"art" composer in a strange land ... needs your ad

[tuz]

seems to me like you're still sculpting yourself rachmiel. when you're finished, hope that when people listen to your music, they'll know it's you every time; whether or not they like it. lead the way to the new road, whereever that may be. the question is, what can you do with that single dot of sound that we all use? invent.

[ouroboros]

pendle=idmonster! Glad to see you here:
as a very latecomer to all this electronic music stuff, "My Human Side" was one of those first tracks I heard that made me think, "wow, there are whole worlds of music out here.

Thanks.

[ouroboros]

rachMiel,
Here is a link to an article about a book, "The Burden of the Past on the English Poet" which addresses the problem of convention and genre. The article is an interesting response to a good book, and seems to apply here, too. (Insert music for poetry). Hope it is at least entertaining:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/01/s ... ssion.html

[Phattlippz]

A few suggestions (sorry if they have already been suggested!):

1. find some musicians to collaborate with - preferably ones that don't have your background/skillset. Try to do a project together...see if that adds something to what you're doing.

2. listen to a bunch of music that you consider to be popular, and/or going down a path you'd like to go. Really absorb it--listen intently for several weeks or more. See if that doesn't start to influence your writing.

3. Play your music for people whose opinions you respect and find out if there's ANYTHING about the music that is detracting to your goal. You may not be aware of mixing problems, etc.

4. Completely shed all of your academic training, any viewpoints which may have been foisted on you by musical snobs etc. You may need to un-learn a lot of bad mental habits.

[pendle]

pendle=idmonster! Glad to see you here:
as a very latecomer to all this electronic music stuff, "My Human Side" was one of those first tracks I heard that made me think, "wow, there are whole worlds of music out here.

Thanks.

thats very kind of you to say.

it all kinda proves my "punk" theory though, all the early idmonster stuff was made at a time when affordable computing and the ability to load your stuff onto an mp3.com or something similar suddenly made being a solo musician very very exciting.
At that time ( god 5 or six years ago ) i was burning with ideas and excitement about the whole process of making music, there where lots of new ways of doing things , lots of great new sounds to make AND you could easily get your stuff across the world merely by uploading it onto the interweb.
We have now perhaps reached a saturation point where there is SO much music out there already in every possible form/format/genre that the thrill of being involved in something fresh and slightly groundbreaking is less obvious.
Its all very well making music for the sake of making music, and frankly i go a bit bonkers if i don't make some kind of racket on a daily basis, but music is a two way thing , it needs someone to hear it to exist.
I think if anything we need a music cull now or an amnesty or something that clears the ground so we can all start again and be excited again.


blimey

[Barnadine]

Interesting stuff. I'm absurdly pop these days, but I can see parallels with your story.

Perhaps you're paying too much attention to the rigid conservatives in both camps: the professors in your head holding you back with talk of 'dumbing down', and the one-eyed genre fans who are nervous of anything that deviates from their particular norm.

I would suggest that the meeting ground between the accessible and the challenging is actually an inspiring place to be, and populated by far more listeners than you think.

however, i resist (very strongly) creating pieces that are in a certain popular style/genre, because for me the highest good is composing one's *self* (and no individual self fits into any genre).

This attitude looks good on paper, but I wonder if it's ultimately productive. For one thing, it fixes attention on uniqueness at the expense of self-expression. Worrying about where you fit in the world of genres doesn't seem to me to be the healthiest starting point for composition. Denying oneself an avenue of self-expression for fear it may be seen as generic or (eek!) popular is as pointlessly restrictive as holding back from difficult, challenging self-expression for fear it may alienate. Undue concern with avoiding genre may in fact retard uniqueness.

Besides, I'd argue that the idea of 'genreless music' is largely mythical and meaningless. Avoid cliche, sure, but all music, however wilfully obscure, uses some shared vocabulary.

Genres seem to me just arbitrary names we give to the more well-populated paths. You say no individual self fits into any genre, but isn't a genre just a group of individual selves who happen to be walking in a similar direction? Hacking a new path through the jungle is often necessary to get where you want to go (not to mention exhilarating), but is the act of hacking alone inherently superior?

I suppose there are two ways to look at finding your own voice. You can pare away all outside influence and hone a distinctive sound, or you can roll around in all sorts of music and let your unique voice emerge naturally from the mess. I love composers of both stripe, but the latter path seems to me less fragile, and avoids all this second-guessing and panic about genre. What's natural to you sticks, what doesn't falls away.

