SRI GAJA

PERICLES releases in 2011 > > >

2011-11-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

The last post on this blog was over a year ago when I released my 'Rafael' GlitchFM original mix. A few months after 'Rafael', Asheville based label Waveform Modulations released my debut album 'Camel Rider'- a full on mystical bass adventure consisting of 17 tracks. Since then I have released several EPs, mixes, compilations, singles through soundcloud, and an album. 2011 was an interesting year to say the least. My live electronics group The Landsquid toured all the way from the southeast up through Montana and down through Colorado, churning back through Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas. We shared the stage with Nasty Nasty, Protohype, Conspirator, Bluetech, Eprom, and lots of fantastic future music artists. Upon returning to Atlanta, I set out to finish my new original mix called 'Ancient Desert Vol. 1', which was released in May. I then spent the summer and fall leading ghost tours and working at a museum in Charleston, where all of this dream had begun in 2007 while attending College of Charleston.

Throughout my time in Charleston I had been working on lots of new and different sounds, bpms, and synth usages, and had collected a few albums worth of this newer kind of music. So in October I decided to compile an albums worth, searching through these codes to see which linked together in the most pleasing way, and the result was my self released album 'Sun Beams'. The fun concept I have kept with this is that since it is posted on bandcamp, and is therefore constantly up for edits, I have been shapeshifting the tracks, like ancient swiveling dna morphing through time.

Originally 'Sun Beams' was 13 down tempo/ ambient pieces with a few bits of crunk or heavy bass here and there, but it slowly began oozing around into another form, much more future crunk/ dance vibe, and I'd say now it has found a balance point at 16 tracks representing just about all the energies I desired to express from the original point of conception.

As I type this up I am planning on making a move at the beginning of 2012 somewhere...it'll be either Asheville, Atlanta, Los Angeles, or maybe even some land very far away. It is to be seen. I have a lot in the works for the new year, lots of new releases, lots of new imaginary sonic realms to conjure up. That's the beauty of art/life/time, there's always a new part of the puzzle to uncover, and that is what keeps me moving forward always.

Here is a catalog of compilations + eps I've contributed to as well as my own mixes and albums since 'Rafael'.

Thanks for reading > > >

PERICLES releases:

Pericles | Camel Rider | CD Baby

Ancient Desert Vol 1 – Pericles – Mix Set – Free Download

LuRCH PacK - WereWoLF LuRCH EP by LuRCH PacK

Scratching at The Moon by LuRCH PacK

EXTRA CRUNK TERRESTRIALS by Wondrous Temple of Boom

BASSAGE THERAPY by GalaxC Girl

Sun Beams by PERICLES

COMING SOON: 'Ancient Desert Vol. 2' Mix, Ambient Compilation through Waveform Modulations, Future Bass Comp through Vermin Street, Second Full Length Pericles album, + more!

Follow my soundcloud accounts where I release free tracks weekly:

PERICLES

FI3STO

ANDY KRUNKMAN

Isis Pericles

DL the official GlitchFM PERICLES mix "Is the Question Rafael?"

2010-10-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

PERICLES' official GlitchFM mix "Is the Question Rafael?" features 25 brand new original tracks!

Click the 'download' button on the far right of the tab below--->

PERICLES- Is the Question Rafael (OFFICIAL Glitch.FM mix 2010) for Btwn 0|1 by Between Zero and One

PERICLES- Star Key (Free DL!)

2010-06-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

PERICLES- STAR KEY by PERICLES

As an artist, it's a beautiful thing to observe ones own creations as they evolve over long periods of time. The original loop for this track once resided only at the very end of a track from very early 2010 entitled "It's Please". On a few occasions, as I listened through this track, I found myself captivated by a heavily effected melodic groove that was originally created as an outro variation to use in live performances.

After my intuition was triggered by these sounds a few times, I went into the lab and extracted the groove as a loop. It was an E flat quarter note pattern put through a VST synthesizer that has multiple interweaving filter cutoff modulations, giving it a very liquid psychedelic feel. I took the original bpm of 176 down to 140 to give the notes more clarity and time to resonate. After sculpting the loop into its new home, I duplicated it 64 times. The track was then a 5 minute long entrancing sonic mantra, but it felt like it had room still to be filled in, so I went back to "Its' Please" and extracted one of the pad synthesizer VSTs and played with different chord variations to see what brought out and provided foundation for the already existing riff. After a bit, I found the sounds that completed the equation, and the intentions for this remix were fulfilled.

I titled this 'tranceforever', and used this as intro/outro/transition material in my live sets and as a meditative tool over the last few months, but didn't feel the urge to take a different level. However, today as I was meditating in my room to this track streaming out of my monitors, I found myself mentally creating sounds all around what I was hearing, and more than anything else being compelled to add some heavy half time drums over it.

