Barry Cullen’s Fringe Tones, the 82nd

Blue Whale ‘Last Immediate Images’ Album Launch Tickets Friday, 15 March 2024 8:00pm ‐ 11:00pm The Black Box18-22 Hill St, Belfast, BT1 2LA ARC will support

Blue Whale & ARC support Black Box, Belfast 150324

I've been sitting on this one for a while, and I don't know why.

My album Regulation and Classification. Download or cassette :)

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I am absolutely delighted to be release #36 on Toneburst. https://toneburst.bandcamp.com/album/regulation-and-classification

The effort and talent brought to this by Phil & Barry at Toneburst humbles me and gives me immense encouragement.

For those who get the cassette version, you are in for a real treat. It's a small item of desire. It's the real deal. It's handmade but not homemade. It's something else. I still can't believe it.

Here's a promo/teaser video:
https://youtu.be/7uw-Ph8cNbM

Somewhere online is a full video created for the track Midnight Freighter but it's a hidden easter egg that you'll have to find yourselves.

#RegulationAndClassification #BandcampFriday
https://instagram.com/p/CjYEz7wrIQ1/

I have a new album on the way, released by the glorious Toneburst folks. The physical release will be super limited so I'm taking my time putting together my own Bandcamp page for it. Toneburst will be releasing it on their own platform too and I'll announce that here.

I'm very excited to reveal that I have a piece appearing on the upcoming Toneburst release Tying Up Loose Ends. I'll update with a release date when I have it!

The sailors make fast the loose ends to ensure the boat is shipshape.

"Tying Up Loose Ends" is a nautically themed project split into 2 segments.
The first, titled "Noise Forecast", is heavily inspired by BBC shipping forecasts, the rhythm of their delivery and the alien yet comprehensible language used within them. The compositional framework for this part of the project is a text-based score which was written in a way that aimed to allow each participant a unique translation. To further contrast the finished pieces, careful attention is made in approaching different artists with varying sonic palettes.

The score for this first installment of the project reads as follows:

"Culport;
Southern Bleakness. 8
Phront - Lofty, Stressure: NIL.
Bromide Sprinkles - Occasional.
Eudaimonia - Swindling, Tempestuous Nodes.
Torrential Data, Deluges: 37, Clustered.
Drainage: In Toto, Preparation Timely."

The second project segment, titled "Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan & Derelict", is an exploration of how new life can be given to short pieces of sound that perhaps could get lost somewhere in a timeline. To achieve this, audio is salvaged from one person and recycled by another, although organised in such a way that 'who is collaborating with who' remains unknown. Artist and equipment information are intentionally removed as to hopefully have no influence over the finished works.

Guidelines for FJL&D are:
"SALVAGE
You have received some salvaged audio from another participant involved. Use these sounds as a starting point.
RECYCLE
Please use both files, although they don’t have to be used in their entirety. One shot or single cycle samples are fine. You are free to edit & treat these in any way you see fit. Chop, Sample, Granularize & Mangle. Unrecognisable is good. Additional instrumentation is allowed and encouraged. This is not a remix project.
COLLABORATION
Audio discovered amongst your posts has been shared with another participant to carry out the same process."

Loose Ends #1 is focused around the fictional land, and surrounding coast, of "Culport".

The tracklisting is as follows;
NOISE FORECAST
1. Claude & Ola - Culport
2. Sw1n Hunter - FOAM_DRIFT(2vids)
3. Shane Latimer - Deluges: Clustered
4. Una Lee - 1 fib or no
5. BJC - Torrential Data v4_2
6. Scy1e - Racing the dawn
7. Mysterioso - Unapproved Beliefs
8. Vivienne Griffin - The Fake Haven
9. Hadi Bastani - nines am(o)ur ai

FLOTSAM, JETSAM, LAGAN & DERELICT
1. T.Jervell - Fanfare of Spring (Initials M.C.)
2. sweetearthflying - prismatic wounds
3. Sqrtsigil - nontitle
4. Morn Valley - Solar Transmission
5. Expanding Foam - saxa vord
6. Wimming Spools - flotsum & jetsum
7. Disxiple 113 - fiesta, forever
8. Subfusc - Batons
With some sprinkles of sea sounds recorded by Matilde Meireles, Lisbon, 2020.

Wednesday 28th August, 8pm.
Sunflower Bar, Belfast.

Bonus tracks galore!!

The 2018 re-record, remix & remaster of The Grunderhunter!!
Experimental soundworlds The Skittering and Handmade Arpeggio!
And from WeeklyBeats2016, the Lovecraft inspired They Return to Claim What is Theirs and instrumental guitar piece Loaded Dice!

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Hey people! I’ve released the third album my Song a Week for a Year series, this one entitled Summer.  It’s a quarterly theme!

