Upcoming activities October 15, 2017 No CommentHermit Crab is now on bandcamp – https://hermitcrab1.bandcamp.com/releases; on cdbaby – http://cdbaby.com/cd/hermitcrab; and on itunes – https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/hermit-crab/id1289927176 Aside from playing shows, there are a number of projects and/or possible projects coming up – video production with award-winning filmmaker Kyle Armstrong; dance production with dancer/choreographer Nancy Sandercock – https://vimeo.com/user4416477; and theatre production with director Sandra Nicholls, and writers Karen Wall and Michael Andrew. That last one is a theatre production presenting a vision of environmental apocalypse. You know. Rising oceans and drowning cities, crop plagues created by genetic mutation. That sort of thing. Hermit CrabShare : Tweet
Hermit Crab Bio October 15, 2017 No CommentHailing from the northern beauty of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Hermit Crab is the collaborative project between composer Dave Wall and the instrumental post-rock trio Gary Debussy. Using the classic two guitars/bass/drums rock band format, it combines the driving intensity of punk with minimalism and the harmonic sophistication of jazz. Noise, improvisation, and electronics are also part of the sound, creating a focused, exciting, and sometimes unpredictable experience. Hermit CrabShare : Tweet
Placement October 15, 2017 No CommentPlacement of notes is crucial for producing metric tension. Generally, the production of metric tension means notes not lining up with the pulse. Repeat the following example, and the notes in the top stave will line up with the downbeat of every bar, and nowhere else. Does the next example hold more tension or less? Conventional thinking says that more notes equals more tension, at least in terms of rhythm. However, to my ear (at least in this case), less notes makes it less predictable. Because of this, it holds more tension. For someone else, it may hold less tension, especially if they’re hearing a composite rhythm instead of a metric relationship. The measurement of rhythmic tension relies a great deal on number of notes. The measurement of metric tension looks at the relationship between pulse and the notes played against the pulse. Your experience of tension arises from how you are listening. These examples highlight the idea of defining different qualities of tension, instead of defining tension based on quantity of material. Quality is almost completely subjective, however. So how do we define rhythmic quality? Rhythm and MeterShare : Tweet
Circular Rhythm October 1, 2017 No CommentThis image… …informs much of my research. It’s pretty, but what does it mean? Visual template Essentially, it’s a template for visualizing metric and rhythmic tension. The outer circle shows four bars of the pulse in 4/4; each black dot is the ‘1’. Konokol Moving towards the centre, the next circle represents the South Indian karnatic system (konokol) in 1/16 notes; each coloured circle indicates an accented note. More on the karnatic system in later posts. 1/4 Note triplets The next circle is 1/4 note triplets (blue circles) against the pulse, and then 1/4 note triplets (red circles) superimposed against each two notes of the blue 1/4 note triplets. To do this, the blue 1/4 note triplets are conceptualized as a 1/4 note pulse then the red 1/4 note triplets are mapped onto that pulse in the same way that the blue are mapped onto the primary pulse (outer circle). Note that where the red circles line up with the blue layer, and you’ll see the 3:2 relationship. Usul The inner circle is a Turkish usul. Usuller (plural for usul), are rhythmic modes in Turkish makam music. The one that I’m using here is in 11/8. There are two ways to use this usul: as 11 against 4 (as used here) or as 1/8 notes against the primary pulse. Each circle, then, holds a specific rhythmic personality. Different personalities can be inserted by using different konokol patterns, different usurer, etc. I leave it to your imagination to find these personalities. Rhythm and MeterShare : Tweet
