Listen to the interview:
Pique Web Episode 3 – Sessions, accounts, and the PHP Anthem

Emergent Collective One

Formally known as the “community compilation CD project”, Emergent Collective One is now available for download. As detailed in the original call for submissions, this is a community effort and is quite free for those who wish to acquire a copy. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license; you may download, distribute, and make as many copies of these materials as you like, so long as you perform no modifications and retain attribution to the artists involved.

A few extra notes…

• Something you’ll notice immediately when visiting the website, is that you can view the entire booklet online as an interactive SWF. I did all the layout for the PDF version of the booklet using Adobe InDesign CS5 and it was quite simple to perform an additional export to Flash like this. Pull or click the upper corners to flip through the booklet.
• I recommend burning a copy of the release to CDR. If you’ve never had to burn a CDDA disc image before, they are distributed as a set of files (primarily BIN/CUE) which retains all track data, CD-TEXT, ISRC codes and so forth. Lots of applications can be used to burn this to CDR. I recommend ImgBurn for Windows users.
• You can download a collection of 320kbps MP3 files as well as the CDDA image.  The MP3 files heard through the web player are only 128kbps…
• The iWebTunes web player is based on the Open Source Media Framework and was authored by Lee Fernandes (also a contributor).
• Printable CD cover and tray inlay artwork is included in each download as high resolution TIF.
• The cover image is adapted from a piece of scrap-art assembled by my wife, Leslie who is also involved in the wide community of Joomla!/PHP.
• The generative thread art contained in the booklet was created using the HYPE Framework which is just so much fun to play with.
• I cannot thank our contributors enough.  Without your submissions we would have nothing.  Now that we have a finished collection on hand, I really cannot see how any one of these tracks could *not* be included. Awesome work, all around. I am thrilled with what has emerged!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who supported this effort – please continue to spread the word and support your fellow community members!

For some background, when I originally began writing “music” back in 1999, I did so in a very matter of fact and destructive manner in that I simply recorded whatever came to mind and performed a lot of additive overlay edits to the sound bed until it was what I wanted. The entire first album “August” was composed in this way. Since then, I’ve been using multi-track sequencers and a full production software suite to compose, record, and produce my music. It’s a more intellectual approach- generally a smarter approach- and certainly a less destructive method of working. However, you do lose quite a  lot of spontaneity and flow in regard to the creative process. Almost as though your mind gets in the way of the emergent expressive flow coming out of you.

The video embedded below is a short film called “Furnace”. Both the video and audio portions of the work were conceived, recorded, and produced with this free-flow method in mind. What has emerged is something rather dreamlike in its structure – but not lacking in essential elements, for all that it is.

A statement in free-flow expression: Furnace.

Equipment used:

• Adobe After Effects CS5
• Adobe Premier Pro CS5
• Adobe Soundbooth CS5
• Cakewalk Sonar Producer 8.5
• Native Instruments Kontakt 4
• Alesis QS7
• M-Audio Audiophile 2496
• Behringer EURORACK MX 602A Mixer
• Behringer XM2000S Cardoid Microphone
• Flip UltraHD
• Windows 7
• Dell XPS420

Just so you all know- I’m holding myself to the deadline as well and my submission (above) just needs a few final tweaks before July 1st has come and gone…

I never expected anyone to go out of their way and create new material for the compilation and have been floored at the amount of work others are putting into their submissions. The community is truly awesome – the expression of this fact is really the point of the entire project. I thank all of you who have submitted material. Thank you.

After July 1st, I’ll go about arranging the tracks and doing what I can to create a cohesive compilation release. A final track listing will be published as soon as I determine how things should be arranged and I may be contacting individual contributors for more information, images, or anything else that is needed in the weeks ahead.

So what about the booklet and cover art? I’ve been in talks with someone from the Joomla! community who will be collaborating with me on the cover art. The booklet will be designed by myself and made available along with the final disk images.

Thank you again. Amazing response!

What a great idea and an excellent community resource! I immediately contacted Vicky Ryder and let her know about my efforts. She was kind enough to do a quick feature on the Community CD Project and I cannot thank her enough for getting that up so quickly seeing how the submission deadline of July 1st is fast approaching!

There are a few other articles up there as of this writing, including information about Jason Levine, Matt Gifford, and Matt Legrand; with a bunch of great stuff coming up!

I encourage everyone who has something to contribute to do so- even if it’s just adding a nice comment here and there or getting the word out about this effort. I pledge my support and hope to contribute in any way I can.

Just a reminder that interested members of the community have 20 days left to submit tracks toward the Community CD Project!

You can learn more about this from my initial call for submissions and view a list of confirmed contributors and additional information at the project page.

If anyone who manages or interfaces with the various developer and designer communities out there comes across this post- please let your community members know as there are a few slots left!

One of the aspects I greatly admire about the communities I interface with (primarily Flash developers, but digital tech people of all stripes) is that there is such a diverse amount of talent, interest, and drive among these individuals. More than any other group of people I’ve come across, there seems to be an inordinate amount of developers who also spend their time doing some form of audio composition. What better way to highlight their efforts on both fronts than to put together a compilation album of their audio work along with related information and offer it to the community at large?

