I’ve been working a lot in the last few years with electronic, loop-based pieces which explore overlapping phrases of different lengths etc.
This piece began with the intention of turning it into a fully electronic “groove” piece, but as I was writing the themes (using a generic midi piano sound) I started to wonder if this could in fact be a solo piece for piano.
I decided to call it Locked in Orbit, and I think of it as a “deep space” piece, with the overlapping phrases representing different slow-moving things in orbit (planets, meteors, what have you) which circle around a star in different lengths of time.
Also, the static/still quality of it in some way reflects my lockdown brain… the feeling that things are motionless and yet somehow still moving slowly around… something?
I composed this piece for the Halifax-based pianist, Jennifer King. I’ve been enjoying her series of moon-inspired recordings over the last few years, including her O Mistress Moon album.
I’m really happy that Jennifer not only liked the piece, but wanted to record it and release it as a single! It’s available on all the usual streaming platforms.
Here’s a preview link to it. I hope you’ll check out the full piece when you have time.
The first collab between ‘zhorli’ (my electronic alter-ego) and songwriter-vocalist Sahara Jane releases today! This song, Dreaming of Flying, is a dreamy, trippy groove that we started last spring. Enjoy! (Spotify link is below… also available on other streaming platforms.)
I want this music to begin – to enter the listener’s presence – without it feeling like an intrusion. So much music these days is demanding, noisy, aggressive. I shut down at that sort of thing typically.
So the EP starts with a whispering sine wave melody from a tiny analog synth. This first track ‘from the ashes’ plays with something i’m quite obsessed with these days – layering two or more different loops of different time lengths, in different metres, together. It’s such a simple idea it’s almost not worth mentioning. But I never tire of this play of one slow phrase revolving and dancing against another.
The next track ‘come on now’ features the electric bass, set amidst my favourite textures of droning synths and a spacious beat. It takes its inspiration from a bass player who I admire a great deal. I don’t and will never play the way he does, but I’m happy with how the phrases came out. The bass parts are looped, but not quantized. That will mean something to some who read this. It does to me.
Listening to this EP now I hear how everything is so simple. I don’t have the brain for more. I can keep a couple sound-plates spinning in the air, but if I try to do more than that, I usually end up doing nothing.
The third track ‘old bells’ is inescapably in the orbit of minimalism. Synth arpeggios – again spinning, again overlapping in different lengths of time, pinned down by a steady bass loop and a simple beat. I try to let these looping phrases breathe. I can’t sustain the relentless urban energy that we inherited from Steve Reich’s minimalism, born in New York City. I live in the middle of nowhere, and my version of minimalism lives in the same nowhere… quietly wandering around the yard, trying not to trip in the dark.
The beats on this EP are all mid-tempo to slow. It feels good to me. What’s the hurry anyway?
The next track ‘i couldn’t say’ feels nostalgic… or maybe more like grief. Perhaps nostalgia is a form of grief? It drones away quietly, sitting by itself in the corner. There are hopeful fragments of my wife Sahara’s beautiful voice, sampled and scattered throughout, like little beams of light through the fog.
And the EP ends with a track called ‘do not follow’. This is the earliest track on this collection. I started it in India in early 2020 before the world locked down and got even more anxious than it already was. The message of the title comes from Krishnamurti, who I was reading at the time. He said ‘I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth’.
Since I began to explore electronic music, around five years ago, it almost feels like I’m living a double life! I’ve spent the bulk of my time creating and performing as an acoustic musician, so it surprises me that I’ve gotten so attracted to creating and producing music which is distinctly NON-acoustic!
I’ve just released my first EP of electronic music under the name, zhorli. You can listen to it (and download it if you wish) at the link below. You can also find it on Spotify and Apple Music. It’s called Loop Street.
