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Feeling this out - Solo project from me (NOT jazz!)

Jim Alfredson

By Jim Alfredson
in Miscellaneous Music

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Jim Alfredson Enthusiast

Jim Alfredson

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Hey hey...For those who are on Facebook you may have read that I've been working on an album of electronic-based music, decidely not in the jazz camp. Nor do I play any Hammond organ on it for that matter (again, on purpose). It's all synthesizers and (gasp!) drum machines / samples!The project really came into focus a few months after my father passed away in May of 2008. In the early spring of 2008, he called me and inquired about an old Yamaha synthesizer that we bought (well, I was 13 or 14 years old at the time... so he bought it!) and mentioned he wanted to get back into creating ambient music again. I had played that Yamaha (the SY77 for anyone who cares) every day all throughout middle school and high school and even used it on some very early gigs with Root Doctor. I replaced it with a newer Yamaha (the EX7) in 2001 and rarely touched it after that. It had some broken keys, the screen was dim and barely legible, and many of the buttons were flaky. In short, it needed some work, the poor thing!

Brief history: My dad was a guitarist but also played a bit of organ/piano. He made his living on the road up until 1980 or so when he began practicing the art of piano tuning and repair. After leaving the road he devoted the next several years of various late nights to recording all his own tunes using a very humble home studio set-up in our living room. All seven kids and my mom would go to bed and he would quietly record his songbook, consisting of hundreds of original songs which he collected under the name Gabriel's Horn. After he finished he sort of retired the guitar and got into synthesis and ambient music.This was right around the time the venerable Yamaha DX7 was becoming very affordable, so he bought one and a four-track cassette machine and away he went. This was also right around the time I started to get into writing my own songs and so I spent countless hours on that synth. We eventually sold the DX7 and a bunch of other gear and bought the SY77 in 1991.

Anyway, my dad in the spring of 2008 wanted to use the SY77 again. I told him I would fix it up for him because he couldn't use it in the condition it was in at the time. Of course, I never got to that point before he passed away. After his death, I felt an urge to pull out that SY77 and start playing it. I found some user groups on the web, downloaded a bunch of sounds, and ordered new parts to fix it. I became hooked on synthesis again, as when I was a kid. I was already feeling the synth bug on the last organissimo recording, which features some cool Moog work (if I do say so myself!).

I started to piece together snippets of ideas late at night over the next few months. After finishing Greg Nagy's solo album this past spring, I really dug in and arranged my studio into an all out synthesizer haven (and nerd fest!) and dove heavily into finishing these tracks.

Here's a shot of the studio and my setup:

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Ok, long story kind of short: The album is almost done. It's all electronic and synthesized with the exception of the use of my Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos on a couple tracks. I used various Yamaha, Korg, and Roland digital synthesizers as well as some nice analog synths from Moog and Studio Electronics. There's rhythmic stuff (but not techno or glitch), some very ambient stuff, some floaty sort of old Tangerine Dream-esque stuff, etc. but its all very melodic; that's one thing I wanted to bring out. Barely anything is sequenced; a lot of it was played live into the computer and I would just overdub this and that until it sounded good. The songs were inspired by random memories of my childhood and growing up with two hippie parents, especially my dad who was very creative and loved weird sounds. Its my tribute to him (and to my mom) and the home they made for me.

It's called In Memorandom and I'm hoping to have it out by my dad's would-be 69th birthday on December 6th. Here is the cover art with a beautiful digital photographic image by local artist Jim Colando (who also supplied the image to organissimo's Groovadelphia):

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Since I know there's no market for this thing, its going to be a very limited edition run of actual CDs. Like 100 at the most. I can't really afford to do much else nor do I think I'll sell many anyway. If you're interested, I'm thinking $25 for the CD, shipping included to anywhere in the world. The packaging will be first-rate; four panel full color Digipak. I just love that image of Jim Colando's... it's going to be very beautiful. The music is just about 70 minutes total, with no piece longer than 7 minutes. Lots of different moods and sounds. It's really a headphone album.Anyway, contact me if you're into this kind of stuff. Click here for some samples and to order. Put on some headphones and check it out! :) Thanks!

Edited by Jim Alfredson
Added samples and ordering info
papsrus Newbie

papsrus

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I'm generally not into this sort of stuff at all, but knowing the history of your project, I might just give it a try.

Thanks for laying this all out. Will look forward to the samples.

Big Al Collaborator

Big Al

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Sign me up.... you've got 3 daughters to feed! :) Plus, if it embodies the spirit of your dad (like his writing did, especially Under the Sun), then this will be a wonderful treat to listen to.

Kevin Bresnahan Mentor

Kevin Bresnahan

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If you're interested, I'm thinking $25 for the CD, shipping included to anywhere in the world.

Jim - As I noted on your Facebook page, it's a bit like the Tor Lundval LPs I've been spinning lately, so I ordered a copy. The PayPal page adds shipping. No biggie for me (leave it on there for my order) but I thought you'd like to know.

Looking forward to hearing it.

Kevin

mikeweil Mentor

mikeweil

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Keep the shipping ... looking forward to listening. I hate drum machines :P , but it sounds like you did some nice things with them, like 5/4 rhythm etc.

Edited by mikeweil
Jim Alfredson Enthusiast

Jim Alfredson

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Is it still adding shipping?

There are two songs in 5/4 on the record, totally by accident. I don't sit down and think "Oh, I'm going to write something in such-and-such time signature." Usually I don't even notice that an idea is in an odd time signature until I try to play it to a metronome! :)

Jim Alfredson Enthusiast

Jim Alfredson

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Don't worry, Joe. I'll still talk to you. ;)

I'm going into to Glenn Brown's to master the disc next week. I have one more idea I'm going to try this weekend on one of the tracks involving a prepared piano! :) But otherwise I think I'm done. I've been tweaking the mixes and getting things where I want them. This has been a very rewarding project in many ways and therapeutic for me.

These 100 copies will be signed and numbered, by the way. :)

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