“Taiko without bells is like a forest without birds,” said Daihachi Oguchi (the founder of modern taiko drumming) when he gave Onimushi Taiko of the UK the gift of a “cannon” — also called tetsu-zutsu, tettou, or simply kane (“metal”). It’s a tubular metal bell of his own invention, with three pitches, similar to very loud cowbells or agogo, cutting sharply through the sound of even a large drum ensemble to keep time and add flourishes.
I just had bells and chimes and metal and birds on the brain as I worked on this project. There were a few mentally refreshing hikes around a nearby lake, and some inspiration from the use of temple bells, chimes and shakers in a couple of other musicians’ work. I found myself wanting to do something with some of my percussion collection, and found myself making chirping and fluttering sounds along with synth drones. And I also acquired a little DecadeBridge Sn synthesizer (the chemical symbol for “Tin”). And even the water bottle I played as a bell has a bird-themed brand name (Super Sparrow). I realized I had been working to a theme without specifically setting out to do so.
I have a specific mental image of odd little tin toy automaton birds sitting in the limbs of trees in a somewhat strange forest, turning their heads to watch me passing by. Sometimes silently, sometimes rattling around or calling out, and sometimes flying around. The album art doesn’t reflect that because I don’t have those kind of visual art skills and I’m done with AI art tools; it was created from royalty-free CC0 photographs of a angular architecture features and a pile of tin nodules, and a lot of manipulation in Paint Shop Pro Photo 13.
Hardware is in bold and software is in italics. Basic utilities and effects (dynamics, EQ etc.) and simple modulation sources are omitted… even though sometimes those EQs were working a little harder than normal this time.
For controllers, I use MN 0-Ctrl, Roli Seaboard Block, Tesseract Sweet Sixteen mk2, Bela Gliss, and Intellijel Planar 2, as well as some Nektar expression pedals with a a MIDI Expression Quatro.
For mastering: Toneboosters Equalizer Pro, Waves Curve Equate, DDMF MagicDeathEye, RJ Studios SideMinder Max, Voxengo Elephant & OVC-128 with metering from Voxengo Span Plus & Correlometer and YuLean Loudness Meter.
BW = Bitwig
IME = Industrial Music Electronics (aka The Harvestman)
MA = Minimal Audio
MI = Mutable Instruments
MN = Make Noise
NE = Noise Engineering
NI = Native Instruments
NL = Neutral Labs
RYK = RYK
TE = Teenage Engineering
WR = Whimsical Raps
1: In The Reeds
- Meinl UFO Shaker, handmade chainmail shaker, and two wood and brass jingle sticks. Treated with Valhalla Plate, Phonolyth Velvet Machine, and sometimes reversing or repitching.
- NL Elmyra 2, Rossum Morpheus, Valhalla Room.
- (noises/buzzes/rattles/clicks) Rare Waves Lite2Sound PX, BW Transient Split.
2: Crosswind
- WR Just Friends syncing Auza Wave Packets, BW Delay+, Impact Soundworks GameVerb.
- Madrona Labs Aalto, two instances in series of ZPlane Peel with modulated frequency ranges and Aegean Pitchproof in the selected band, and NI Raum.
- Xaoc Odessa sequenced by MN 0-Ctrl which was clocked by Wave Packets, through Rossum Morpheus and Aberrant DSP Lair
- Stainless steel water bottle played with a yarn mallet, looped and repitched in BW Grid, through Audiothing Fog Convolver. Envelope followers on this loop modulated Just Friends and cDVCA.
- IME Kermit mk2 through AtovProject cDVCA, Djupviks Bunker Archeology, Audio Damage Ratshack Reverb.
- NE Manis Iteritas Alia, MI Blades, two instances of NE Desmodus in series, Arturia Tape Mello-Fi, Noveltech Character
3: Langsam
- NL Elmyra 2 (controlled by internal sequencer and MN 0-Ctrl), NI Raum.
