Oak + Stag {the music diary}

Now with VOX

OAK STAG — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:29:08 +0000

Leave your comments on what you think. Please, DON’T spread the news. I’d like this to be heard mostly by critical ears before release. Here – you mutts!

02010APR24

OAK STAG — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:04:21 +0000

No new music right now. I’ve been messing around with some sounds, but nothing is really coming of it. Hopefully that won’t last forever. I’m mainly trying to diversify my sound just enough so it’s not the same as every other song – but also so it’s not so different as it could be a completely different project. … Below are some quick “for fun” promotionals I made using this map image I have.

02010Apr14

OAK STAG — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:31:35 +0000

Track title ideas. … I know this seems like a waste of time – and it sort of is… but I like some of the ideas anyway.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, EHRLER VOGEL

EHRLER, THE VIOLINIST

THE VOGEL FAMILY REUNION

EHRLER VOGEL AND THE YEAR OF THE DEER

EHRLER VOGEL AND SCIENCE

THE EHRLER VOGEL ROBOTS

PATRONUS OF EHRLER VOGEL

THE MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE OF EHRLER VOGEL

EHRLER VOGEL’S COMPUTER HEART

DAFFODILS FOR MARY BY EHRLER VOGEL

EHRLER VOGEL AND THE SQUIRREL IN THE CHIMNEY

EHRLER VOGEL AND LEONHARDT’S BEARD

EHRLER VOGEL AND THE BOW OF LEONHARDT

EHRLER VOGEL AND THE SWORD OF LEONHARDT

EHRLER VOGEL AND THE CROWN OF LEONHARDT

THE TWO DIMENSIONAL STARS OF EHRLER VOGEL

HENRY, ADELAIDE, AND EHRLER VOGEL

EHRLER VOGEL STUDIES A MIDIEVAL TAPESTRY

EHRLER VOGEL’S RECORD COLLECTION

THE SCATTERED NOTES OF EHRLER VOGEL

THE GRASS BEARD OF EHRLER VOGEL

EHRLER VOGEL WATCHES VINTAGE TV

EHRLER VOGEL’S COMET

THE EASTERN RELIGIONS AND EHRLER VOGEL

THE WESTERN RELIGIONS AND EHRLER VOGEL

HISTORY AND EHRLER VOGEL

THE FUTURE AND EHRLER VOGEL

02010Apr11

OAK STAG — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:33:56 +0000

I’ve decided on a name for my project. Well, my hand was a bit forced at this decision – but I regret it none the less. I just finished a minimal/meditative track for a four-way split EP with Specta Ciera, Saffron Slumber, and Carl Sagan’s Ghost. The track title is The Northern Lights from Tromsø – and I consider this track part of my current projects about locations globally. Though this track idea was originally going to go towards the second album, this is a good way to keep the same idea flow in motion. … Oh, and my project name is after my Great Grandfather, who was a violinist for the early Symphony Orchestra in Tacoma (likely before it was the “official”). The project name is Ehrler Vogel.

03Apr02010 No. 3

OAK STAG — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:59:21 +0000

I decided to work out a track for a piano piece I was kicking around. I think I like it, I’m not sure yet. Any feedback is great. This should be it for today. I have decided that the album that this will be under is now known as “In the North Atlantic”. This track is “Northern Shores of Nova Scotia“

The lyrics are:

A constant lapping of ocean waters

sprayed sands of citrus hues

the old world sounds.

Her angelic voice

grains of snow dust

cover the ceasing beach wood.

Sand. Kelp. Barnacles. Driftwood.

The odor of the sea.

The clapping of water to rock and wood.

03Apr02010 No.2

OAK STAG — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:27:32 +0000

Okay. Here is the official update for today. I began experimenting with sounds today to see… you know, what sounded like what exactly and what I could do with it. I was going for a semi-binaural effect here while testing some percussions. Nothing special. I may update this post later today with some more experiments.

updated with the second experimenting below

03Apr02010

OAK STAG — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:39:05 +0000

Here are the two tracks I’ve done and am moving over to this blog from the old one.