Being as today is my Mayan galactic signature birthday, Blue Lunar Hand, I felt compelled to create something seeing as many universal forces were lined up. The first thing I did in this track was to bring up the drum sampler VST Battery as the second layer to the already existing 'tranceforever' audio file, which was still set at 140 bpm. I intended to write some thunderous crunkstep style drums to invoke a tribal shamanic vibe that would pace the loop at the half time feel and give my brain more of a format with which to base the bass on.

Once I had a good mix between the original loop and the drums, I started pulling out treasures from my 'random samples' folder including quotes from Martin Luther King and Lil Wayne. I pulled the 3rd dimension out of all the new samples with tens of effect patches as well as manual glitch cut and pastes. Quickly I had an entire sonic world of pyschedelic swirls to complement the drums and groove loop.

The next step was to create the bass with the vst plug-in Massive, which as any producer knows is some of the most fun! When I create my bass lines, I go into Massive and activate 3 oscillators, usually dedicating two of them to the low register octaves and one of them as an additional higher octave. I play with which filters sound best and once I have set one, I map it out and create a basic wobble. Once I've got all the sound design finished and the bass is sounding nice and three dimensional, I play with all variations of wobble setting, and usually end up with a very slow wobble rate but a very jagged micro modulator that gives the bass a sonic key edge feel.

The next step is finding a melody that ties all previously existing elements together, and once again Massive is my preferred vst for this step as well. In this process, sometimes I will get extremely detailed and complex with creating the rhythm of melodies, and sometimes I find that the most simple minimal style works best, as I did for this track. Once I have a track at this level, I step back and analyze all existing sections and sounds and listen through a few different variations. Sequencing is one of my favorite parts of production because it is in essence creating the very telling of the sonic tale.

After I have the track in an order I feel good with, I begin to use various VSTs to create transitional sounds between sections that create a cohesive uniting flow from one chapter to the next. From this point I have a working track that could be considered finished, but this is really just the beginning of another major editing stage during which I apply glitches, build ups, further transitional entities, and create final arrangement. This can be the longest phase in production. When I have at last solved the sonic puzzle, and have rendered it to a single wav file at -5-7 decibels, it goes into the mastering machine Izotope Ozone.

This device is unbelievable and provides the final boosts, EQs, and polishing over the production. I'll render a few variations and audition them on as many sound system dynamics as I can to ensure the final track is clean, full, and every single choice made or left unmade is exactly what I want.

Enjoy this free DL and stay tuned as the SRI GAJA release on Waveform Modulations this fall draws closer. Here is a screenshot from today's work:

PERICLES- Ancient Tunnel of Eyes

2010-04-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

The track, "Ancient Tunnel of Eyes", was originally created during my two week experimental phase of production for CAMEL RIDER II. My goal was to consistently maintain impulse and see each sound through to where it belonged. To me, the sounds become such delicate child-like figures that I become emotionally attached to the space they live in. My entire production ethic parallels this motherly feeling I experience with my sounds. However, in the case of "Ancient Tunnel of Eyes", I ended up reworking just about every little part of the whole track multiple times before the midi rubiks cube was solved, and even once I felt all necessary choreography had been completed I still felt the urge to rearrange. Like all crafts, with enough dedication to these details and an understanding of the symbiotic nature of the relationship between creator and created, a harmony can be found, the majestic beauty being the fact that the same path can truly never be tread twice.

Here is a screenshot of the 'ancient codes':

All of my recent production has all been in the spirit of pushing myself further and further into what I call the feeling of 'Ancient Desert', and each day and night I have been breaking down walls, perpetually discovering new sources of freshness. What excites me the most is that I have yet to utilize my secret weapon for my SRI GAJA album- a certain one of a kind VST that synthesizes these specific types of sounds I have literally been craving my entire human life! More on that soon, and also the expected due date for SRI GAJA is ~summer, and I'll be producing tracks for a few different compilations and EPs to be announced soon s wel!

Mythos (SRI GAJA sounds)

2010-02-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Mythos by PERICLES

This is a psy-scape of sounds created for the album...a gathering of the elephantine elements, free DL, enjoy!

Grab my latest productions!

2010-02-10T06:13:00.001-08:00

Latest tracks by PERICLES

Trunk Swing- free DL!

2009-12-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a recent sample straight out of the land of ancient warrior elephants, "Trunk Swing". ENJOY! A version of this could end up on the album, but for now it's an experiment in creating pachydermic motion.

