Geoffrey Armes

Just.. · 1 day ago

...busy.

Yeah, I promised a review of the SV-1 — suffice to say I’ve been playing it a lot. It’s all over January and December for example, both piano/clav sounds and the wah wah stuff. It’s a good instrument, and I mean ‘instrument’, in that it has a response and a feel that enables the player to stamp his/her unique touch. While a nod to the sounds of the seventies in particular, it’s never an exact Rhodes or Wurli or whatever, rather, to be honest, a far broader pallete to work with. An excellent electric-piano, that also models acoustic sounds very well.

More later…..

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Going Across the Floor (primarily for my Playhouse students) · 14 days ago

Briefly, where dance – a visual art – and music — aural — meet is in time – in that both art forms can be seen or heard as a way of measuring time. So when working together, it’s the confluences of time (timing) that we refer to in order to cooperate.

So for you, when there’s a six measure phrase (as we had last Friday), the first thing to do is to stop referring visually to what the other dancers ahead of you are doing (because they are most likely doing it ‘wrong’). In an ideal world you would instead feel, count, know where you were, in that maybe abstracted but none the less real world of passing time that we all inhabit.

However, in the student environment, you can lean on the musician a little more heavily. Transform your expectation of a visual cue into an audio craving. That is, if the music is phrased, then the ‘one’ of the phrase, and other salient points will be demarcated in sound, as the time alloted for each cycle of movement passes.

Eventually, hopefully in performance, music and movement can live in separate but parallel universes, as they both pass through the same time zone with their own emotional and expressive priorities that illuminate each others value — that is ‘cubing’ as it were, their shared expressive energy… but I digress to the future.

In short, dancers or movement artists, when studying, you sometimes have to remove yourselves from thinking visually and use your ears instead.

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January · 20 days ago

is a cold groove to warm your feet found here

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Other matters · 28 days ago

like flu in the family have taken privilege over my normal scribing, scratching, musing at the wonderment and stupidity of it all and, well you know, family, love, come first.

I did find a nice review up on the HEMISPHERE CD Baby page

Mr. Armes new release is a surprising developing tapestry. Elegant and transformative, Hemisphere is utterly beautiful and exciting. The tracks continuously evolve, stirring up a fresh perspective with each listen. The beats and percussion are hypnotic, as are the rich melodies that seem to weave in and out of time and space. Developing elements of World, Ambient and Dub styles all live together in unanimity, but the albums real strength is as a whole. I simply love listening to this CD and cannot recommend it enough!

The author, we are told, is one

Ali

whom I suspect of living here

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My body may be down and flailing, but my being is crystal with purpose, so listen for new developments soon soon soon.

Did you get December yet?

Also if you are on facebook, well, fan yourself under the My Band tab on my page, if for nothing else then because it then ‘fans’ me cooler and better! When I feel better I sound better. Then you’ll feel better. Promise.

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Hmm, I’ve been doing all this work where I exist in a drone or very simple harmonic structure yet feel very free to move around within it, I mean, I’ve become quite astute at finding all kinds of wriggle room that works… so now I’m drawn back to making some stuff that is a little bit more complex, yet I want to feel as free within it as I do right now in the modal stream.

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December, however · 41 days ago

can be found here

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December · 42 days ago

will leave us soon…

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Snow Country · 51 days ago

Download this song and artwork (free) here

I’m in Snow Country
A bleak holt
A black and beautiful wind
Climbs the ash and poplar sky
There is danger in the grasp
Fumbling winter’s embrace
But deep within the dells
Of a wind besieged forest
I lie warm
I’m on an island
I’m an islands type of man
Move on if I have to
Stay marooned if I can
There are towns in the south
Bamako or Dakar harbour
There are southern sailors
In the doldrums maybe
Or maybe weather a westerly
Down by Benin Bay
But I’m in Snow Country
White lands cross my eye
I’m on an island

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Notes on the Handsonic vs the Wave Drum · 57 days ago

not a soundclash though, more like a complementary harmonious relationship. Theres a lot of literature out there about how these two work, and the differences in the OS etc, so I will just talk about how that plays out in my particular corner — that is at the Playhouse, in my studio, and perhaps in future stage performances. I say ‘perhaps’ because I still haven’t defined what my role will be in whatever ensemble I go out with next year, and my Wavedrum has, as yet, to be used in such a context.

The Handsonic has a series of discreet pads, one matched per sound, and although some of these are quite expressive (responsive to velocity, different touches evoke different sounds, some even respond to palm mutes whilst striking other pads etc) they are generally simple and well defined samples. Conversely the wavedrum offers only two playing or striking surfaces, but a wider and subtler range of sounds can be found and effected according to how the player approaches those surfaces. It’s a far more personal response, much more like an acoustic instrument in that it really reflects the player’s individual touch.

