disquiet0013-wildup, disquiet Kaboodle Sound
Shoktasovich [disquiet0013-wildup]

This is another assignment for the Disquiet Junto.

This week, we had to make something new from 10 multi-stem live recordings, using only those recordings as the source material. The recording was a superb performance of Dimitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony - Op. 110a, by the Los Angeles chamber enesemble, 'wild Up'. I took this to mean we were still able to employ effects, so I did...

I cut up the bass, cello and one of the violin tracks using Audacity. I mixed all 10 live stems in Audacity, and also cut up pieces of that. I used the samples - a variety of loops and one-shot hits - in my Korg Electribe (again), and played and sequenced the samples in a variety of ways.

I used the sound of something being knocked or tapped (conductor's baton? instrument bow?) from the very beginning of the recording, and made it into a kind of percussion. I also used filters and sample chopping to make some bass parts work as a kind of percussion, too. No other instruments or sounds were used - everything in this remix is just effects, filters, modulation and timing.

The whirring sound in the background is Shostakovich spinning in his grave.

I didn't do what I set out to do; I thought, as the piece is fairly dark and sombre, that I would try and fashion an upbeat, happy track out of it. However, the recordings (being live, rather than studio) all contained a fair amount of bleed-through, and the original recordings ended up dictating the needs of the remix more than I anticipated. In the end, I tried to go with the twin ideas: "what would a classical composer do with a sampler?" and "how far away from the original can I get, with the samples and equipment I have?". Given more time, I might have tried to follow a classical structure or arranged things a little differently.

The image is adapted from this one.

Many, many thanks to wild Up for contributing their superb performance for our use in the Disquiet Junto.

I have licensed this recording under a traditional copyright, as wild Up's original is licensed that way. I strongly urge you to check out their original recording:
wildup.bandcamp.com/track/cham...op-110a-i-largo

More on wild Up at:

wildup.la
wildup.tumblr.com

Listen to the original recording at:

wildup.bandcamp.com

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto