cumulus frisbee

About ten minutes of unreleased music smelted down into one continuous stream of data. I've been sitting on these songs all year, and I'm tired of overthinking "Should I release this? Is this finished? Should I make it longer? Is this good enough?" 

Maybe they're complete to me, regardless of imperfections. Maybe all of these things can fit together perfectly as they are. Maybe they aren't supposed to be standalone pieces. Maybe these are all isolated shards waiting to be reunited with the whole. So I stitched them back together.

All the time spent wishing that these things were somehow different than how they already are is like staring at the sun - a little bit goes a long way. But too much will burn out your vision. I'm closing my eyes and letting it all go. 

Enjoy.

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Stare At The Sun (Vol 1)

I made this song around my birthday earlier this year, and it was a very necessary outlet to just celebrate and freely express how happy I am to be where I'm at right now. The friends I have, the work I'm making, the artists I get to work with - I have alot to be thankful for. This song has been helping me remember that gratitude when things look dim, a waypoint to look back on and reflect on the constant fluctuations we all experience. 

And all serious shit aside, this one was just fucking fun to make! I was jumping and bobbing around for weeks making this. I love to take art + music super seriously, but it's also just as important to just have fun for no reason other than enjoying making something cool. 

I also designed the cover art, and had just as much fun making that as the song. I just kept stacking more and more shapes on top of each other. I think the art has ~300 layers if I recall? I just kept adding more and more cause it was fun to see how dense I could make it without reaching overkill territory haha. And it seemed to fit the density of the song as well.

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Hyperplex

The title "Inner Inference" refers to having personal insight into some aspect of your life after careful examination. In a way it is supporting the famous statement that "an unexamined life is not worth living." I was peeling back the layers and revealing alot of ways I was not accepting myself, my reality, or how I felt in general. Often examining our life after spending so much time distracted by our day-to-day can be a lot to take in. 

What I found afterwards was a sort of clarity that I never would have felt if I had continued to be afraid of examining what I was feeling. I didn't quite do this on purpose (though I can see it in hindsight) - but the first half of the song is the process of peeling back those layers, examining those intricate feelings. Then it breaks down into stillness, a sobering slowness, only to build back up into a more liberating sound built off of the progress fostered by that self examination. And the very end hints at the possibility that there is something totally new, fresh, and vaguely promising laying ahead after completing this process. 

It's always made far more sense to me to put these feelings and experiences into music and art rather than strictly talking about them, because I can only tell you so much about what went into making something. There is always endless subtext that I can't put into words. And I always feel enriched to tell a story this way, where you also could've justly interpreted this song in an entirely different manner. I love that possibility and encourage people to decipher their own meaning from anything I make. This is just what was happening when I made it.

I also designed the cover art, as I do for all of my releases.

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Inner Inference

This is the first track off of my first LP "Hyperion" from 2020. The premise of the record was to sculpt a collection of songs where I focused on using vocal chops as both a lead and rhythmic element. In order to keep some sonic continuity throughout the record, every synth on here is from a single device using dozens and dozens of customized patches I made.

This song is loaded with laser sounds, collaged vocal chops, jumpy basslines, and shakers I sculpted out of little salt packets. So much of this song is about making due with what you have. I had this one synth I really liked, a bunch of royalty free vocal samples, and a field recorder to make percs with stuff around my house. I loved the idea of seeing just how much stuff I could make with such a limited number of resources. You don't always need tons of equipment and plugins and such to make lots of music, sometimes maximizing what you already have yields the best results. Ideas are ubiquitous - you can find them anywhere at any time.

There's a very limited amount of vinyl remaining for this album, and they include a folded 24" x 24" poster of the cover art. I will be sending a signed copy to the buyer of this song. Please contact me on twitter @cumulus_frisbee so I can get your contact info. 

I also designed the cover art, as I do for all of my releases.

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ubiquitous

Long before getting into electronic music, I grew up being super into prog, math rock, weird fusion shit, etc. It completely shaped the way I listen to and write music, regardless of what genre/style. Last year I went through a period where I didn't want to make beats or electronic stuff, I just wanted to pretend I was a band. All of the stuff I'd learned from making beats was suddenly becoming relevant to writing and mixing these types of songs. It was kind of a full circle moment of realizing I could now produce music that reminded me of what I grew up with. 