The quality of sound in both, as far as I am concerned, is excellent.

I’ve recorded the handsonic extensively, and with a minimum of eq or effects fiddling found it more than usable. Certain sounds seem to have been configured just to sit in the mix well, in that although they seemed a bit crass or obvious when soloed they settled in nicely when laid against a rhythm section. Live, especially at the Playhouse it’s been a simple story, a variety of both authentic sounding and clearly the opposite samples laid out in an intuitive set makes for seamless and effortless grooving — let the hands go, they’ll find a way.

The wave drum is a deeper instrument, and in some ways might require more work when recording. I haven’t tracked it yet, but the woody, authentic nature of so many of the sounds makes me wonder if they will need some attention — thinning with eq for example — to make them sit right in the mix as they should. Nothing wrong with that, it just indicates a sonic world that is actually, in the long run a little more flexible.

The dynamic range of the Wave Drum is huge, much more than the Handsonic. My guess is that this is because the instrument is designed to accommodate hard stick and mallet flailing as well as subtle finger work (the handsonic is emphatically not for sticking)... the caveat is that at low levels the finger work can get lost, especially given that the instrument has a relatively high noise floor, including a wisp of hiss up above 12k or so. That’s a point that gets obviated when doing hard stick or mallet work, and actually this is one of the great pleasures of the instrument. Which surprised me, as I was expecting ‘just,’ a nuance filled hand-drum, and instead a wonderful range of possibility becomes apparent when I work with sticks. Different strokes reveal different sounds and combinations, and different aspects of these same sounds and combinations come to life when using say, hot rods as opposed to mallets, or indeed… plain sticks. When working solo having this kind of complexity to hand is a real help. I’ve been able to generate really driving and powerful, yet variety and colour filled grooves with this instrument. That being said, I’m also aware that there’s a lot more to explore here.

Both of these instruments are effects laden, so I’ve found it useful and relatively painless to get inside the menu and strip off, for example, the big delays (Wavedrum) and gated reverbs (handsonic) on occasion. I am not someone who enjoys searching around inside a menu, I really like to be able to pull an instrument out of its box and use the presets and indeed, spontaneously, tweak on the fly. I’ve done this successfully with both these instruments.

I’ve also found this to be eminently achievable on the new SV-1, but more about that later, let me sit with this instrument for a few more days, and then get an essay together.

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Without meaning to · 65 days ago

I seem to have become a Korg devotee. Having just picked up a Wavedrum and the R3, plus run a Triton Extreme for a few years I am now seriously looking at the new Stage Piano. In part it’s because I am still drawn to instruments and playing, rather than programming facsimiles, I mean I want a unique response from the material item in front of me sortafing, and in part because I have never got past the electric keyboard sounds that haunted the music of my adolescence — Rhodes, Wurlitzers, Clavs etc etc.

Increasingly drawn back to playing, and the idea that recording should in part, be a record of playing, at least in its core elements before starting the massage of editing, orchestrating and overdubs, a piano makes sense. It also makes sense to have a weighted keyboard at home, as practice before I face, for example, the Steinway at the Playhouse or the Yamaha in Berlin after a lengthy absence. Or even a short absence — I need to do some serious work!

I’m feeling a slight inner nudge as it were, towards becoming more of a musician/player/composer, and less of a recordist composer. Hence, piano is starting to feel like a central issue, not an ancillary colour. This new Korg sounds like a remarkable instrument in many ways. Hopefully, I’ll be on 48th street this week, testing one for myself. Can I believe the hype?

Now if only I can find an equally strong rationale for acquiring the Moog stuff as well.

Wheeler dealing and moving stuff around is definitely in order now. Watch for future entries.

Oh, and if you have sent mail via Geoffrey@GeoffreyArmes.com, or Villagerecording@GeoffreyArmes.com I didn’t get it for a few days. Sorry for any delay in order processing etc… and please send again to remind me if I haven’t responded by mid-week.

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West Berlin · 68 days ago

the lost city of West Berlin, a place where ‘normal’ values ceased to exist…. only an especially or weirdly motivated person went there, that is no one ‘just passed through’ and became unaccountably delayed, none drifted aimlessly up the transit corridor and happened to find rest in… West Berlin... you went consciously. I found a piece of myself there, and left a piece there, and restlessly return to retrieve it, vainly thinking I can be whole again, surrounded by love and family in West Berlin… but this city that has gone forever, as surely as Atlantis…

click through above to some fascinating footage..

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