In 2006, shortly after moving into Rubulad, I embarked on a journey deep into the sounds of my shocking new environment. Even when the place was empty, the house was ALIVE with sound. Armed with a new pair of microphones and my trusty old DAT recorder, I collected every sonance I came across: The rain, squeaky chairs, the birds outside, pots and pans, etc.

After my home was thoroughly documented, I turned to my friends for the worlds they could unlock and the new sounds that were trapped inside. One lucky night, I was let into a large photography studio in Manhattan and given tacit permission to switch on and record all of their machines. Glorious! Scanners, paper cutters, motorized enlargers all laid down their alien tunes into my microphones.

As my collection grew, I began to incorporate the sounds into my music. First as mere textural augmentation to liven up my synthesizers, but quickly the organic sounds took over. Synthesizers felt dead and boring in the new found light of crickets and leaking faucets!

I composed at a furious rate. Instead of oscillators, I used my new collection of waveforms but my process kept many of the same tools as before: filters, delays, and pitch bends all got heavy use. The result was a organic-technological hybrid that I was thrilled to exploit.

Here are a few of my favorite moments of that era. Most of the pieces were under a minute in length so I've combined my favorites into two larger files.

Part 1 is a collection of the quieter, texture focused work. Part 2 introduces rhythm and drive. Go ahead and get comfortable before you dive in!

Part 1 (6:09)

Part 2 (8:28)