PERICLES- Trunk Swing by PERICLES

Free Mixtapes: "Is the Question Rafael" + "Camel Rider"

2009-12-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

FREE DL of 'IS THE QUESTION RAFAEL', the official PERICLES GlitchFM mix:

PERICLES- Is the Question Rafael (OFFICIAL Glitch.FM mix 2010) for Btwn 0|1 by Between Zero and One

Thanks to all who've been following the creation of "Sri Gaja" on this page! During my time in Atlanta this Thanksgiving I was inspired to put together an assortment of sounds from the last six months or so: live set all-stars, tucked away treasures, sane sounds, as well as brand new never before released arrangements. The result was "Camel Rider", a 45 minute flow of pyschedelic low end tronica. This is a free download, enjoy!
...........

http://www.mediafire.com/?zimmm3yj5l0

Track listing:

1. Gathering: Requiem
2. So Sayeth
3. Camel Transport
4. Divine Aphasia/Meditation One
5. Starfield Funkstep
6. The Dubsnake vs QUETZATL's Gong Hitz
7. Whompa Ambush (Pericles *supa* ancient airbus remix)
8. Prism Walker
9. Uncle Elf
10. Ganymede
11. Human Karma
12. Requiem: Resting Soul

Eggs Hatching!

2009-10-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

A few updates: I've been busy as an ancient camel creating new sounds of all sorts for this album as well as for my various live sets. For much of the summer, I directed my energy toward creating production versions of tracks for both the PERICLES and SOOTHSAYER projects, and this fall I've been using most of my studio time developing tracks exclusively for the live realm. It's interesting how that process works- in creating a track for my live set I almost always end up with a distinctly different kind of sound and feel. This month, I've been developing tracks through the live set creation process rather than the linear method and have become more and more accustomed to that style.

So with a few live sets full of current material, I've returned my focus to Sri Gaja. Quite recently I moved into my new place out on Folly Beach and finally transported the ancient wizard studio to it's new home! The new place is incredibly condusive to such a creative process- we have an indo board, inversion table, and even a loving dog, plus a tidal creek in our backyard, so I've been taken care of whenever I need to step out of the sorcerer's den for a moment.. These things greatly ease the toll on the mind and body of staring at a computer screen essentially for hours on end, blasting the same sound into my ears over and over and over again... not that I'm complaining!

With all of that updating being completed, here is a chunk tranported from the depths of the SRI GAJA digital engine...the soundtrack to the ancient elephant warrior ritual:

(I'll be DEEP into this album for the next two and a half months, check back for more reports on the development of the story and the sounds!)

(((this clip loops after one minute and four seconds...the FL8 elves got to it, ignore this gratuitous looping!)))

PERICLES- Sri Gaja Clip One by pericles

The Ancient Camel Guide- a new chapter!

2009-08-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

In a recent session of deep meditation, I repeated as my mantra:

"I have prepared myself to receive and understand your knowledge."

__________________________

For this particular peice, our hero SRI GAJA has wandered into misfortune in the cosmic desert... he is deeply confused and tries to find patterns from which to make sense of his experience...as he reaches the end of hope, a mystical ancient camel fulfills his own role in fate, and shows Sri Gaja the Way.

SOOTHSAYER- Ancient Camel Guide by SRI GAJA

First Steps

2009-08-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today I took the first steps in creating the first steps of Sri Gaja, and by that I mean the first physical steps of a young elephant, not the metaphorical first steps of the album itself (although both are true).

The first thing I wanted to accomplish rhythmically was to create a contrast of balance and imbalance- sturdiness and steadfastness. I also wanted to melodically create the tension that tells of this same relationship.

Since I've been using drum kit libraries instead of a drum vst like battery, it makes for a more painstaking rhythm creation but also allows a lot of freedom for intricate touch up. I usually load up several kicks, snares, hats and the such to get started, and once I have all the technical things taken care of- levels, compression, frequencies...then I go ahead with dragging random drum hit samples into a playing loop of a bar or two (or a measure). With the ability to do so much to every little instance of sound, I find this technique (of dragging random samples in) to be a lot of fun as well as a learning experience. It's possible to take a random open hat that doesn't sound good at first and transform it into a digitalized wash at the end of a bar by reversing it and transposing it down or up a full or half octave (this can be heard in a lot of my tracks, this one below included).

Once I have drums worked out, I listen to what kind of sounds they are forming together, and make selections for melodic ideas. Massive is a beast of a VST, and I use it for literally everything. Creating fatboy bass lines from scratch is simple, and you're able to get sufficiently deep with carving out the exact sounds desired. For this attempt, I wanted to focus on creating the special wobble movement that would capture the sway of an elephants walk. I experimented with more complex movements, using triplet ramp LFO settings among others, but I found the simpler wobble to be the more effective one for this compositions purpose.

