TNES

A never-ending musical patchwork

[theneverendingsymphony]

Reading through a short biography on Alice Prin was a sobering experience...her life seemed to epitomize the bittersweet feeling of fame come and gone.  It seemed like Alice didn’t know how to function once the public attention and limelight had faded...  It all feels quite similar to the struggles of Hollywood stardom. I felt like writing something dark in response, please enjoy.

Michael Boateng

Listen to the full Movement 5 mix here

[theneverendingsymphony]

Howdy all!

This movement has us taking inspiration from Alice Prin, which of course brings us to Paris.

Ahhh Paris!

My personal experience in Paris involves questionable music venues and sweaty cheese out the back of a hot van which we were in for over ten hours just to miss soundcheck after sleeping in a barn prior to playing a concert for a bunch of cows.. But that morning I learned how to make an excellent cup of instant coffee!

So this piece represents how I hear what I feel when I think about putting my thoughts into sound while imagining what Paris must have felt like back in the 20s in the morning on a good day while drinking a delicious cup of coffee!

Enjoy!

-Clyde

Listen to the movement 5 mix here!

[michaeljohnmollo-deactivated201]

The Never Ending Symphony | Movement 5 | Minute 1

There are times when I think I may have been born in the wrong time. Don’t get me wrong, I dig being a child of the 80s. But sometimes I think maybe I should have been around for Woodstock, or seen Charlie Parker play in Kansas City. And there’s always been something about the 1920s thats attracted me, not only musically but stylistically, even spiritually.

For me, Paris in the 20s takes this concept to a whole other level. Think about it, you’ve got Hemingway, Picasso, Stravinsky, even Salvador Dali.  So many artistic minds flourishing in the city at that time. The first world war was over and beyond all the great accomplishments of the men listed above, there was an undoubted feminine emancipation taking over the city. This leads me to Alice Prin.

Prin was equal parts artist, surrealist, exhibitionist and most importantly a symbol of bohemian culture that epitomizes Pairs in the 20s. In my mind, she embodies beauty and simplicity as well as grit and complexity. For some reason when I think of Alice Prin those words don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

I’m happy to have Alice Prin as an inspiration for this first section of the 5th movement of The Never Ending Symphony. Check out all the symphony has to offer. https://soundcloud.com/the-never-ending-symphony

-MJM-

[theneverendingsymphony]

I have a lot of guilty pleasures in my life and one of them is cooking. I LOVE to cook and I always invent my own recipes. I used a bunch of kitchenware to experiment with my minute - most of them tools I often use when I cook: aluminum foil, the fridge, a gas gun, gas, pans, the oven, spatulas, and the stove. It was super fun writing this piece!!

- Fay C. -

Listen to the full 4th movement

[theneverendingsymphony]

Normally I’m not one for calling pleasures “guilty” (I fully support the loving of things unashamedly and unironically), but this is basically gluttony, so I suppose guilt should probably apply.

I love eating baked goods, so much. And almost more than that, I love baking them. I spent an entire summer once trying to develop the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, and gave away dozens upon dozens of experimental cookies that I couldn’t possibly eat. I still tinker with the recipe now and then - I’m not sure it will ever be “finished” - but I have arrived at something I think is pretty amazing. That cookie in the picture is the cookie: oatmeal chocolate chip, made with both milk and 60% dark chocolate chips. Recently I started making my own flavoring extracts, so if you want experimental desserts NOW IS THE TIME TO BECOME MY FRIEND.

Anyway, this is about music, right? Right. A while back I picked up a sample library called Monster Cookie Tins, which is exactly what it sounds like. This movement was the perfect opportunity to poke around and learn its secrets. So here’s my homage to cookies! I hope you like it.

Listen to all of Movement 4 here

[theneverendingsymphony]

Howdy all!

So our guest Andrew Kroepel ended his piece with one of those chords that takes a degree to pronounce, which I always appreciate, but I thought "where do I go from here?". Then I remembered the theme of this movement was guilty pleasures and the answer was way obvious. Old school nintendo music! What do I consider the most musical guilty pleasure in video games? That would be old school 8bit Mega Man music. Perfect!

I can't get enough of it. Throw in some distortion guitar, cheesy synth drums and Mountain Dew and I had myself a guilty pleasure Pi(e)! <--- (I count at least 3 more guilty pleasures in that last sentence alone! One of them is constant! and others are probably misspelled with incorrect grammar!)

Enjoy!

-Be Excellent to Each Other!

Clyde

Listen to the 4th movement of the Never-Ending Symphony

[theneverendingsymphony]

One of my guilty pleasures is being absolutely absurd. I never have taken music seriously, but I practice my art in a very serious manner.  When hearing nearly all of the music that occurred before my entry, it seemed that there was a serious (at times "Hans Zimmer-esque") quality to the music. I knew I had to deviate and lighten up the mood.

The audience places quite a bit of trust in the composer and I love taking advantage of that (another guilty pleasure of mine).  From Levi’s minor mode, I started with a very ethereal sound to bait the audience into thinking we were going to continue in a serious direction. From my serious entry, I switched into a major key and turned the piece into a quirky jazz trio.  I hope you enjoy!

-Andrew Kroepel

Listen to the 4th movement of the Never-Ending Symphony

[theneverendingsymphony]

"I wasn’t planning to stay for very long”

- Levi Taylor

Listen to the 4th movement of the Never-Ending Symphony

[theneverendingsymphony]

I have always been interested in the crossing over of genres and I wanted to explore that in my composition. I transitioned from Cara’s composition by continuing in an overall orchestral style but used certain delays, filters and other effects to return to the “electronica” styles that were present in her piece.

-Andrew Reid

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I know Michael had mentioned he almost expected someone to go to something more orchestral after his minute, but I suppose I was still reeling from our electronic movement, and I wanted to explore more.

