Blanket Of Moss / Gate Of Moss
Notes On "BLANKET OF MOSS" & "GATE OF MOSS"
"Blanket Of Moss" (by SuZanne Ledwith)
TRACK DATA
Composition tool: MuseScore 3, Studio One 5 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 5 Professional
Number of tracks: 23
Sound source: Vocal By SuZanne Ledwith, Impact XT, Sample One (All built-in sound sources of Studio One
Composition and Recording period: Aug 27 2022 - Sep 21 2022
"Gate Of Moss"
TRACK DATA
Composition tool: MuseScore 3, Studio One 5 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 5 Professional & Studio One 6 Professional
Number of tracks: 34
Sound source: Our existing compositions, Impact XT, Sample One (All built-in sound sources of Studio One)
Composition and Recording period: Aug 27 2022 - Oct 3 2022 (Final Mix: Dec 27 - 28)
Concept: 2nd Attempt of "Gating" Concept
(TM writes:)
The pieces named "Blanket Of Moss" and "Gate Of Moss" are the second attempt of the "gating" concept, which I explain in the notes on the track called "Pebbles In The Garden" made in collaboration with ANSOUND:
“Imagine you are in an airplane. While you open the windshield, you can see the outside view. Whereas the view is originally successive, I mean, it’s like flowing without any break, you can control how to show it to yourself by opening and closing the windshield. Once you control irrelevant sounds this way, it tends to sound quite differently...
“it would be equally effective if you used a completely different piece as a sample. I put this experiment late in this work by opening/closing the windshield (which I call “gating”) from the outside, meaning two different pieces – having a completely different tempos and completely different musical context (ie, the tonality, key, scale or whatever it may be)…”
What I have developed from the late section in the track with ANSOUND is this “Moss” series. The composition I made is just to design the rhythm with the percussion and samples, and nothing else. Instead of writing phrases and constructing harmonies, I just specified what sounds to use as samples.
In terms of the samples, what I have intended to do this time is to use my favourite sounds in the alternative versions of FMT’s works as follows:
- Synthesiser in “Dream Interpretation”
- Synthesiser in “Somewhere I've never been”
- Synthesiser in “Landfill Changes”
- Synthesiser in “Me And My Shadow - Home Version”
- Synthesiser in “Goals For The Trio: Superfluous”
- Synth Organ in “How I Like To Align My Things: Still Playing”
- Synth Bass in “Mood Of Five: Prototype”
- Synth Strings in “Ascending Stairs: Downtempo”
- Noises and Strings in “Saint-Germain-En-Laye: Acoustics”
So, with more than 10 tracks (in different tempos and scales) that contain the sounds as above are played in parallel (as if the view were flowing), the MIDI signal I “composed” at a particular tempo directs the “gating.” The tentative title during the production was, thus, “Signal Percussion.”
It was quite interesting that I heard what the music was like only after TI sampled and played all of them. What I heard then was very different from what I had expected while composing it. This piece is all about such a purely musical experiment and that's especially how "Gate Of Moss" was made. But, that's NOT it.
After the whole image was mostly built, TI added SuZanne’s vocal track, which was totally amazing and I wonder why is fit that perfectly. That’s the vocal version called “Blanket Of Moss.” (But "Blanket..." was released first, while "Gate..." was later.)
Additionally, this work and later released "Pebbles In The Garden" are like a pair. Both of these two pursue the "Gating" concept and contain the same sound in the background: the rain sound. It's used in the way it was in "Pebbles..." while "gated" in Blanket Of Moss." Later, gating is applied in "Spa Music" as well.
An interesting thing is that the rain sound, or strictly speaking, the sound of rain hitting an umbrella occurs randomly and if you gate it at a certain rhythm sometimes it doesn't sound, sometimes it's "double-stroked", and it never sounds in the same way. SuZanne said she saw a black umbrella, but actually I recorded it with a transparent one when it started to rain in the darkness at around 1am.
The title of "Blanket Of Moss" was named by SuZanne, which I like very much, and afterwards, I altered it for the other version to "Gate Of Moss."
(TI writes:)
My own conception of this track is that I see it as a digital version of the classic hip-hop production process. I consider the structure of this track to be the very way early hip-hop was made (assembled from phrases and tones of existing tracks) (however, it is impossible in early hip-hop to assemble a track by removing sounds from a multi, because it is impossible if the artist cannot provide a multi-track from his side (this is not possible in early hip-hop).
