This fall students learned how to multitrack, cut, paste and add effects to a recording of a Bach cello suite in Logic. These “Bach remixes” eventually made their public premiere at the Bach Marathon in November.

Omar’s Bach Remix

omar_bach_final1

Malachy’s Bach Remix

malachy_bach_final

Anthony’s Bach Remix
anthony_bach_final

Juan’s Bach Remix
Jay_bach_final

 

The class also got to work with CMW alum CJ Jimenez on a sound recreation workshop with the prompt “what are the first 5 things you heard this morning?” We then set them loose on the third floor to collect and create recordings to use in their sound collages.

Anthony’s December Morning Sound Collage

Anthony_DecemberMorning

Juan’s December Morning Sound Collage
Jay_DecemberMorning

Malachy’s December Morning Sound Collage

Malachy_DecemberMorning

Omar’s December Morning Sound Collage
omar_dec_morning

 

Below are pictures from a workshop where the students were treated to music by local guitarist, Erik Carlson, AKA Area C. Erik demonstrated how his effects pedals worked and everyone got a chance to try them out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy’s Bowhold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doris’s Bowhold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaden’s Bowhold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason’s Bowhold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odyssey’s Bowhold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Omar’s Bowhold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rihana’s Bowhold

Omar learned a lot about Vivaldi this year. He first discovered Vivaldi through reading a book called  “I, Vivaldi” – the book tells the story of how Vivaldi followed in his father’s footsteps to become a violinist and grew up to be the music director of a girls orphanage. Vivaldi wrote many concertos for the girls including the Four Seasons and their orchestra became one of the most famous in the world. The girls often didn’t have a family name so they would take the name of their instrument as their family name – Marie of the Viola, Louise of the Cello etc. Here is Omar of the Violin’s performance of Vivaldi’s Autumn…

http://youtu.be/MokeoreMfZ0

At a recent CMW workshop, the hip hop string quartet Sweet Plantain performed a rockin version of Vivaldi’s two cello concerto that made us all want to dance. Check out Jori’s photos on flickr! Not only does Omar play Vivaldi really well, he can dance too!

http://youtu.be/RdhQw4Q52sY

Omar plans to learn themes from the other Four Seasons this year…

For this song, Omar learned how to slur two notes to one bow. Check out his gypsy flair!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CECfVE3JnpI&feature=youtu.be

Chloe and Ealain’s Studio perform Old Joe Clark at All Play Day in December 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYk27OB2Q1o

Today we were visited by Erik Carlson, who performs as “Area C.”

Erik is a Providence musician who works with various pedals and other electronic hardware to make his music.

He showed us the equipment he works with, how he sets it up, and what each piece of hardware does. He performed for us, let us control his equipment, and even let us play!

We are hopefully going to have access to some similar equipment soon, and we can’t wait to make more of our own music with it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More about Erik:

Erik Carlson is a composer, media artist and architect based in Providence. His work examines sound as an evocative presence, often acting as a marker, in the physical and mental spaces we inhabit. Since 2002 he has been recording and performing under the name AREA C, whose compositions work with timbre, texture and live loops, exploring cyclical relationships and the details of their decay over time. Improvisation plays an important part in both recordings and live performances, encompassing extended explorations of minimal rhythm and melody, drawing on remnants of other times and places, outdated and untested technologies, signals sent out but never received

In 2009, Carlson received the MacColl-Johnson Fellowship in music composition and he is currently working on new commissions for the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium and the LEF Foundation. In 2010 he composed the score for the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Witness: Katrina,” which premiered on the National Geographic Channel. His permanent sound installation (“Low Rez/Hi Fi,” a collaboration with architect Meejin Yoon) can be viewed at 1110 Vermont Avenue in Washington DC.

AREA C’s sixth full-length CD, titled “Map of Circular Thought,” was released in January 2011 on Preservation Records (Australia). Previous releases include “The Planetarium Project” on Sedimental (a double CD of four live collaborative performances at the Cormack Planetarium in Providence, RI), and full-length albums on Students of Decay, Sloow Tapes, and Last Visible Dog.

Learn more at: http://www.areacmusic.com/

 

 

Omar just created this complex and colorful picture of a monster:

OmarPictureRotated

Check back soon for more story on the picture and maybe even a musical composition inspired by it…

Here is the one and only Omar introducing and performing the song Violin Star:

Omar Violin Star

This performance was preceded by a rockin dance performance by Omar which we unfortunately couldn’t document because we didn’t have a flip camera but it was – amazing!

This fall’s electronic music class is off to a great start! We’re using Logic to remix Bach cello suites for the upcoming Bach Festival.

Final remixes will be posted in a few weeks! Stay tuned.