Little Iceland in the Refrigerator - DRAFT

rik

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Description

A sort of tribute to all the marvelous music gushing out of the geyser island, and above all, to Sigur Ros and Mum...it's that they're icelanders, or that we're earthlings?

Anyway...I feel the song is not really complete, it's my first experiment with combining samples, rec'd ambient sounds and software instruments in a more complicated fashion than in "Sopra un Raggio d'Inverno".
Therefore, any comment, proposal, remix or addition will be merrily saluted...if any of course :)

Title comes from the circumstance that all ambient sounds are rec'd around or *inside* my refrigerator, with the Shure SM-58 at maximum gain :D

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Song Stats

Hits: 1066
Comments: 12
Fans: 1
Plays: 143
Downloads: 62
Votes: 4
Uploaded: Dec 18, 2005 - 07:21:05 PM
Last Updated: Jan 09, 2006 - 03:17:31 PM Last Played: Aug 14, 2009 - 10:55:26 PM

Song License

Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Song Actions

Keywords:

Iceland (5), Sigur Ros (6), Mum (1), post-rock (5)

Hardware:

Shure SM-58, UA-25

Software:

Logic Express

Comments

packosmokes	packosmokes said 1437 days ago (December 18th, 2005)
	And lo.... ...they threw me into the back of the cooler truck, opening it's inner gates to the wet moisture of a smooth jazzy club, floating in space and mist. Mutating to high rennaisance, all the while maintaining its lullaby, even through the sound of bustling people. Not intrusive, but comforting in its familiarity. Great stuff Check out my latest song called With You

rik	rik said 1437 days ago (December 19th, 2005)
	And lo.... Thanks, packosmokes, for your kind and so sensitive stream of impressions. A very pleasant and funny gift, of this days. Check out my latest song called Kind of Electric

The Composer

The Composer said 1437 days ago (December 19th, 2005)

Easy to hear the Sigur Ros influence here...
Particulary with the live Sigur Ros tracks I've heard or some of more
ambient tracks from Von. I agree with Packosmokes because its not
intrusive and feels somewhat comforting... probably because of how
the track is genearlly drenched in reverb, the chord progression is
repetitive though because you are varying the sounds that you are
using (like your voice, various sounds you pan left to right, melodies) it
doesn't become tedious.

The classic garageband drums will always annoy me to death but also
there's no life in them compared to the rest of the instruments. Each
hit sounds pretty constant (like they are the same velocity) which
makes it sound very mechanical and doesn't quite fit the sound. Of
course it would be ideal to get an actual drummer to do some
recording for this (I'd suggest with either brushes or mallets)... but if
that isn't possible... I'd preferr to hear a jazz kit (the software
instruments normally use brushes for these) which might give a
smoother free-er sound... and spend a little more time adding accents
into the cymbal patterns and try to run a randomiser/humaniser
through the kit (changes timing, velocity etc).

One other suggestion would be to try and sit it further back in the mix.
One of the impression I get with many of the ambient Sigur Ros tracks
is that the drums sound almost as if they were recorded in the adjacent
room which takes off some of the edge of the drum kit and lets it fit
into the ambient feel a little better.

The bell like synth used for one of the main melodies (the one thats
playing during the fade out), feels a tad harsh to me compared to the
rest of the sound bed... but I'm not entirely sure about that.

One last thing, the fade out feels a little cheap to me (I'm not a big fan
of fade outs anyway). I reckon you could tie the fade out into the
refridgerator theme a little bit more or something (depending on how
much you wanted to use the fridge). A suggestion could be to have a
recording of a loop laying on a CD player or some sort of system
outside of thhe refridgerator (with the mic still inside)... have the fridge
open to start with, then shut the fridge... then slowly fade down the
track on the CD player... which would leave just the ambient fridge
noise to end and tie back in with the beginning of the piece. Recording
objects like this in a space can sometimes produce very interesting
results that are hard to replicate with normal EQs and reverb effects.

Very nice though, still like your work and continue to look forward to
new songs from both you and DuoAzzoni.

Check out my latest song called 25 Minutes in a Japanese Restaurant (Readers Digest Version) (MJRF)

The Composer

The Composer said 1437 days ago (December 19th, 2005)

Easy to hear the Sigur Ros influence here...
To do with the Refridgerator idea... Björk did something similar in her
recording at the Milk Bar club... she had her band playing in the main part of
the club... and at one point she walked into the bathrooms and you could
hear when someone else walked in and opened up the doors.

---
The Composer, previously known as The Pianist who hasn't played the piano in a while...

