Apple II Music release (FREE!)

["Simon D. Williams" <bb065@chebucto.ns.ca>]

Hello CSA2!

The main reason I decided to participate in this year's [horribly
disorganized] RetroChallenge was that I wanted to dedicate a good chunk of
time to a recording project that I've been planning for a while...

The idea was to collaborate with a composer to create a full-length CD of
music performed entirely using my own "TimeLord" sequencer program running
on an Apple II. Anyone who's *tried* using TimeLord will appreciate what a
challenge this really was ;-)

I managed to rope in J. Warden of The First Punic War as composer, with
the instructions to come up with 16 compositions written in hex and
mathematically derived... The stipulation that the tunes were written
in hex was a practical one, since TimeLord has an enormous 15-note range
(plus the silent or "rest" note). The mathematical derivation was thrown
in largely because Mr Warden is generally considered to be something of a
math whiz... also I wanted to avoid ending up with something that sounded
derived from poular music -- perhaps something that might be appreciated
by a sentient computer, if I may be so futuristic ;-)

The hardware used in the recording was my *beloved* Bell & Howell ][+,
taking the output directly from the A/V expansion "backpack" and routing
it straight into my Fostex digital 8-track. I did some experimentation
with amplifiers and simple effects, but in the end opted to use the raw
Apple II sound without effects or equalization. Most of the pieces had
three or four layered tracks.

The music itself turned out much better than I'd anticipated (though it
will still only appeal to a very limited audience)... I'd describe it as
"high-octane lo-fi jazz" for the most part, though some of the tracks are
quite whimsical, and a few border on more industrial/metallic territory.
With a few "remixes" it ended up at 20 tracks totalling about 48 minutes.
I've uploaded all the tunes to the Internet Archive, you can find them at:

http://www.archive.org/details/Geometry_For_Lovers/

I'll have actual CDs available eventually, but I'm sure most of the CSA2
crowd would rather download it for free ;-)

Enjoy!
(or not)

-s
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