I decided to kind of juxtapose a sappy, melodramatic string pad that you might hear in, say, a bad reality TV show, and out of that comes this bombastic, bass-in-your-face, sidechain-compressed house mix. Not that it’s necessarily house music, but it was inspired by that feeling you get when you feel the bass rattling your sternum and you just gotta move.

So, I got Ableton 9 and had my way with it. I won’t bore you with the details of what I did, but have you ever had that “holy shit I just did this awesome thing with my computer” kind of moment? It happened a lot while working with Ableton, so this minute was both a learning experience and a chance to share my guilty pleasures. My other guilty pleasure is taking someone else’s work and kind of messing with it...but respectfully. I so loved what Michael did that I grabbed some of his track and did some cool reversing and delay effects. I also might have abused a limiter...GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY.

I was also super stoked to pass this minute off to a guest of TNES. Check back next week for our first guest minute!!

~Cara

Click here to listen to the whole movement 4 mix!

[theneverendingsymphony]

I have a problem with the concept of “guilty pleasures”.  Why must we create a complex out of visceral and unavoidable enjoyment?  I am from the Dave Grohl school of thinking:

“I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you like something, like it. That’s what’s wrong with our generation: that residual punk rock guilt, like, “You’re not supposed to like that. That’s not fucking cool.” Don’t fucking think it’s not cool to like Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” It is cool to like Britney Spears’ “Toxic”! Why the fuck not?....That’s who I am!” Mr. Grohl aside, divulging “Guilty Pleasures” makes for a juicy and liberating movement theme, so...

Guilty pleasures as they appear in my track in order of relevance...

Starting too many projects....

Slamming electronica

Late night gaming

Late 80s, early 90s cop kitsch

Abusing limiters

“Hero Cop” is the name of a platformer my friend Matt and I have started creating. My contribution to the movement is the theme to our infant game.   You can see Mr. Cop in my Soundcloud track pic.  

Can’t you just imagine his rugged chest hair blowing in the breeze?

P.S.

TNES is evolving! Movement 4 is the first to include GUESTS!! 

From now on it won’t just be the voices of Audio Adroit you hear, but the voices of musicians from across the globe!

-Mike

[theneverendingsymphony]

My minute was inspired by space. The theme for our 3rd movement this week was electronic music - perfect timing!!

The mysteries of outer space always amaze me: The aliens, black holes, electromagnetic radiation, gravity, the Milky Way, planets, ridiculous temperatures - etc. Who knows what is out there...

- Fay Chalermisrachai - 

Listen to the TNES movement 3

[theneverendingsymphony]

You hear from a lot of people that their teen years were miserable. I guess I got lucky, because I remember having the time of my life (my parents - probably not so much).

I wouldn't trade my current life for anything, but the one thing I wish I could bring back is how carefree I felt. Yes, there was responsibility of school work, music practice, etc, but let's be honest - it's nothing compared to "adult" life.

And of course there were Summers… In Summer I would escape the cold and darkness of the Arctic and go stay with my Grandma in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Also Summer was the time I got to spend with my best friend. And the times we had!

One of the most anticipated and exciting Summer events in Klaipeda is the Sea Festival. I don't know if it's still the same, but back then it felt like the most magical time. There were events all over town for several days with float parades, performances, music, arts, and dancing. There were people everywhere, and the party would continue late into the night with several outdoor dance parties. We would get together with a bunch of friends and venture out looking for fun, or trouble, or both. Somehow we even managed to convince our Grandmas to stay out late on those nights.

Just look at us, two party animals!

(Note the little stickers on sunglasses. We had no clue you were supposed to take them off (sorry, Julia) :))

When I sat down to write my minute, I just wanted to write a dance piece. But listening to it now, I am reminded of Klaipeda, Summer, Sea Festival, and being out all night with my best friend without a care in the world. - Anastasia Devana Listen to the full third movement of the Never-Ending Symphony here.

[theneverendingsymphony]

One of the great joys in my professional life has been to work on an indie video game called “Billy Saves the World.” When it came time to create my minute for TNES I was in the middle of a deadline week for the game and so, this minute is very inspired by “Billy Saves the World” and the team of people that I’ve been privileged to work with.  The musical score for the game is largely electronic music, drawing from many influences.  Given the the flavor of this movement, it was great opportunity for two labors of love to meet.  TNES, meet BSTW!

Please enjoy minute 6 of movement 3!

Listen to the full third movement of the Never-Ending Symphony here.

[theneverendingsymphony]

This was one of those “late night compositions”. Cool lights and mountain dew fueled this one. 

I used lots of orchestral sounds loaded with distortion and various effects to emulate an electric guitar, (I also used an electric guitar.. but only about a third of the guitar sounds are guitar, and about a fifth of the non-guitar sounds are as well...)  

This piece sort of reminds me of a robot dinosaur accordion. Not a really old accordion.. but a robotic accordion/dinosaur hybrid. And I think that about sums it up for the most part.  

[theneverendingsymphony]

So for this movement’s theme, we decided to do an all-electronic movement, which was very exciting for me.  I’ve been dying to play more with this Alesis Micron synth that I have.  Little did I know that I’d use it exclusively for this track.

I wish I knew Ableton like I do now -- this track might have been completely different!  But I still liked playing with various textures and moving lines and how they could kind of talk to each other or dance around each other.

I’ll take any title suggestions you have...

~Cara B.

Listen to the full third movement of the Never-Ending Symphony here.

[theneverendingsymphony]

I quite enjoyed the opportunity to play around with the Massive plugin for this electronic themed movement.  A fun experiment!  

-Michael B.

Listen to the full 3rd Movement (so far) here!