Ideally, I’d like to get 12-18 tracks together along with a nice digital booklet for the community. These items would be made available as a professional-grade digital download with both a full bin/cue CD-Audio image file and high-quality digital audio track versions along with printable album art and descriptive booklet highlighting the work of these talented individuals and groups.

Submissions will close on July 1^st, 2010.

If you wish to contribute and have your work included in the compilation, here are the details:

1. You must be a designer, developer, or some other tech person. This doesn’t have to be just Flash or Adobe stuff- anything goes!
2. FTP your uncompressed audio track to Fractured Vision Media servers (connection details below).
3. Include a text file with the title of the track, your name/alias, a short paragraph describing how your music effects your des/dev efforts or vice/versa – how does it all relate? Links to download/purchase your albums. Other info as deemed appropriate.
4. Include cover art for your track or some representative images.
5. This will be a freely distributed album through the Fractured Vision Media label – no money need change hands. A community effort.
6. All work will be distributed with a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Submissions Information:
By submitting materials via FTP to Fractured Vision Media, LLC – you agree to the terms laid out in this post.

FTP Username: submission@fracturedvisionmedia.com
Password: musicdev
FTP Server: ftp.fracturedvisionmedia.com
FTP Server Port: 21

Once your files have been uploaded, send a quick email to joseph{a~t}fracturedvisionmedia.com letting me know.

I know we are capable of great things on all fronts! Let’s work together to make something brilliant!

UPDATE: You can find the latest information about the project here along with an FAQ and contributor list.

Strangling Strangers is a project that I’ve tinkered with for years after coming up with alternate material at the turn of the century when developing music for Through Darkened Eyes:

i think these things i shouldn’t think
in places i shouldn’t think them
sawing off the head of a prostitute
or strangling strangers
and this pain in my side
keeps me awake at night

I’ve decided to experiment with some of these new ideas in earnest for 2010. I’m unsure on where this project might go from here… but for now- we have a demo…

The only way I can describe it right now is that Strangling Strangers is much more intense and immediate than An Early Morning Letter, Displaced. Granted, I may decide to abandon the project as soon as tomorrow, but feel free to friend/fan if this strikes you.

Visit Strangling Strangers on:

• Facebook
• MySpace

An Early Morning Letter, Displaced: Shudderflowers

2009 Fractured Vision Media

Shudderflowers reflects upon themes of fervent self-destruction and the fragility of the female mind. Tortured soundscapes pierced with the bones of shattered dreams. A nightmare concert filled with the anguished cries of broken children, delivered with a sweeping stiletto… and a whisper.

1. Shudderflowers
2. I Am Consumed
3. Fever-Drenched and Burning
4. Fearless
5. Waning Flower
6. Searching, Lost
7. Beneath White Stones
8. A Cleansing of Bones
9. Where Dead Girls Lie
10. Alice (the bones)
11. Drowning Past The Sky
12. Threadbare
13. Shudderflowers (reprise)

I want to note here a few interesting facts regarding this release:

• This is the 4th formal album from An Early Morning Letter, Displaced.
• This is the second full-length collection from that same body of work.
• The synthesizer elements were all produced via software synths. My hardware synths were only used as MIDI controllers this time around.
• As was the case for the previous release, samples were taken from violin and processed into the mix. No guitar, this time.
• A reworked version of the unreleased track She’s Fallen (2001) almost made it onto the release. It ended up going in the wrong direction and was abandoned.
• The track Threadbare is originally from the abandoned Stillborn release from 2003/2004.
• Fever-Drenched and Burning was actually composed and recorded last Winter when I was suffering from intense fever!
• The beginnings of many of the lyrics for this release were composed stream-of-consciousness on Twitter.
• An alternate version of Fearless can be found as soundtrack to the short film “The Fearless Man” 2007
• This is the first release which contains vocal material that is not solely produced by myself. Alice (the bones) and Beneath White Stones feature the additional vocals of two girls, respectively; one living, one dead†. The dead girl’s voice having been recovered from an old telephone answering machine.
• Alice (the bones) also contains samples from various sources, including the Švankmajer film “Alice”.
• The original (long) verison of Alice (the bones) was written as background noise to a Hallowe’en party.
• The cover art is adapted from a painting I completed in 2004 titled “Neck Zipper” and inspired by a sweater my girlfriend (now, wife) was fond of wearing:
  
• This may be the last physical release I produce. Sales of A Prison of Oneself were okay, but (if the numbers are any indication $$$) people seem much more interested in digital distribution… and it is certainly less of a headache for me.
• I may try something new after this. I have an additional project called Strangling Strangers that I might start working on again. Its a lot less ambient… more coarse and noise-based.
• Samples from this, and all An Early Morning Letter, Displaced releases can be found at the Myspace Music page.

I Am Consumed falls at track #2 on the new release and represents somewhat of a departure in style.

I Am Consumed
this fear consumes me
memories of long forgotten corpses
their silver blood falls to the leaves
“would my lips give you any comfort? at such a time of peril?”

consume my flesh
consume my fear
consume the desire that still burns
and extinguish my life

This fear consumes me
memories of long forgotten nights
and the petals now fallen to the earth
and the precious, still moments that will never be.

Shudderflowers is scheduled for release this month through Fractured Vision Media.