I dunno.

[pw]

Rachmiel, I haven't read every post here, but let me just say a few things.

- genre is inavoidable- the human mind has a strong tendency (universal?) for classificatory schema.

- I love your music, listening and downloading now, but I already had quite a good idea of how it would sound before even clicking a link- not just from your list of heroes, but from the aesthetic of the website and the texts accompanying the downloads...genre at work.

- perhaps it is indeed an irreconcilable dilemma you face- mostly because if you could make other, more popular music, you probably already would have.

All the best.

[FaX]

Just been d'loading some of your material.
A bit from each group.
Very interesting material overall.
I cannot really add alot to what has been added here.
For what it is worth here is my advice.
There are element's in all styles on your site that I like for various reasons.
Find out what the strong points are in each style.
ie: Be it beat driven , atonal , ambient , boolean , improvisational , experiments in canon , dual cannon or mirrored counterpoint or what ever else floats your boat.
You have some truly beautiful moments in many of these compositions.
I think you need to capture the spirit of each in one unifying style for want of a better term/idea.
Also to reach a wider audience you need to be a little more discerning.
The average listener is actually never going to ask as much of your music as you would yourself.
You're an abviously intense, analytical and forward thinking individual.
However you need to reign in your conceptual focus and communicate more effectively through that paradigm.
At the moment alot of it is "head" music from where I sit if I was to be brutally honest.
The soul is a subset of both the physical body and the psyche (mind) the emotional and the spiritual.
To reach a wider audience I feel you need to be prepared to communicate through all of those elements simultaneously .
Most music that truly moves me interacts on all levels either consciously or subconciously.
It moves me body and soul.
It doesn't just appeal to my intellect or my need for primal rythm or my passion for the emotive.
Work on a concept of unifying these theories into a workable "whole" that balances those elements effectively and I am sure you will reach a much wider audience.
You are incredibly articulate I might add.
Infact your communication via written word is very concise and focused.
It even display's the intellect , passion , soul and physical paradigms I am trying to articulate here.
In essence be as direct and honest as you are when writing , when composing and focusing on any given piece.
There is great beauty in you.
In all honesty you just have to be brave enough to be willing to communicate it.
I want fragility , I want subtlety , I want desire and passion and fear and loss and all those wonderful emotions that make life the incredible experience that is expressed in your own musical language.
Invite me in but be willing and brave enough to bare all.
IMHO it is our imperfection as individuals that makes us perfect.
A contradiction I know but an area I think you need to explore compositionally.
Very few artists can move me on that level.
Bach sure as hell can - he can almost make me feel at one with the divine.
I suppose I never show much of my own material because as an electrnic composer that is what I strive for myself.
At the moment I feel rather lost and don't know which direction I should go in.
I find it hard to be brave enough and strong enough to "give" that much of myself artisticly.
To me it feels a bit like standing naked in a room full of strangers where each one can scrutinise your every fault .
And now I'm rambling and going of on a tangent.
You have however inspired me to give myself a creative kick in the pants.
I've been in somewhat of a slump as of late.
Good luck with your creative endeavours and may you find the voice you truly desire.

PS: I might add you are the ONLY Reaktor ens. dev who has a dedicated folder in my somewhat humble Reaktor library. I would just like to thank you for sharing all your wonderful creations with us.

PPS: And now I feel slightly embarassed for revealing more of myself than I would have liked in a single post on an internet forum.
Cest la Vie I guess.
If it helps inspire you then it's been worthwhile.

Cheers and Best of luck.
FaX.

[very angry mobster]

hey rachmiel,

after reading this thread, your idm thread, some of your articles and listening to some of your music.

i think you need to find some other people to work with, maybe not as musical collaborators, but people to regularly play/organise gigs with. it could help with feeling isolated musically.


vam

[vurt]

PS: I might add you are the ONLY Reaktor ens. dev who has a dedicated folder in my somewhat humble Reaktor library. I would just like to thank you for sharing all your wonderful creations with us.

i think NI may as well add a default "rachmiel" folder

[krank]

This thread has me excited - it's always interesting to come across other smart, educated people that struggle with the need to maintain soul/honesty/integrity.

I will write a longer post later.