Check out my latest song called 25 Minutes in a Japanese Restaurant (Readers Digest Version) (MJRF)

rik

rik said 1437 days ago (December 19th, 2005)

Easy to hear the Sigur Ros influence here...
Yes, I think this song is a very clear derivation of Sigur Ros as far as general
mood and some arrangement solution are concerned (drum track, the use of
distorted leads rich with harmonics). Ambient sounds, even if treated more as
a sort of narrative prologue, like in prog music, is definitely engendered with
some Amina's sound (definitely they're not reknown...but in the last year they
have toured on a regular basis with the Sigur Ros and they're getting more
popular...they deserve this priviledge, I think), as well as the bass track and
the little bells. Mum influence is less evident, but it's present in some synth
sound, as well as in the little "theme", with its simple and childish
atmosphere.

About the drum question...your observation about their quality are only too
just and I'm the first to not appreciate the result...let's consider this a sort of
prototype...like rendering a quartet score with midi. Within this limitations,
it's precisely this type of drum, not a jazz one, that I would like to hear on
this song. Having assisted to Sigur Ros gigs, I must say that even if the
recordings are very smooth their live mix of drums is very energic and
powerful.
Nevertheless I'll try getting some collab on this. Hoping this track it's not so
sleepy for a drummer :)

I agree also about the mix. It is very complicated for me, I have to refine my
ear on this: to achieve a groovy and still terse sound is what I see is most
difficult.

It's curious that you call the main lead "bell like". Maybe it's due to the sharp
attack of the sound. It's more like a baroque organ register actually (after
creating it I've played for almost an hour fake baroque organ music), even I
can agree with you that it's problematic to find the correct level with respect
to the rest of the mix. I like the crisp sound of it...maybe it's too crisp... :)

About the fadeout...yes, it's cheap :D but a reprise of the fridge ambient
sounded too obvious...so I was in doubt of posting this without a "finale" or
not posting it at all. I made up my mind for posting with the fadeout, even if
the ending it's a work in progress area, as a matter of fact...and I think I will
finally arrange something narrative for the ending, like for the beginning.
What to do with the Little Iceland in the Refrigerator? Maybe put it in the
microwave oven for defrosting? Hm...naa...

I thank you very much for the extremely useful analysis and for having
appreciated.

Check out my latest song called Kind of Electric

Mystified

Mystified said 1437 days ago (December 19th, 2005)

Nice ambient groove...
Whew! I'm glad The Composer left a comment before I did... :)

As far as my ears are concerned, I find 'theme pieces' like these
interesting simply because they make me listen and I don't know
what's coming next. This one--as has been commented previously--as
a comforting sense about it. I'm an observer, but it's okay to be
listening. The colors are muted, cool tones, and the voices warm. Nice
addition of the singing.....
I enjoyed listening to this!

Check out my latest song called For the Beauty of the Earth

rik	rik said 1437 days ago (December 19th, 2005)
	Nice ambient groove... Thank you Mysti. I'm glad that you all liked the atmosphere of the song..."comforting": I remember that since I was a boy I thought that what I loved most of music was the ... "comforting" side, now that I know how to say that. A curious, and partly really gratifying sensation, to have communicated this to others. Check out my latest song called Kind of Electric

	said 1431 days ago (December 25th, 2005)
	I Like the Tone Colors The singing was a surprise - a pleasant surprise. I could listen to music like this all day. It is very relaxing and at the same time hypnotic, entrancing - it holds my attention more easily and for longer than much busier, faster music can. Well done.

rik	rik said 1430 days ago (December 25th, 2005)
	I Like the Tone Colors I'm glad you appreciated, Mungo, I was wondering what you would have thought of this experiment of mine, since with this kind of electronic paraphernalia I'm an absolute beginner. So thank you for stopping by! Check out my latest song called Kind of Electric

rover101

rover101 said 1429 days ago (December 26th, 2005)

Drum concerns
It is not so much that you need a real drummer as someone with real
drum sensibilities to program them (getting a clean mix is much harder
with real drums, and this isn't really a style that NEEDS real drums)( Not to
mention that recording real drums is EXPENSIVE). I'd recommend
wandering around other tunes in the same category 'til you hear someone
doing something close to what you want (either way, real or computer) an
seeing if they will work with you.. Cheers, Shaky

Check out my latest song called Call My Baby Rover

rik	rik said 1429 days ago (December 27th, 2005)
	Drum concerns Many thanks for the advice, rythmic section is chinese for me, being for years exclusively a classical player (or at least a student). As far as this type of music is concerned, maybe you're right, I don't know, but I got the point. Check out my latest song called Kind of Electric

	SpeedingLed said 1399 days ago (January 25th, 2006)
	Hey This song has some awesome grooves...!!! Check out my latest song called Washed Away

Fan List

Mystified

Artist Info

Name: Riccardo

Hey, no big artist here! Just trying to have fun with my Clavinova. Although I am really dissatisfied with what I write, sometimes I succeed in listening back to my improvisations. Will I be able to improve my music by practicing improvisation and ... [see more]

Check out some of my other songs:

Genre Info

Ambient music is a loosely defined musical genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including jazz, electronic music, new age, rock and roll, modern classical music, reggae, traditional, world and even noise.

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