -- it's really better suited as a background to stories about Tricksters, magical crows, and medicine wheels.  :-)

[Balder]

Thank you, Patrick.  That's a nice synchronicity!  And the song you created is lovely.  Who is doing the vocals? 

Your arrangement is definitely more ambitious than anything I've ventured yet, but you've inspired me -- I think I'll play around some more with the samples built in to the program...

If you make any more, please consider sharing them here!

[Hertzschuch]

Thanks Bruce,

 

I've started using garageband which is a very light version of cubase for Mac. I kind of made this song to discover the program. I have a keyboard and I plug it in on the mac, but I'm not much of a keyboard player. I also plug my guitars, and off I go. I sang the melody myself and a girlfriend of mine came by and picked it up. Her voice is nice. So then I erased my voice.

It's a lot of fun to do these things. I will certainly do more songs...my stay here on earth is quite dull if I'm not engaged in some sort of project.

 

As for your song, I think that Stephan Micus is a good example of what one can do with a flute and some conceptual background. I would advise you to do your sample yourself, if you use some. It's more fun. Personally I do all sorts of crazy stuff, like recording water from the tap, to making strange noise in my kitchen. Then I use these sounds on the computer and treat them.

I'm waiting for your next tune,

P.

 

[Balder]

Patrick -- nice work; that's a pretty successful first experiment.  I was basically doing the same thing: trying to take my new mixing software out for a spin, to see what she could do. 

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of Micus' work.  I first got attracted to it when I was doing just this sort of thing with some rustic and homemade folk and "world" instruments at home years ago, and I found that Micus was already doing this very beautifully and skillfully.  I was using a rented 8-track mixing board at the time, turning windchimes and pots and such into xylophones and percussion instruments and laying down multiple tracks as background for my flute or dulcimer playing.

I really don't have lots of time for this now -- I postponed grading 35 student papers for a few hours while I messed around with my flute and my new mixing software (MusicMaker 17) -- but it's fun and I am glad to at least be dipping into it again.  I definitely would like to do more material in the vein of Micus' work.

All the best,

Bruce

[Hertzschuch]

Same thing here, Bruce. i used to mess around with an 8 track 20 years ago. Now the computer software change things dramatically.

 

My main problem are drums, or drum tracks. There's also the technological problem that what you do can sound good and so I get directed by the machine, instead of having a project in my mind, working it out, and making the machine do what I want.

 

Jarod Lanier, discusses in some of his articles, this phenomenon, i.e. how the tools we have constrict our creativity and define it. I find that is quite true regarding the sounds data base that we get with the computers. So, in the futur, I'll try as much as possible to create my own sounds. I'm really considering buying some good microphones. One for singing and another to record environmental sounds and noises. 

I knew you had listenned to Micus as you posted once some of his work, but I wasn't aware of the intensity of the connection between the two of you. Your music and approach is deeply meditative or conducive to imagining. I truly hope you can find the time to do more of it.

I'm also thinking a lot these days about creating music that support images or stories, like w'ere talking  in the other thread. It's slowly taking shape in my mind, but seems quite a difficult endeavour. 

It seems very important for my balance at the moment to do some artistic activity (wether the outcome is called art or not is a debate I wouldn't get in). It seems a good way to express some of my inner content. 

 

P.

 

 

[Balder]

I've done some revision and remixing to my "Cedar Rain" song and have made a new video to accompany it.  (Just now, seeing Kela's comments here again, I realize I should have included some raven and wolf images in addition to the Kokopelli images at the beginning and end).

 

[Davidu]

Loved this.  Bruce, you're really getting good!