For this first sketch of my elephant Sri Gaja taking his first steps, I wanted to go with some mundane as well as epic sounds to show both the organic/innocent nature conceived as well as foreshadowing the future of the warrior elephant and his growing power. This was accomplished with the use of the trusty E flat/D dissonance.

Here's a soundfile of this first experiment, the first sketch of Sri Gaja (which is exactly that: a sketch, not meant to be an actual track):

First steps by SRI GAJA

Welcome!

2009-08-02T19:44:00.001-07:00

Greetings!

I created this blog to describe and analyze the experience of producing my first official album- "Sri Gaja"- for Waveform Modulations. In this blog, I will explore the world of "Sri Gaja" and detail the musical creation that will be taking place over the coming weeks and months leading up to a 2010 release of this album. I'll be leaking preview/full tracks as well as loops that can be used by other producers to explore different paths of the "Sri Gaja" concept.

I am extremely honored to be releasing "Sri Gaja" on Waveform Modulations. As a label, WM has promoted the more experimental and cutting edge styles of 21st century electronica, championing the mystical/esoteric side of futuristic sound creations and featuring producers from across the United States as well as the UK.

Needless to say, I am thrilled to be able to go into the creation process with a truly open and unbounded energy.

For every producer, the creation process is totally different. Some start with one particular musical/rhythmic element, some sequence the progression mathematically and color in the shapes, and some start with a basic mental concept and experimentally 'solve the puzzle' of the track through testing sound after sound. There are endless ways, and the beautiful thing is that all are the correct way.

My method (and probably the method of many other artists) is to channel from the abstract into concepts from words, images, or mind sounds and go blindly into the actual creation of the music. I feel that if one 'tunes in', the music will manifest itself via previously existing thoughtforms or instantaneous jumps of energy that can be translated from the abstract into musical notes, sounds, or rhythms.

Like most musicians, producers, and composers, my mind very seldom stops creating sounds, hence my spaceman nature...much of the time I am totally immersed in another dimension, hearing or creating music, and very likely appearing catatonic.

This is the model I have chosen to create "Sri Gaja". I have been pondering what to do with the album since spring, and have been awaiting the right time to start. I kept my mind and thoughts open to ideas for many months, knowing I would recognize the right idea when it came. Shortly after Transformus 2009 (the southeasts annual burn), the elephant came to me.

It was not too long ago that I recieved the concept- tribal rhythms were floating in my mind along with thoughts of the ancient fire ritual when I noticed the elephant. The tribal rhythms became a pounding, spaced out broken beat- very much in the dubstep style but even slower- the snare drum hit was being represented by a massive elephant's heavy leg slamming the earth- shaking the ground with every step . Each gracious movement of this giant creature was part of the deeply layered rhythm- from the muscle contractions in its shoulders to the sway of its huge belly as it moved around- the elephants movements and the music were one and the same.

Naturally, I became fascinated with the elephant and realized how incredibly majestic the creature is, yet how incredibly gentle and peaceful it is at the sametime- a wonderful manifestation of yin/yang energy...a beautiful and perfectly controlled wobble- symbolically representing the mystique of well crafted subsonic movement.

I began researching more and more about elephants, about how they live- their incredibly complex social order, their rituals of mourning the dead, their astounding memory and emotional depth, and the lessons humankind have learned from the nature of this pachyderm.

In both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, elephants are deeply revered as sacred creatures for their nature as 'gentle giants', for the fact that they inherently have so much power to use for good or bad in their sheer size and might, much like an actualized human mind, so they became a model of the disciplined mind- like lightning in a bottle.

Taking in as much information as I could about elephants and their role in this world, I found the name 'Sri Gaja' to be appropriate for the intention of this album. 'Sri' is the prefix Indians give to honor or venerate sacred entities and 'Gaja' is the Hindu word for elephant. My goal with the creation of this set of music is to primarily honor the creature's sacred nature, which extended to the concept of telling a musical story of an ancient warrior elephant- an actual individual ancient warrior elephant named 'Sri Gaja' and the experience of his earthly manifestation.

Since this will be a very long and drawn out process, I will be sharing my journey in learning more about 'Sri Gaja', his journey, and the creation of music that will express the experience. As I mentioned before, this is my very first official release, so it will be interesting to experience this process for the first time and see how it all turns out!

I'd be glad to answer or address any questions or comments on this forum, so feel free to start a dialogue or send some feedback.

Best,

Pericles

(for music and more info, visit www.myspace.com/djpericles)