Sunday Morning

This piece is “Sunday Morning”. … It’s another dirty track… less clicks and pops, but I grew tired of retaking do to mess ups. Please note that I am incredibly rusty at the frets and, as of right now, think I’m realizing that I don’t really like playing the guitar like I used to. It’s possible this is a learning step in understanding what kind of music I want to focus on and how I want to use certain tools in my music creation.

The Painter

“The Painter” in regards Bob Ross. 192Kbps/dirty track/due to lag, a bit of glitching occurs. It was just a quick recording.

Fox Owl Hare Loon Deer

OAK STAG — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:14:40 +0000

Meadowlark, Hare, Fox, Grouse, Owl, Loon, Bear, Deer

I think moving this to my other grouping of blogs may be a better idea. Here’s the post from the first blog (on tumblr)

I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do with this untitled music project. However, if I recycle the old song material (some of it at least…) I’ll probably go with the first album title of “The Fox Hunting Pastoral”.

Fox Owl Hare Loon Deer – are either track title features or …?? Words connected with Bugle, Marsh, Meadow, Fog, Hound, Remington…

… on creating music

OAK STAG — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:49:05 +0000

The following was an attempt at encouraging a musician friend of mine get over writers block:

I completely understand your problem. Let me instruct you in what I know (off the top of my head). In creating music, it’s most important to find ones own niche. The niche is comprised of what moves you, how you translate it/understand it, and how you project it. As unexciting as this may be at the moment, it’s important to understand that all the factors are necessary to fully realizing ones potential. Meditation is most important. One must understand how one feels about what they take in and how they want to project it. In my own experience, and understanding is reached by finding the organics of a sound. Comparative to nature and the universe, what does it sound like… what does it feel like. Indeed, when you’ve reached the understanding, you can practically touch it with your own hands.

This alone is not enough to create.

What you know of music is what you surround yourself with aurally (not just musically). What music does the furniture make? What notes do the steps make? To what gentle percussion does a leaf (preferably an Autumn Blaze Maple around the third week of October) make to what melody as it strolls down the sidewalk and down to Oak Lane? Then you’ll know the music.

When creating music, I understand it’s best not to worry about sound until you have a melody or base for your composition. … When writing a letter you type … then worry about the fonts. … Finally, I choose a simple sound and sometimes I let that inspire me, sometimes I just start making sounds. … Sometimes I just sit and look at the keys and think. Your niche will come when you have material. It will be apparent, maybe not at first, but it will be present like a white thread through the dark blue material of your collective music. So -….. worry about what it sounds like after you have material. … Soundscapes come just from manipulation of the smallest sound. 90% of the landscape of a meadow is grass.

Ok… I hope that helps. I left out a lot…and if you want to hear more, just ask.

Joe

PS: I also recommend Oblique Strategies.

an ambient revolutionists studies

OAK STAG — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:06:23 +0000

Currently I’ve only to say that this is the first post. For this first post I will enter an excerpt from Brian Eno’s “A Year With Swollen Appendices”*:

“ 23 February … Getting off the plane – a hint of sewage in the air, but somehow exotic and alluring. My driver tells me it’s Ramadan. We share a cigarette as we sit in Mercedes-rich traffic between beautiful orientalist buildings. Crowded, battered vehicles. Soft, cool air. Apartments studded with air conditioners. It’s nice arriving somewhere at night – night cloaks the mundane with intrigue. Solid traffic, people weaving in and out nonchalantly, drivers cursing very chalantly. A five- or six-year-old boy, arms full of cartons of cigarettes, dances thru five lanes of fast cars. Terrifying. The more wrecked the vishicle, the more sh*t stuck on it. People on mopeds – carrying kids, huge baskets, an oil-drum.

At the hotel, opening the curtains in my room and looking out into the night, I see, dimly, a dark amber against a hazy sky: the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Now there’s a justifiable use of capital letters.

Ate dolmas, watched TV, listened to echoey laughing Arabs outside. Jay Leno, that stutifyingly unfunny man, on TV. The pyramids in the dim night outside. And yet I am watching Jay Leno (better reception).”