This track produced exclusively on the OP-Z with a little help of some monks from the PO-33. The OP-Z is such a powerful little machine!
Percussion is a sample pack I recorded of pots and pans being bashed and scraped, with a crumpled plastic bag unfolding for ambient crackles.
The track finishes with a poem by David Whyte entitled ‘The Bell and the Blackbird’.
THE BELL AND THE BLACKBIRD
The sound of a bell
still reverberating,
or a blackbird
calling from a corner of a field.
Asking you to wake
into this life
or inviting you deeper
into one that waits.
Either way takes courage,
either way wants you to be nothing
but that self that is no self at all.
Wants you to walk to the place
where you find you already know
how to give every last thing away.
The approach that is also
the meeting itself,
without any meeting at all.
That radiance you have always carried with you,
as you walk both alone,
and completely accompanied in friendship
by every corner of the world,
crying Allelujah.
Here is a playlist of tracks I did this year on my OP-Z.
My new year thing this year was to get into making electronic music. It’s an itch I’ve needed to scratch for some years. I’ve had a great time doing 2020, despite all the shit that’s gone down globally.
Let’s hope 2021 isn’t such a back passage invasion.
Thanks for all the support I’ve had from this forum.
So here are a few (and my first) extended jams of ambient and electro/breaks music that wrap up pretty much all the songs/patterns I’ve made in the last 6 months since restarting making music after 10 years off (and selling all my old gear except a Boss DR660!). Three songs in each jam.
All songs are 99% OP-Z internal sound engines and samples, one use of a sliced up Amen Break, I just got a MicroFreak which I’ve used for a bit for pads and a couple extra basslines, and then there is a Korg NTS-1 for some reverb and occasional tape delay.
Grateful for any feedback, and thanks for all the help on this forum. It has been so fun to make music again and join this community. Looking forward to learning and playing more in 2021.
Also, I just released my new EP “Black Lights” exclusively on Bandcamp. All of the tracks were written and performed on the OP-Z with the OP-Z sequencing a number of external stuff like my Eurorack, OP-1, and the occasional VST. It made for a very fun and performative workflow when creating this EP. I hope you all enjoy!
Backing tracks for a homemade windsurfing movie made with the OP-Z . Probably only interesting for people who are interested in both surfing and the op-z.
We’re almost at the end! Just two more jams left to go. Today’s jam cam straight from my livestream over on Twitch. I used the usual OP-Z Modular setup (Plaits in a mono voice, Blck_Noir on drums, and the OP-Z sequencing it all and adding more elements itself). I really liked the pulsing bass part on the OP-Z when combined with the bass “growl” on Plaits.
My custom guitar + OP-Z rig running Ableton from a backpack. Really starting to love these combinations and finally getting the hang of improvising with them together!
