NATIVE SKETCHES

I just started pretty randomly by recording my two-year-old old son on the nice condenser microphone I have in my living room. There was no clear tonality to what he was singing/saying and it wasn’t on a click so it was generally just tempoless blah blah. The kicks and pitched bongo-esque percussion come from the Polyplex library. I then recorded reverb and EQ effects with automation on the drum parts that I had edited.

I chopped the recording up to work with the beat, then pitched them to fit the tonality of the drums and harmonised everything. I then used an organ from the Vintage Organs library and used the pitch modulation strip on a long note and filtering to start introducing a kinda trippy drone pad. I programmed tighter bass notes from a Monark bass and played with the overdrive parameters. I also played and recorded an additional detuned synth bassline using Monark. It’s all unquantized and wobbly and arabesque sounding – I like it!

I think the whole sketch transports you somewhere in a very short time. That’s what I like about it. I’m very situational in terms of making tunes: I like sound leakage and using things/objects/people that I find around me as well as using plug-ins and technology. I’m into those kind of hybrids, paradoxes and elements of chance or error.