Recorded May – July, 2023

This piece is part of a mostly closed-form exercise I assigned myself. I remembered back to a college poetry class where the instructor made us write in very specific parameters sometimes (for example a haiku needs to be a certain amount of words and lines) – often this would help create in ways that felt fresh. I also thought back to early chip-based computer game music where despite being limited by technology, there were still some early composers in this field that thought up incredible creative and accessible music with their heavy tech limits.

Here I chose a set of synth instruments to use before actually coming up with any musical ideas. Most of the synth patches I chose were modeled after or inspired by additive FM synthesis which really first gained widespread use and popularity in the early to mid 1980s. As a result, some of the resultant music sounds very specific to the time period. Perhaps another interesting exercise would have been to use these same sounds but in ways not often associated with 1980’s pop culture. Although maybe the result would sound a bit less accessible. I enjoyed making this piece and hope you enjoy also.