You can click below and listen for free!

https://mysterioso.bandcamp.com/album/song-a-week-for-a-year-summer

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Well friends I’ve finished compiling all the details and here it is, the second part of my Year of Songs project. This album covers the period from the 31st of January until the 24th of April 2016. It has some successes, like Blind (Instrumental) and Quenelles, a Trio (this is possibly my favourite from the whole year), but also has the first couple of proper failures where I was reaching for something that I genuinely could not achieve at the time. Still - it was a learning experience!

It’s available to buy or to stream for free over on Bandcamp! SAWFAY II - Spring

Happy listening and have a great weekend!

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I am 48 weeks deep in 52 week project in which I write, record and release a song each week for a year. The realisation hit me just a couple of hours ago that I only have 4 more songs to create before I’ve completed the project.

Wow. I feel like I’ve only just started, like I’m barely half-way.

Here is a link to the entire playlist:

https://soundcloud.com/mysterioso/sets/song-a-week-for-a-year

It’s been a while since I did much to publicise my work, but I’m here today to remedy that. In the last nine weeks I’ve released nine more pieces of work, some of which I’ve pushed off into the world with those little shivers I only get when what I’ve created seems somehow more than the sum of its parts.

These are my current favourites: soundcloud.com/mysterios… soundcloud.com/mysterios… soundcloud.com/mysterios… soundcloud.com/mysterios… soundcloud.com/mysterios…

And here is a playlist for the Great Song A Week For A Year Playlist so far: soundcloud.com/mysterios…

My current project, a Song A Week For A Year number 24 - ‘That’s the Message’ on #SoundCloud soundcloud.com/mysterios… This piece started off inspired by Black Heart Procession, but then traveled through Gravenhurst and latter day Nick Cave. Once again, it’s a bit dark. I started work on the lyrics before I’d completed all the instrumental parts and for once I had the time to come up with a text I’m happy with. The downside of this being that I ran out of time to work on the drum programming. Swings and roundabouts! Becca Allen joined in on backing vocals and autoharp.

Here is the continuing playlist for the project so far: soundcloud.com/mysterios…

Life continues with its own ruthless pace and the following is the latest fruit: soundcloud.com/mysterios…

And to follow on, here’s the complete corpus so far: soundcloud.com/mysterios…

I haven’t been the best at publicising so as a summary here’s a playlist of the project so far:

soundcloud.com/mysterios…

I decided to play around with a couple of synths, a bit of MIDI, a handmade BEW pedal and see what happened. This is the result. In the process I taught myself a couple of new things about recording too. I got to the end of the lyrics and realised I really ought to have rewritten the first verse but time was not on my side. So have at thee. Guest vocals by Becca Allen.

soundcloud.com/mysterios…

So I think I’m going to do a thing.  Like really commit to something. I’m gonna make a piece of music once a week for the next 53 weeks.

This is my first piece. I’m keeping it rough and ready. This is only the beginning. soundcloud.com/mysterios…

Drum loops from Siggi Baldursson.

I thought I’d lost this forever. This is a different version and it’s really badly mixed, but I’m glad I found it.

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A.R.C. Live At Last

Barry, Saul and I are making our live début as ARC at long last.  Well that’s what I thought until last night at this event when Saul reminded me that we’d played one of Barry’s Listen… nights in the Menagerie a couple of years back. But still, that was a long time ago and we’ve changed our approach and our aesthetic quite a bit since then so I’m still thinking of this in terms of début.

ARC are an improvising trio based around drums, double bass, bass guitar and handmade electronics.

[soundcloud url=“https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/77135501” params=“auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=“100%” height=“450” iframe=“true” /]

We’ve played in public two three times before. The first second time was as a three-piece to demonstrate the work of ceramicist Andrew Cooke: Here’s some YouTube footage of that event. Not a full ARC gig, as we were there to explore the instruments Andrew had made.

The second third time was just Saul and I, performing at an art happening (it really was) called Fresh Meat in the Crescent Arts Centre. Barry was performing at a festival in Brazil at the time but he was there in spirit in the guise of a light-controlled synth right at the front of the stage. So, again, not a full ARC gig.

This time though, we’ll be kicking it old-school.  Barry will be providing instructional/motivational projections and video and we’ll be accompanied by Martin Byrne, one of Belfast’s more prolific sonic artists.

So yeah, roll up roll up for ARCLight at OpenSourceNI, 3-5 Commercial Court, Belfast from 2-3pm on Sunday 4th of May 2014.

I’ve spent an afternoon relearning a short piece I wrote three or four years ago. I came up with it the usual way, a chord pattern turns up under my fingers, then a second chord that I like, then a kept poking until I find a complete set. A bit like collecting bubblegum stickers for a sticker album. I recorded a quick and dirty sketch mainly to work out some harmonies but ended up with synth backing instead. We used it as one of the pieces we performed with Shane & Terry until that fell apart, but I’ve hardly even thought about the piece since then. Relistening to it last night I was a little irked at the sloppiness of the playing but mostly I was confounded by how obtuse I’d been in my note choice. I know my ear is a bit rusty and this just underscored that rust before going back over each letter with a biro. I was deliberate in using chord fragments that don’t play to the usual major or minor & root configurations, and I think this piece is better for it even if the hand positions, the changes and the rhythm of it are awkward to play convincingly.