Another classic hip-hop DJ technique is the Transformer Scratch, in which the rhythm is created by switching the mute on and off (i.e. by turning the turntable and turning the mute button on the amp or mixer on and off, or by turning the fader up and down).
It is also inspired by the "kin-tsugi chawan" in Japanese ceramics.
https://intojapanwaraku.com/craft/80546/
In Japan, there was originally a custom called 'kin-tsugi', in which broken pottery was repaired and used, and 'yobitsugi' is a development of this custom, in which a new piece of pottery is created by joining pieces of completely different pottery to the broken pottery.
When I first heard hip-hop, I thought, 'Oh, this is a musical version of yobitsugi chawan'.
There is an anecdote that Oribe Furuta (a 16th century Japanese potter, one of the founders of the tea ceremony and a feudal lord) went to the trouble of creating a 'yobitsugi chawan' (tea bowl) by creating a new piece of pottery, breaking it open, taking it apart and creating another piece.
As an aside, despite his efforts in the 17th century to establish the regime of the time, Furuta Oribe was executed shortly after the establishment of that regime for leading a plot to overthrow it. (This man may have had something like a desire to "destroy what he had completed himself"）.
Gate Of Moss: Purely conceptual
(TM writes:)
Later in December 2022 an alternative version called "Gate Of Moss" was released, which doesn't contain SuZanne's vocal and does highlight the gating. While "Blanket..." was released in her page on SoundCloud, "Gate..." was in FMT's.
Even though "Gate Of Moss" was made on the same base as "Blanket Of Moss," I would like to emphasise that these two are very different. It's not just that "Gate..." has no vocal. It poses a question of "what is a musical context?" An illusionary context was put with SuZanne's vocal in "Blanket..." but what "Gate..." is saying is that that's just an illusion. It's well along the concept of reconstructing completely differently with the method of gating.
Production Process: Mute On & Off for 1 Week
(TI writes:)
The origins of this track have already been explained by TM, but the actual programming of the Mute On and Off was very time-consuming and took roughly a week.
This is because, in order to input the information for a single note, you have to input the timing of the sound (when to press the Mute switch), the length of the sound (how long to hold down the Mute switch) and the timing to stop the sound (when to release the Mute switch), one by one.Some parts had to be entered an average of 40 times per bar.
If the pattern is somewhat fixed, you can use copy and paste to reduce the number of steps, but FMT tracks are pattern-less, so you end up typing in more parts by hand, one by one.
Mixing
(TI writes:)
Naturally, there are no main phrases, harmonies or basslines, as the music is created by splicing together parts of various pieces of music.
Therefore, it is necessary to 'imagine' each of the component sounds as something.
This act of 'imagine' (comparing it to something else) is also a very important act in the 'tea ceremony', and is a part of the tea party organiser's sense that is tested.
In this piece, the bass drum of the rhythm machine (TR808 sample) is imaged as the bass in the rhythm track, and the low frequencies of the BD of the 808 are organised to create a rhythmic combination by emphasising the attack of the BD of another regular drum set.
Since the 808 BD is used as a bass line, the gate time is not set like normal percussion, and to avoid leaving it ringing, the attack timing as well as decay and sustain levels are adjusted, and the notes are firmly aligned to the length of the notes as designed by TM, and in some places SineWave is used to add heavy bass.
This also has a hip-hop and dub feel to it.
The mastering is slightly higher in sound pressure to match the rest of SuZanne's music. There are fewer notes, and we thought it would be easier to listen to the tracks with a stronger compression than normal FMT tracks in order to make them sound more stable.
However, as a result, the number of notes is low and the peaks are consistent throughout the whole track, so there is not much compression applied to the master. I think the original shape and dynamics of the waveforms came out beautifully.
For the vocals, a compressor is only lightly applied to stabilise the sound, but not in such a way that the sound quality changes overtly. For volume adjustment, I manually adjust the volume of the waveforms (this was not possible in the analogue recording era, but nowadays it is possible to make detailed adjustments to the waveforms themselves).
Perfectly Fit SuZanne's Vocal
(TI writes:)
This vocal is the first take sung by SuZanne for 'Saint-Germain-En-Laye' on 'LIVE'.
(A completely different version was used on the same track on LIVE (the original take on her release 'Somewhere I've Never Been')).
This time, when I was working on 'Signal Percussion', I suddenly thought of it, and when I put it together, it sounded perfect, so I gave it to SuZanne and TM to listen to.
The reason I came up with the idea was the 'rain sound' I used for percussion on this track (it's the Zitter-Noise that plays throughout the track).
This sound (Zitter-Noise) is the 'sound of rain' that TM recorded at home. So if you listen carefully, you can hear insects and other sounds.
I remembered the words 'Blanket Of Moss' that she sang to this sound of rain, and I tried to match it with it, and it fits. In the middle part, where there is only the sound of the rain, I matched her voice without any effectors or equalisation.
The only edited parts are the ambient noise that has nothing to do with the track and the timing of the start of the track. Other than that, I didn't touch anything else. I didn't change the tempo information, and I didn't adjust the key.
Equalisation and compression are minimal and natural, and only very basic delay and reverb effects are applied. In some places there is no equalisation, compression or anything else.
When I first played it to her, she asked, "How did you edit it? What effects are you using?" I didn't do anything at all. The parts that sound like effects are also her own singing, so it is truly SuZanne's own voice and singing.
But it fits our track perfectly.
The reason for this is that, quite by coincidence, the bands of SuZanne's voice and Signal Percussion complement each other perfectly. This time our Signal Percussion has very low mid to high frequencies (due to the absence of an overt lead part), and the bandwidth of SuZanne's voice fits perfectly into this bandwidth. Also, there's no bass line or clear chords, so it fits any kind of melody.
So, although the instrumental part (Signal Percussion) and the vocals are by far the louder part, the vocals can be heard in fine detail.
And the music as a whole is nicely balanced from the bass to the treble. Therefore, the tracks can be expressed and heard well compared to backing sounds like a normal band formation.
SuZanne's verses before the ending are especially amazing. I wanted to hear these parts properly and thought I wanted to make them audible.
Matching Vocals and Instrumentation
(TI writes:)
When I was working on this track, I was reminded of the idea of backing vocals with bass and other simple noises (only) in singing (especially in recording).
At first listen, it sounds like avant-garde, but each sound sounds good, and the vocals themselves seem to make the most of their original qualities.
Recently, I have often thought that a so-called band or a guitar/piano player is not suitable as a backing for a track where you really want to hear the track and the voice. In particular, the bandwidth overlaps with common instruments (piano, guitar and other orchestral instruments) Vocal.
Of course, when performing live, it is difficult to sing without backing harmonies to recognise and support the key, but this can often make it difficult to hear the track itself.
In fact, in terms of arrangement, when vocals are added, other melodic and harmonic instruments are reduced, and the volume is also lowered in live performances.
In the mixing process, the mixing engineer must have to balance the melody and harmony instruments every time (probably 70% of the mixing problems in a normal band format are caused by this problem).
This is even more so if the leader is a guitarist or bassist. There is usually a struggle with the lack of prominence of one's own part.
I thought again that this is one way to get out of those problems and a kind of rut. Well, then the guitarist and bassist would have to find another job.
Gate Of Moss: Like a sculpture carved out of chaotic acoustics
(TI writes:)
Gate Of Moss was made in parallel with the production process of SuZanne Ledwith's release 'Blanket Of Moss' and has a similar structure, but is neither an Instrumental Version nor a Remix Version of 'Blanket Of Moss'.
Rather, 'Blanket Of Moss' is a derivative of 'Gate Of Moss'.
This version is purely an experiment in answering the question "what is a musical context?" And it is not just a musical and sonic experiment, it is also about making something that is both interesting for us to listen to and that we can continue to listen to.
For this song, we have also added different motifs from 'Blanket Of Moss'. For example, we have added cellos and brass from our piece 'Corps De Ballet Remixed', triggering other parts of the rhythm.
Gating is also extended to effects, with delays and reverbs applied to these added parts, and the On/Off information of these effect components is programmed and the rhythm is made to tick by changing the numerical data triggered by the other parts.
The sound that sounds like wind is also a phrase created by oscillating the filter of a sampler that took a phrase from 'Corps De Ballet Remixed' and sequencing the feedback of a delay applied to it. I think this can also be called one of gatings.
Therefore, this song is composed entirely of material from our already released songs, except for the rhythm. The sounds and phrases that seem to be newly created are all re-created from existing phrases, and we have only stated the concept and built accordingly, and have not added any new elements other than the rhythm.
In that sense, in this song, we are communicating in Musescore, but although there are notes on it, there is no pitch information in what they mean, what they mean is 'our previous songs used' and their 'On & Off' information.
Incidentally, if you output the musical material laid out in Studio One for this song as it is, it is just chaotic noise and does not sound at all like this piece of music, nor can it be captured as music at all.
This track could be like a sculpture carved out of chaotic acoustics.
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