Recamouflage 1/2/3
Notes On "Recamouflage 1/2/3"
https://soundcloud.com/user-596493783/sets/recamouflage
Recamouflage 1: Lying On The Beach (with Mirjam Keijnemans)
Recamouflage 2: Identity
https://soundcloud.com/user-596493783/recamouflage2
Recamouflage 3: Old School
https://soundcloud.com/user-596493783/recamouflage3In collaboration with Mirjam Keijnemans, we release “Recamouflage 1: Lying On The Beach (with Mirjam Keijnemans).”
FURICO developed two other instrumental versions from the track: “Recamouflage 2: Identity” and “Recamouflage 3: Old School.” (We call them Ver 1, 2 and 3, respectively.) All these three versions are based upon the identical song but have completely different concepts. Versions 2 and 3 are instrumental, not karaoke at all.
Track Data
Composition tool: MuseScore, Studio One 4 ProfessionalRecording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 111 (Ver 3), 97 (Ver 2), 99(Ver 1)
Sound source: PresenceXT, ImpactXT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period: 5 October 2019 - 7 November 2019
[Background]
When TI commented on a song that Andrew Doyle collaborated with Mirjam Keijnemans, TI started to interact with her and we would collaborate. Various ideas spread from there, and it is this trilogy.
The original song (“Lying On The Beach”) that she created was a simple song based on orthodox jazz manners. Her non-effect voices and songs were very attractive.
She sent us only the vocal part of the song, and we started it in the form of creating a back track.
[Production Process]
We started by eliminating the elements of the original song other than vocals. (If you just “remake” the original song, we don't need to do so.)
To match her non-effects voice, we added various overtones and structures to create harmony. This is the basis of Version 1 (“Recamouflage 1: Lying On The Beach (with Mirjam Keijnemans) ).
However, when we let her listen to a demo-take, she said, "I can't say it's my music." Therefore, we got approval for releasing it under the name of FURICO. Thank you Mirjam! We tried some ideas by trying to expand the interesting elements of the phrase we created for the backing as FURICO's work.
As a result, the original vocal version was made into Ver 1, which was later developed into Ver 2 and 3 almost simultaneously as a trilogy.
[Arrangement]
Originally this song had three chords and was very simple, so we thought that the possibilities could be expanded by arranging it with the assumption that simple melody is intertwined with complex harmonies and counter-melodies. It was our intention to write string obligatos and counter-melodies that gave an impression far from the original song.
The Strings counter-melodies have a very complex harmonies, but each one is a very simple single-note melody, combining seven of them.
To make it difficult to understand the tonality, this time we got it go back and forth between the major and minor keys.
In order to enhance the beauty, there is a method of pursuing purity, but we like the method of mixing impurities a little intentionally.
And the tuning of each of these parts has been shifted slightly. Also, the timings and tempos of the sounds are slightly shifted.
There was a desire to create ambiguity that cannot be produced by human performance.
On Mirjam’s motif pattern of 17 bars, we created and supplemented new sections that we call “Triplet Ensemble” and “Development.”
In terms of the rhythms, the radical question was how to deal with the shuffle (or triplet) beat, which the original vocal track had. We first made the rhythms on the shuffle basis, but it was not “complex beauty,” for which we aimed this time. Then the rhythm was rebuilt from the scratch into “square” (made with quarter/eighth/sixteenth beat components).
Thus, the renewed beats are basically square with frequent stresses of triplets. It yields a unique swinging groove. We have never heard such rhythms that consist of square and shuffle, which we believe is one of the attractivenesses in these tracks.
Also, the basic rhythm has a two layers structure. One is somewhat a funk beat at (basically) 134.1 BPM, while the other is a more grooveless half-tempo one. The rhythms these two layers generate are what we’ve never heard, either.
[Mixing]
As for the heavy and noisy sound quality that flows throughout, we think that the typhoon had an overall effect. In the typhoon that was said to be the largest ever, we couldn’t go out, so we were just mixing.
Each version is particular about low-frequency movement and volume.
On top of that, Ver 3 is much drier, while 2 resonating with a low volume, and 1 was made bring out the attractiveness of vocals.
[Ver 1 Development]
The main goal was to make vocals stand out.The vocal track was created for sound effects by placing three tracks on the left, right, and center, and cutting and reversing each syllable.
It is not processed except that it is suppressed by 3db with an equalizer by about 3db, 1.8kHz, 10kHz is raised by about 6db, and expanded with Binaural Pan.
The rhythm parts are simpler (but still complex enough) as well as less patternless (but still patternless enough) than the other versions.
[Ver 2 Development]
https://soundcloud.com/user-596493783/recamouflage2This is NOT a karaoke of Ver 1.
After creating a version with one song, we started to create a version without the song, for which a question prompted us: "What would happen if this song didn't exist?"
Although it was an interesting sound, it was not “music”, so we rebuilt it on the premise that there was no song. The mix here emphasizes the bass, reverb, and delay. By adding several parts that emphasize the piano, I created a different image from both Ver1 and Ver3.
The rhythms of Ver 1 was further developed into Ver 2, as rhythms has to remain simple to some extent for vocal-centred Ver 1 and not for Ver 2. The Ver 2 rhythms were thus completely re-rebuilt. You may find them basically common but variously different.
In rebuilding the rhythms, we pursued a method of changing and optimising every two bars, meaning constructing new two bars rhythms more than 200 times.
Anyhow, all the versions are patternless. There are no places where the rhythms are completely the same.
[Ver 3 Development]
https://soundcloud.com/user-596493783/recamouflage3
Ver 3 is a more rhythm-focused version, where we re-re-rebuilt its rhythms. But it has a tight timbre and a small rhythm with a minimal number of sounds, while Ver 2 more complex rhythms with a more variety of sounds.
We started by breaking apart the elements that make up the tracks (Ver 1 and 2) and reassembling them. This emphasizes the rhythm and began to create it with a dry, heavy and tight sound like German minimal techno. Therefore, reverb is not used except for snare drums and strings.
However, we like the sound of German minimal techno, but because it is musically simple, we emphasized with harmony so as to be more “complex beauty” music.
The formation of the strings solo part in the middle part (around 3 minutes) is theoretically in the minor key, and the same key major sound is put in.
As a part of the FURICO style, we usually go back and forth around the border between human and mechanical rhythms and intend NOT to make them neither VERY human nor VERY mechanical. But Ver 3 is presumably our first attempt to form “very mechanical” rhythms. Having said that, it’s far from the traditional “very mechanical” rhythms.
Generally speaking, the traditional mechanical rhythms, intentionally or unintentionally, aim at the grooveless groove, at times emphasising the speed and preciseness. It’s NOT the rhythms of these three tracks. Just for instance, the traditional mechanical rhythms use eighth- or sixteenth-note high hats just because the human plays like those, but Ver 2 and 3 very often use dotted-eighth high hats with triplets in order to make grooves only the machines can play.
Thanks for reading and listening. We hope you to have fun.