It also was a very necessary step creatively because it helped me stop thinking about needing to stick to certain genres/styles of music. Since making this song, I have found it much easier to just make anything I want. For that reason and lots more, this is still one of my favourite songs I've written.

I also designed the cover art, as I do for all of my releases.

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MENDEL'S PEAS

I made this song around the beginning of the pandemic back in 2020. Looking back, it was kind of an encapsulation of the joy of staying inside the house making music alot more, mixed with the sobering reality that everywhere you go is now potentially dangerous. I remember being so paranoid around this time, as I'm sure lots of us were. And at the same time I loved having the opportunity to entertain my introverted nature and just stay in Ableton all day. It's definitely bizzare to feel these sorts of feelings all at the same time, but life has a way of making unlikely and sometimes dichotomous events/emotions/ideas overlap. Sometimes these events feel more like a collage rather than a planned painting that's been sketched out and meticulously prepared. But even in that dichotomy there is room for both approaches to overlap. Things happen randomly, but we're capable of building structure atop that undulating topography. We're all navigating terrain that is constantly morphing, but that's kinda what makes it fun.

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orca

This song was one of those instances where I had the idea for the skeleton of the song for so long, and just hadn't sat down to properly try recording it. I'd been playing so many of the chord voicings when I wasn't recording, just practicing, just feeling out how some of them fit together - or didn't fit as well. I'd spent months figuring out some of those voicings in an alternate tuning on guitar, because it sounded and felt better than playing in standard tuning at the time. I could reach different combinations of notes that I couldn't in a regular tuning. Certain notes were closer together, or further apart, and it changes your playing in ways you can't be certain of until you spend some time experimenting with it. 

So many of those things wouldn't have been properly jotted down if I'd let them remain as nebulous ideas that I only played with while practicing. It's so easy to be like "Ahhhh is this good? Does this suck? Should I record this?" when really - sitting down and recording anything is better than not. Even if it sucks, you wouldn't have spent hours thinking in your head how cool it will be - only to be disappointed when you realize it doesn't work the same way it did in your head. And sometimes something you think isn't special ends up growing into something beyond what you could imagine. It just seems important to stay open, and record everything you can within reason. You never know what might work.

I also designed the cover art, as I do for all of my releases.

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mt. carmel

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mitochondria

One thing I try to avoid when writing songs is quantization. I like playing off the grid, I like mistakes. I like when the beat swings forward or backward a little bit. I like when the keys come in a moment before the drums hit. So often when being more deliberate with what I'm writing, it's the little errors that end up being my favourite parts. And they give more contrast to all of the things you get "right" on purpose. Since writing songs like this, I've tried to alter my perception of what a "mistake" is and focus more on nuance and context. Does this feeling fit? Am I changing this part too abruptly? Can I make other elements make sense of that abrupt change? There is often no right or wrong, it ends up being more about context.

I also designed the cover art, as I do for all of my releases.

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displacer eraser

This song reflects a time about a year ago when I was exploring the idea of relinquishing control, and embracing agency as a person. It became apparent that the more I tried to excessively control situations, my direction, my creativity, my productivity, etc., I was sure to feel more friction in those areas. Trying to control your creativity is a sure fire way to get blocked up. Overworking often makes you feel so burnt out that the quality of your work decreases, despite spending more time doing said work. All of these are issues of control, trying to demand that reality bends to your will. It is a rigid way to exist, especially as a creative person. There is far more power in your ability to go with the flow than to force yourself upstream. 

This song was my diary for about a month while I was exploring these feelings, and trying to simply let things in my life happen naturally. The more I loosened my grip, the better I felt. And paradoxically, the more confident I felt about the parts of my life I do have control over. I've carried that perspective with me and it's continued to improve my quality of life. 

I also designed the cover art, as I do for all of my releases.

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gamma

+ audiovisual chemistry +
( visual artist + producer )