Enchants my Mind the Most First created around atmospheric sounds in the key of e minor, I dabbled with various vocal “ooo” lines to build upon the atmosphere. For this piece, drums and atmosphere were my initial skeleton. When melodics skeletons are absent, ie: guitar, piano, I typically start small, combining various little elements together, and build upward. When I was ready to make the idea come to life, I contacted a long time friend, Evan Kieffer, to make the sounds coming out of my brain/mouth (more to less) to be skillfully made with his Korg. Evan and I dabbled for quite some time. I sang synth lines for him to play, and he threw in his own ideas and tricks. Evan also added guitar to help drive the rhythm. By this time, the song had a heathy amount of meat on the skeleton, but it was missing skin and tissue. I also placed various effects and manipulated sounds. (Some manipulations were dragged, cut, and chopped on the spot, others came from a folder containing samples that I’ve previously recorded) I also recorded gobs of auxiliary percussion. A list: frog FX shaker, rattle with walnuts, soft-shaker, cowbell, triangle, a chime in e, vibraslap, rainstick, ocean drum, and symbol. Tentatively, I have Superior Drummer Midi drums playing a progressive rock-groove with various fills and pauses. MIDI thunder drums are also penciled-in. Lastly, vocal samples of the legendary physicist “Julius Sumner Miller” is sprinkled throughout the piece. 00:00-00:33: atmospheric layers of “ooo’s”, various electronic manipulations, a synthesizer launching off, an accidental recording of a delay petal while a phone vibrated near the guitar. Some light percussion: ocean drums, rainstick and one symbol swell. 00:34-01:02: Drums enter, thunder drums hit, chime rings, cymbals splash, the synth erupts, atmospheres intensifies, steady progressive rock groove (The kick on the drums is sent to a slight distortion) with groovy guitar. More “ooo’s” enter at the second part of the phrase, with a quiet shaker to add feel. 01:02-01:18: Simmers down, builds up to first sample of “Julius Sumner Miller”. 01:18-01:48 Erupts with nearly all the toppings. 01:48-02:02 Drum Beat changes, cued by vibraslap and the climax of the vocal sample. The frog shaker makes it’s debut. 02:03-002:20 Triangle dances in the speakers, and various other elements take off. The phrase ends with a splash and vocal command. 02:21-02:49 Phrase breaks down and enters a tom-tom state exhibiting melodic synthesizer and layers of sound. 02:50-03:19 All the kingdom and it’s men: The rattle makes it debut, aux percussion is in full swing, the synth is singing, the “ooo’s” are ooo’ing and all is alive in the piece. 03:20-END Exits with vocal sample, various electronic manipulations and the piece comes to a quick close.
Kieffer, Electronic, Acoustic, "Julius Sumner Miller" by Nick Magoteaux