4: Stannum
- Decadebridge Sn (sequence from MN 0-Ctrl), Djupviks Bunker Archeology, NI Raum
- Xaoc Odessa through Xaoc Tallin, MN Spectraphon, NE Lacrima Versio, and NE Electus Versio. Spectraphon’s Slide is modulated by steps from 0-Ctrl and slewed by MN Function.
- The right side of Electus Versio through BW Grid [2x Lowpass LD filters in parallel, under pedal control, to emphasize the reverb tail in part of the spectrum], panned to center.
- ALM Akemie’s Castle A output through Xaoc Koszalin and Valhalla Supermassive, mixed with the B output through BW Grid [Rasp and Lowpass MG filters in parallel]. Both through Fabfilter Saturn 2. Fader control over operator levels.
5: Tutti
- VCV Rack [Befaco Noise Plethora, Sckitam 2D Rotation modulated by Alias VCO, amplitude modulation from Polygonal VCO]
- 9 different Eurorack oscillators plus MI Blades and MN Spectraphon self-oscillating. Only a little modulation of some of them, plus fader control over all of their levels, through Valhalla Room.
6: Hummingbird Heart
- sampled marching xylophone. Arturia EFX Refract, BW Convolution, a touch of Audiority Velvet Machine. Samples are triggered by a BW Grid patch, with the voice stack count under expression pedal control and the stack number affecting the rate and pitch.
- granulized sample of marching xylophone struck with a nylon drum brush, NI Raum
- BW E-Hat, TB Equalizer Pro with one band’s gain modulated by an envelope, Plogue Chipcrusher
- marching xylophone sample sequenced by 510k Seqund, Unfiltered Audio SpecOps, NE Imitor
- XFer Serum (very rapidly sequenced by Seqund), NE Imitor, NE Librae, XLN Audio RC-20
- Rogue Jersey Lightning lap steel guitar, XLN Audio RC-20, Brainworx BX Aura
- BW Organ, Audiothing Lines (bass support for just a few notes)
7: Chassis
- NL Elmyra 2, MN Strega, Arturia Minibrute 2S, Dreadbox Hypnosis
- ALM Akemie’s Castle, Rossum Morpheus, Sinevibes Integer, Ujam UFX Reverb
- Decadebridge Sn, NE Lacrima Versio, MN Mimeophon
- NE Manis Iteritas Alia & NE Ataraxic Iteritas, Aberrant Audio Lair
8: Glaistig
- BW Grid [sample from franzelio.franzai.com, playing in Cycles mode, with an envelope follower through a quantizer modulating the pitch and formant], Audiothing Lines, BW Harmonic Split [u-he Runciter and Aegean Pitchproof on the fundamental and Valhalla Delay on other harmonics], Phonolyth Velvet Machine, Aberrant DSP Lair
- NL Elmyra 2 through NE Lacrima Versio and Djupviks Bunker Archeology, BW Grid [wavetable LFO amplitude modulation in stereo], BW Convolution
- VCV Rack [4ms Ensemble Oscillator], Wavesfactory Spectre, Valhalla Delay
- WR Just Friends, BW Freq Split [with BW pitch shifters on 3 of the 4 groups], Moogerfooger MF-104S Delay
9: Cold Iron
- all bells: MI Rings sequenced by MI Marbles, Rossum Morpheus, MI Beads, Valhalla Room
- drones: NE Manis Iteritas Alia & Ataraxic Iteritas, NE Librae Legio, Sinevibes Droplet (played on MN 0-Ctrl)
- mournful howl and thumps: Eastrock electric kalimba played using a Landscape Ferrous, Aberrant DSP Lair
- shakers: IME Zorlon Cannon mk2, Rabid Elephant Natural Gate, Audiothing Fog Convolver
- shakers: Aodyo Anyma V, NE Librae, Audiothing Speakers, Audiority Xenoverb, Valhalla Delay