Silence and the Art of Bedroom Production

I mostly do my writing in Swedish, in places probably not frequented to often by English-speaking readers of this blog. I do this both professionally, and sometimes, well, for other reasons then putting food on the table. This blog is sometimes a rather quiet place, due to my other engagements.  

Other then blogging here, in English speaking fora I tend to write about music technology and its discontent. And perhaps not so unfitting, one of my recent contribution is about silence.

For SoundBytes Magazine, I contributed the article "What happens after the dot"? It's a short essay, an attempt at a philosophical understanding on silence in music.

"Silence is what happens before and after the dot. The full stop. On a smaller level, it is what happens between each word. Also the stillness which the words themselves may convey."

For Bedroom Producers blog I contributed a review of Twisted Tools Reaktor instrument S-Layer. It's an original sampler, as I wrote in my review:  

"I can see this working equally well as a percussive instrument – or as a sound design tool. The samples provided are fascinating and versatile, but you may of course also use it on your own libraries." 

I am of course welcoming any thoughts you might have on my essay on silence, or on the subject itself.

Musical Bees

Tone Hammer is a company based in Bay Area, California, USA. They specialize in high end virtual instruments and have recently recorded and released a lot of bee sounds, which they make available to musicians and producers. They explain the process in the video and show a gorgeous example of what they do with the sounds, once recorded. A hymn to an insect which is considered an important part of our eco-system.

Here is the song with the bee-samples without the explanation and video. Quite impressive as a musical piece in its own right.

Bees by Tonehammer