Music

a MIFF soundtrack

Shawn composed a planetarium soundtrack to follow ‘Defending the Dark’ at the 2022 Maine International Film Festival. Each of The Year of Falling Stars’ tracks was inspired by a topic or mood: the Sun, our historical experience of the night sky, the birth and death of stars, our galactic neighborhood, and coming home to Earth and our planetary system. This was more like painting than traditional composing, eschewing melody and chord progression for washes of sound and arpeggiated phrases. You can listen to the album on bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

 

Shawn’s new EP, ‘Reflections’

Shawn just released a new EP, ‘Reflections’. Inspired by a triptych of John’s photographs, the EP is a stylistic departure: three tracks of techno and experimental ambient techno. You can listen to Reflections on Apple Music , Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon.

Sneak Peek

Get a sneak peek of the next full Album, “Rhythm,” with this playlist of ten new song demos.

 

Shawn’s album, ‘Here’

 

Shawn’s album ‘Here’ was mixed, mastered and (mostly) written and recorded during the isolation of the pandemic from 2020-21. The album combines jazz, dub techno, funk, and ambient dub, reflecting predominant musical influences over these past months. It features performances by guitarist Bill Kuklinski and saxophonist Tim McLaughlin on select tracks. You can listen to it on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

Don’t Fear the Remix

My friend Bill Kuklinski and his jazz ensemble recorded a smoky swing jazz reimagining of Donovan’s “First These Is A Mountain” (a song you might know as the Allman Bros.’ “Mountain Jam”). Bill and two fellow musicians gave me access to their stems. What resulted is a jazz hop remix and new arrangement, layering guitar (Bill), tenor and soprano saxophones (Tim McLaughlin), and piano (Tim Blackman) atop my programmed hip hop beats, percussion, and synths.

 

Electronic Funk

After hearing of Chick Corea’s passing, I spent a lot of time listening to the Return to Forever catalog. The bass line of this track was inspired by Stanley Clarke’s ‘Sorceress’; Bill Kuklinski adds some gritty guitar. This track will appear on the upcoming album ‘Rhythm.’

 

What’s Old Is New

I’ve been revisiting my back-catalog, with the goal of assembling a selection of tracks from my first four albums. This track is from ‘Merechel’, best described as “Jean-Luc Ponty and John Bonham walk into a bar…”

 

Africa, meet Ambient

“Izinkanyezi” (“the stars” in Zulu) is an African-influenced ambient piece combining big pads over an 8T rhythm, thumping drums and compressed snare fills, plus marimba and kalimba samples played by a randomized arpeggiator.

 

Homecoming

My second “COVID collaboration,” co-written with Bill Kuklinski. Bill improvised guitar parts over my initial 8-bar chord progression, Tim McLaughlin played sax over the draft track, and I extracted, sliced, edited, and arranged all the bits into a “nu jazz” piece atop a bossa nova beat. A sequence of improvisations culminating in a unison outro where the “band” only exists in the computer’s transient bit patterns.

 

Collecting Storms

My first “COVID collaboration,” where Bill Kuklinski improvised and recorded bass, rhythm, and lead guitar parts, then uploaded these files to me for editing, arrangement, production and all accompaniment. Bill recorded (mostly) in 7/8 time, while the drum track is 4/4; the timings slide past each other in a very pleasing way to create a chill polyrhythmic ambient jazz piece.

 

The Miscellaneous Society

Reggae-influenced ambient dub track combining field recordings from Nuremberg, Erlangen, and Munich with sequenced pizzicato synths and a vaguely Celtic melody.   Inspired by Androcell’s “Fungus Garden.” This song was created in Reason 10.4; Field recordings made using a Tascam DR-44WL. Best heard with headphones or full-sized stereo speakers.

 

F1.1

F1.1 is an electronic funk track born from its opening dub stab. I had been working with a cello sample in order to capture the string/vocoder sound in Basic Channel’s “Quadrant Dub.” After adding a series of delays and a funk bass line, it was telling me to go somewhere else. This track combines my love of 70s funk and jazz fusion. Best heard with headphones or full-sized stereo speakers.

 

Warped Space

What makes a song? In producing warped space I wanted to minimize the number of instruments and emphasize space. The drum track was laid down first, then one synth was played live over it, including one note that was held as a drone throughout. Atmosphere is created by manipulating the Sustain setting of the synth’s ADSR filter, along with a big reverb send effect, all the while keeping the drums tight. Best heard with headphones or full-sized stereo speakers.