Earthlife is a self-produced full-leght album, the result of a couple of years of musical ideas. Here you can find some notes about its making process, things like techniques and instrumentation I used.
About the song... "Flow"
Flow is where it all started back again. It was a moment of awakening from a long sleep. A lot of musical ideas got going there and after.
Flow Part 1 evolves around its "a-bit-jazzy" bass-line (a 5/4 pattern layered on top of a 4/4 tempo signature). Not being a jazz musician at all, this was something interesting enough to keep me going.
The bass-line drives the whole thing further. In Part 1 I got into the idea of mixing this jazzy feel with a drum'n'bass drumming, trying to find a little space between them. Flow Part 2 got its tempo halved and is much more direct, with a lovely guitar jamming from my friend "oh-he-can-play-anything" Alessandro Daidone (Ordnas - see special guest links). Flow Part 3 is the closing down and slowly fades out the whole thing.
PS: Flow got selected as Demo of the Month by the dutch music professional's magazine "Interface" (www.interface.nl) in September 2010.
About the song... "Earthlife"
This is actually the only thing I made a long time ago (something like 2001?) and which I saved and reshaped these days. It is a pure electronic piece, inspired by a fundamental issue of our times: the influence of technology on our life and environment, which sometimes - when greed takes the lead - can go very wrong.
Earthlife is more classic electronics, with a clear definition of contrasting atmospheres: shaping nature, technology and its abuse. The message is: please be gentle with our planet!
About the song... "Brief Interruption"
This is really one thing I enjoyed making, experimenting in Ableton Live with its MIDI effects and a couple of Max (M4L) patches. Building racks of M4L effects for processing MIDI input, through multiple chains, you can create your own virtual drummer, capable of musical "improvisation". Just a few controls at your fingers and you and the machine become a jam duo, free from pre-planned programming! This is something only Live and Max allow you to do.
About the song... "Error Code"
One piece from my dark side. icy and a-rhythmic electronics, worked out to avoid any classic 4/4 rhythmic schemes, while still trying to get groovy. I kind of love-hate this track. As of today I still think about it as unfinished business.
About the song... "Liquid"
Liquid was for long a shapeless set of chords, a cheap poppy piece. Then one day I picked it up again, erased a few things and jammed with it again: it finally turned into an evolving techno piece (!), which is an escape into territory I normally do not practice.
About the song... "Mind Circles"
Mellow and dark. A vocoder melt with tons of layered synthesizers. At times I love this track, at times I don't. Who really knows.
About the song... "Ice"
I am shocked by how quickly the ice caps on our planet's poles are melting. This, may it be natural or not (my tendency is to believe it is NOT a natural effect), is an absolutely dramatic event for many forms of life. The images of polar beers forced to swim for miles in order to be able to haunt for a prey are haunting me. Their Ice world has almost disappeared. As so are they probably going to be. This is the drama I have in mind with "Ice".
On this track Daniele Mautone, an extremely talented musician from the place I grew up, plays a beautiful classic guitar part. This is one of the highest moments of the music I produced.