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I really enjoy writing instrumental pieces, but I'm growing less and less sure I want to make them into CDs. It's incredibly easy to end up writing long, drifing pieces, and it doesn't seem quite right to charge full price for them. Radiohead's decision to let customers choose what to pay for their downloads seems like an interesting solution, but in this case I thought I'd use a 'Try before you buy' approach.
In other words, download any of these you fancy, and if you decide to keep some of them, please make a donation using the paypal link. I'd suggest 50p / $1 per track, regardless of the length, but pay what you think they're worth, and only pay for those that you like.
Thanks to everyone who's donated so far, it's greatly appreciated. And it means that this poor fellow keeps getting fed. :)
These tracks weren't particular intended to be heard together as an album, but I've put them in a sequence that seems to work for me. The first three are more dynamic, while the last four are lengthier textural pieces.
All of the tracks are LAME encoded (high quality) MP3 files, as also used on Burning Shed. Each of the tracks can be downloaded invidually, but if you prefer, you can download all seven tracks as a 58MB ZIP file.
Download (Right-Click on a PC, CTRL-Click on a Mac)
A few years ago I was amazed to discovered that it was possible to sample the reverb qualities of a room, and apply it to a recording using a convolution reverb. I also recently found a website which had sampled for the Hamilton Mausoluem in Scotland, a building with one of the longest natural reverb times in Europe. This piece is a solo piano improvisation using that - the decay time is so huge that I didn't even need to use the sustain pedal.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
Again, this uses the Hamilton Mausoleum reverb, this time with a small chamber ensemble with percussion. I'm not sure it would actually be possible to fit all those instruments in there.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
That's enough time spent hanging around in mausoleums! Mind you, this slightly Sylvianish piece for guitar and electronics probably won't have anyone up and dancing either.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
Time to up the pretension and throw in a few shamefully blatant name drops to boot... This piece uses only the notes of the "Mystic Chord" invented by the Russian composer Scriabin, and consisting of the notes C, F#, Bb, E, A and D. I heard about the chord while I was working for Brian Eno earlier this year. Chris Martin telephoned, and I ended up playing the notes down the 'phone while Brian described it to him. Maybe that means there will be a Coldplay track that only Scriabin could hum along to some time.
Scriabin believed this chord, in conjunction with the right combination of colours, could bring about a cosmic change. I'm not convinced that happened when I played this, although I did get a craving for chocolate hobnobs.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
This is created from two short, sparse piano loops, starting together and repeating until they come back into phase - one of the most useful techniques I've learnt from Brian's work.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
Occasionally when I'm doing some of the more tedious admin tasks at Burning Shed, I set up some sounds and a long repeating delay. As I'm working, I periodically "top up" the loop, which makes the process slightly more bearable. On this occasion, I was implementing a new accounts system.
Somewhere, IÕve got a piece an hour long, created while filling out a tax return.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
As above, but this time it was MCPS quarterly royalty summary I needed to produce. The kind of life affirming, soul enhancing activity that makes me glad I became involved in the music business.
Suggested price: £0.50 / $1
All tracks copyright Peter Chilvers 2007