MezzoMese, secondo

The second MezzoMese. For the second installment of the MezzoMese series, I have two short musical offerings, which date back over a decade. They both illustrate a burgeoning, yet fully established creative process, utilizing the simple tools available to me at that time: electric guitar (among other instruments), tape recorder, digital voice recorder, and Audacity as a Digital Audio Workstation. The electric guitar I had used at the time was either a heavily-modified Squier stratocaster, whose finish had been chipped off, and completely redecorated by me with intricate designs; or a Schecter Hellcat. At some point I had routed out the pickup cavity in the strat and wired in the pickups from the Schecter, so it had three single coil pickups, three mini humbuckers, two pickup selector switches, probably five volume/tone knobs, and two outputs.

The first is a single from 2015, whose title,

tape meditations (distilling stasis from movement), speaks directly to the concept behind its creation. For years I had been using an old tape recorder to document sketches and works-in-progress, and eventually to capture fully-formed pieces. Oftentimes my practice sessions would transform into sonic meditations: the physical and mental act of sitting alone with a musical instrument becoming incorporated into my regular meditation practice. Practice has always been a form of meditation for me. Whether its running scales, arpeggios, exercises, or repeating phrases from larger musical pieces over and over again until mistakes disappear and the phrase is internalized ('under the fingers' is a common term for this), as a musician I have strived to dissolve the proverbial 'wall' between practice and performance--a lofty goal for any young musician.

And so, with this piece, the line between means (practice) and ends (product of practice) is blurred or destroyed, and both ends and means become one and the same. By staying still, forward musical movement is generated; by moving forward, musical stasis is achieved. Hence the parenthetical in the title, (distilling stasis from movement). I played acoustic guitar into my tape recorder, then transferred the audio on the cassette to digital audio, rerecording it onto the computer. Next, the 'digital tape' could then be used as raw material for further composition, in a similar way that Musique concrète approached physical tape in the mid-20th century.

[Caption: Album artwork for tape meditations (distilling stasis from movement). The image is taken from my journal, the page of which corresponded to the date that this piece was recorded.]

The second is a short EP titled TR3LGY (pronounced like the English word 'trilogy'). It was created in 2013 using electric guitar and digital processing on the computer.

The first piece is titled 3L7E. The title itself denotes the explorational processes to which I had become attached, and utilized at every opportunity during these early years of my electronic music experimentation: playing things forwards and backwards at the same time; rerecording a reverb or echo in reverse, then flipping it back forwards (pre-verb?); swapping stereo signals forwards and backwards; etc. Just as the creation of this piece was more about its experimental processes than any particular melodic or harmonic development (and thus, the captured process becomes the final product, or the means are the ends), the title is more about the shape of the symbols: the 3 and L are inverted and mirrored in the 7 and E...although they are not perfect matches, formally speaking.

The second and eponymous piece, TR3LGY, is indeed a trilogy: three ideas wrapped into one cohesive and interconnected composition. The piece opens with a finger-picked electric guitar ostinato. I remember coming up with this and practicing it for several months, not knowing where it should go, or what it should be a part of. The harmonic implications of this ostinato are reinforced by some bass and drums (most likely synthesized). The first section of the 'trilogy' lasts from 00:00 til about 02:43, with a bit of melodic improvisation further developing and transitioning into the second section, wherein the ostinato has been abandoned, while its harmonic implications remain. The third section begins at about 06:13, at which time whatever sonic material was left begins to be subversively and destructively processed through a frequency tracker. The 'acoustic' pitch information enters and is replaced by pure sound waves (a mixture of square- and sine-waves). This lasts until the end of the piece, at 10:07.

[Caption: Album artwork for TR3LGY. The image is taken from my journal, the page of which corresponds to the date of the EP's creation. One can see a possible date on the stamped bit of cardboard which was glued to the page. Also, files indicate the pieces were recorded in February and March of 2013. A photograph of my journal page has been digitally mirrored. I think I was trying to transform the outline of the state of Rhode Island, or something similar, into a jellyfish.]

tape meditations (distilling stasis from movement) single can be listened to and purchased here: https://antonioforte.bandcamp.com/album/tape-meditations-distilling-stasis-from-movement-single

And TR3LGY EP can be listened to and purchased here: https://antonioforte.bandcamp.com/album/tr3lgy

Thank you for reading and for listening. Stay tuned for more.