What are WaveForms?
WaveForms is the name I give to my instrumental music, inspired by the work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno - wave because it uses a sustaining guitar, a guitar synth and looping techniques to set up gently rising and falling waves of sound.
For the listener, WaveForms is intended to set up an atmosphere of calm and even contemplation. I've played in churches but also in coffee bars, where the aim is simply to create a pleasant ambience, as ignorable as it is listenable.
For the player, the aim is to set up a framework within which to improvise, responding to each returning note as it arises with another note. Because each note you play will come back to you again and again, you must be alert and 'in the moment'. Fripp's term for it is 'honour necessity, honour sufficiency' - play what's needed and no more. For me it's an aspiration rather than a skill, and I'm still learning.
When I play at home, the whole thing is improvised, from the random selection of the first note. For public performance I've 'composed' a few structures where I know the key, the synth and guitar voices, and the stages in which I'll add and change elements.
Cathedral:
The Failure of Diplomacy:
For recording I'll record a WaveForm improv in mono (the output from my equipment is mono) then add a second or third track, which may or may not involve looping. Some of the film soundtrack work I've done has been done this way.
Final untitled track from Romantic Fiction 1:
March 27, 2007 in WaveForms | Permalink
