While I gather ideas and techniques for more electro-orchestral piece I like to just chill and play some guitar. Here a software called Wotja does the background while I freely improvise on top.

So for this (early) Black Friday I managed to get a good price on a Korg Wavestate. This is the first experiment done with it, along with some bass guitar playing. Being my first dabble with it, there are some weird timings here and there and the bass is a bit low in the mix but I can see some great time up ahead with this machine! It does have a bit of a learning curve, but oddly enough it's one of the most insta-gratifying instruments I had. I used pad, strings, flute and taiko samples and the way you can sequence them so quickly and musically is bound to give some awesome inspiration.

Here's an unusual one from me this week. I happened to be near a cello so I did a sparse improv on it, more about texture and rhythm than actual melody and development. Then I added a drone and some FX courtesy of a really washed out radio sound.

I was looking to get a specific synth sound made from two parts...and I only kinda got it :)) Nevertheless I improvised electric guitar in B minor over this layer, as well as some easy drum part.

This has part post-rock part folky vibes. I used both electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums & percussion and a little bit of voice. It is made for a friend as a birthday gift.

With more and more work this week I had only time for a little jam without a chance for later additions. However I managed to improve how I am able to switch on and off different layers of the loop, even if more development would have been needed in some parts. There is a chord layer from the iPad supplemented by the MicroFreak playing arpeggios, bass guitar, electric guitar and voice plus a drum machine.

This week I continued the exploration of my current style by adding more rhythmic development in the form of a rhythm machine that constantly morphs a beat. A drone plays in the background and to this I added voice humming, bass and electric guitars plus a wooden flute and a short percussion moment at the end. At some points it sounds like some sort of electro-folk which is not a bad outcome as I'm looking to explore more traditional influences.

It's a one-take improv using two loopers (one for a microphone catching voice, flute and percussion and the other for the guitars). For the future I think it would be nice to use into how I can automate more variation in the drum (again the challenge is not to do much post-edit).

Now that I have a bit more time I did a more complete track this week reminiscent of my spring experiments. Over a drone and 12-string looper based guitar melody I added a drum & percussion subtly morphing pattern and a section with electric guitar plus some short wood flute pieces. Again I am happy that I managed to bring more development to melodies, even if I feel like some small changes could still be added when the loop is repeating as and testing a midi controller for better fading in and out of it.

For a week or two I am away from my iPad setup and thus my faithful looper and FX. However this meant I have a chance to rediscover the powerful effect modulation of VCV Rack and this is exactly what I did here. It's a simple electric guitar improv over an ambient texture plus very lo-fi drums, but I used two delays to create rhytmic interest (Chronoblob), the "pad" is actually an arpeggio sequence fed through Clouds and a tap delay while the drums are played with the XOR sequencer making them more varied and "unstable". For the looping I used a free vst that can be found around called GLoop - its controls can be mapped to any VCV utility.

Having been a bit on the run this week, today I only had a recording of a bit of a synth melodic pattern with some interesting delays. Thus I thought to make a more atmospheric track and added bass and guitar on top, making the rhythm a bit more free flowing than with drums and synth pads. It's in C minor.

Continuing the exploration of the melo-ambient style I feel that this week I've been better and giving the track a better sense of form. There is a now a much stronger build-up and climax of sorts and I'm very happy that it got to this since the process is still based on improvisation. There were three takes to this, one which consisted of the looper-based performance of 12 string acoustic, chants and percussion (from Novation Circuit) over a pad with LFO driven, self-oscillating filter coming from Arturia MicroFreak.

The sounds of the feddbacking filter somehow led me to imagine a mystical garden, along with the slight oriental theme the improv took in the later part. The second step was adding the bass and the third some synth lead patterns (also from MicroFreak).

Similar style with the previous weeks: acoustic 12 string, droning synth, chants, percussion, panflute. The drums are more complex and present, I actually recorded them in a separate take using custom samples triggered by a Novation Circuit. The tile comes from a need to see past constant limitation and all the perspectives that are being cut away especially in these times.

This week past in such a speed I barely believed today's Sunday. I haven't manage to prepare any material so this one is right in the same style as the previous: acoustic guitar, eerie chants, weird percussion some flute passages and an overall floating feel. It was a one take improv.

Listening to it now again before uploading I realised it gave me some memories of bands I used to listen quite a number of years ago: Arcana, Elend, Deine Lekein, Dargaard, Samsas Traum, Die Verbannten Kinder Evas and several more of the genre they used to call dark wave. Not saying it's a direct tribute since I only now figured this influence, especially since I haven't been listening to those in quite a while. Perhaps a subconscious hint? :)