I tried to rerecord of to a click track once and failed completely, so I may try it again. If I can ever play it right.

Mr Byrne has previous experience of this and his recent tweet struck a chord with me.

Producing music and video on a smartphone has been bothering me for a fair while now. There are some quality pieces of work produced either partly or mainly on phone handsets, but the video below reinforces for me that the medium is most definitely the message in work like this. The extra attachments, processing time, additional apps, compromises, etc., all seem say that making the art on a smartphone is as important as the art itself.

What this says about the artist I don't know. What I do know is that less technical effort and expense is required while using slightly more dedicated equipment. 

Are there boundaries, limitations imposed by the phone that inspires truly satisfying envelope-pushing? Can the fixed-focus lens lead to breakthroughs in storytelling, scripting or directing?

Or is it part of the techie trend, reinventing a wheel simply to be seen to have a wheel?

Barry Cullen, Peter Cullen and I were engaged in writing a score for an 80 minute film from 1922. The film, called Wheels of Chance and based on a short story by H.G. Wells, is very much of its time; a comedy of errors and an exploration of the social changes wrought by the rise of the bicycle; the blurring of the lines between classes and the increased freedom bicycles afforded women.

The film was to be shown at a festival was called On Your Bike and it was promoted by the Waterfront and Belfast City Council, although unfortunately it seemed to be a footnote in their marketing.

While we had slightly more than two month’s notice of this project, various difficulties meant that we had about three weeks between receiving the only DVD from the BFI library and the performance date.

Both Barry and I have produced short soundtracks before but these have been simple, non-narrative pieces exploring sonic spaces rather than long-form descriptive movements written to support and explicate a drama.

It’s been a serious learning experience.

Before our final rehearsal I’d thought what we’d end up with would have good moments. The final movement, for example, is really lovely, one of the pursuit sections has evolved into a brilliantly oddball piece of tension, and the theme for the main protagonist is an hilarious earworm of woodwinds, but I thought it would very obviously be a rushed first attempt.  For three people with full-time jobs and a good selection of other musical commitments, I thought we’d acquit ourselves well and be not in the least ashamed of what we were to perform.

As it turned out, the final rehearsal saw everything coalesce, everyone brought out the flourishes they’d been thinking about but had yet to unveil.  From Sunday morning after we packed up our equipment, the red mist had truly come down - we were cooking and ready to serve the beef.

But I have to say, writing a film score for a silent movie is very, very difficult.

For a movie post-“2001: A Space Odyssey” the task is fundamentally different. Hell, “Lawrence of Arabia” marked a sea-change in movie making as far back as 1962, but David Lean’s radical advances were only really starting to become mainstream by the time Coppola filmed The Godfather in 1972. Digressions aside, the cinema I’m used to is so far removed from that of 1922 as to be a wholly different language, a separate art form.

There are no tracking or panning shots. There are no mood-setting wide shots. Rarely does scene lasts much longer than 10 or 15 seconds without being broken up by on-screen dialogue and if it does it has fixed camera placement for its duration. Every single shot contains one or more of the main characters so there is little scope for pure ambience or mood-setting.

In the process what we have learned about themes, motifs, key changes, reaction themes, timbre, texture, phrasing, tonality, voicing, repetition, suggestion, variation (to name but a few) would fill a thick volume.  But we’d do it again like a shot.

The film was shown in the Waterfront Studio, Belfast at 6pm on Sunday 4th September, its first screening for around 90 years, while we performed our new work live (more details here).  I don’t think either Barry or Pete would contradict me in saying there were a fair amount of jangling nerves pre-show…

Once we got going though, apart from a couple of (ahem) technical issues such as playing to a different edit of the movie than that to which we’d written and rehearsed our score, we came good and presented a much better piece than we expected to nothing but praise and applause from the audience.

I'm listening to AC/DC's Fly on the Wall for the first time in two decades, on vinyl.
There are some great songs and potentially fat chops on this album, but was it spoiled by production decisions?
It has a very "in the room" production, where it genuinely sounds like they're playing in a church hall and you are one of fifty people at the far end, loving it. But it just doesn't work as a reference work.
Like Black Sabbath's output between Vol.4 and Technical Ecstacy, like most rock music between 1978 and the late 90s, no-one seems to be listening to the guys and girls who have been working with mic placement and room mapping.

A collaborative track between myself and Martin Songadayforayear Byrne. After coming with a couple of generic ideas, several cups of coffee later, GENIUS STRUCK!! The dialogue you will hear is from a selection of vintage sci-fi and horror scripts.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/size=venti/track=761453369/