New original composition: "Integral House Stimulus Package" (KP2-04)

This original composition by Kevan Paul was completed on the same day that the Wall Street Journal featured an article about a 21st Century architectural wonder nick-named "The Integral House", because the owner is a mathematics professor and author of many college text-books for calculus. He is also a violinist, so this piece fits perfectly with the theme. The result is a musical tribute to the "Integral House" with the word Integral added to the original title. Thanks to Shannon Kyles for generously allowing me to use her photographs. The violinist in the pictures is the owner of the home-concert-hall.

This new composition has many elements that are new to my recording efforts, but not all of the original ideas ended up in the final mix - some of these will be in the next composition. The title of the piece is a phrase that keeps appearing in the economic news, and is somewhat to the point of my wanting to create a stimulus package to help make creative things happen around me. More to the irony of the current situation is that everyone I know needs an economic stimulus package - so let's give one so that we may get one. The piece includes six different sections, which are repeated in various form with a chord pattern that starts with Gm7-F#m-Gma7-Dm-Dm-Em, etc. This is in a jazz-fusion modal form, which defies resolving to maintain the tension. The piano gives the underlying repetition in section 2,4,6, while the violin gives a soulful introduction in section 1. The "electric-guitar" gives us taunting questions throughout the piece, with no definite resolution to these musical statements. The repetitions pattern with the first quarter note rest followed by three quarter notes with varying levels of syncopation, is a deliberate statement of ambiguous rhythmic melody to further confuse and entertain. The statement of unison in the last section resigns itself to the current situation. These are the metaphorical undercurrents of the piece. I wanted to create something that sounded like some of the jazz-rock fusion pieces of the 70's and 80's that I love to listen to, while adding additional soundscapes such as the synthesizer rhythms and the "storm" during the second section. I hope the sun finally comes out - as metaphorically I've been waiting intensely for the spring storms to end and the real warmth to arrive so that I enjoy some outdoor activities in the sun. I happy with this piece because it includes my favorite jazz-rock fusion elements with violin.

New Re-Mix of Michael Hedges "Baal T'Shuva"

Since this song has received comments on the blog, I've re-mixed again to sound better. Thanks for input from JS54inMO; I agree with your observations. I re-mixed the recording with less volume on the shaker, fixed some note discrepancies on the violin and balanced the violin with the guitar better. Hope you like the new rendition better. - Kevan

New Song "A Better Way to Leave" (KP2-03) on "Going Home"

This new song started with a "pop" drum track at a moderate 104 bpm, and I want to continue to explore the "arppegio" synthesizer further as substitution for the traditional "rhythm guitar" track -- all the notes are there in a guitar chord, you just hear them all at once. Then I wanted to add an electric-violin track that emulated the electric guitar some more, as was introduced in the previous song "Through the Fog". For the violin, I wanted to add 1/5 up pitch and use double-stops for a melody that would further develop the mandolin introduction. It starts as if it is a country-pop song, but then is fused into a original melodic style that keeps the pop-drums and syncopated bass part as a constant counter-point to the violin part. Difficult to blend some of these elements, but I like the overall up-beat feeling that the song delivers. The title implies that there is a better way to leave a situation when there is a choice - pick the better way to leave the conversation, and you will be able to find a way back. Stay positive in thought and action - create peace! That's the meaning of this song.

New Album Started: Title: "Going Home"

Twelve more songs are on their way from my home studio in Payson, Utah. Breakthrough sounds of the electric-violin combined with several fusion styles will lead the listener down a creative road that will be surprising and original. One or more songs per month is the expected workflow, with a hopeful full release before July, 2009. I will be using a "Creative Commons" license for this work, but will allow commercial use with full attribution rights retained. Stayed tuned.

New Song: (KP1-11.2) Scrub Your Mind, original composition by Kevan Paul

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This new song was recorded over the last week with the attempt to develop a song form similar to a Sonata form. The piece begins with a solo Electric-Violin with "ambient" reverb and echo (delay), that is very free-flow and melodic, then moves into a rhythmic dance with violin "jam", and finishes with highly modified violin-turned-electro added to pulses of synthesizer patterns with various voices. The "highly modified" violin track would not be recognized as a violin, but gives a unique tone that would also not be recognized as a sythesizer or midi sound either.

The purpose of this piece is to express the different aspects of the electric-violin experiments that I am engaged in; the inclusion of modern free-form ambient instrumentals, straight-up dance rhythms, and electronic analog-to-digital-constructions, are all elements that I want to continue to explore in upcoming music albums. I have a great desire to take some familiar music (such as Christmas songs), and create an album with these combined musical elements. I'm leaning towards a Christmas music album for my next solo instrumental project (hopefully done before Christmas of this year).

The tools that I have been working on this week are Widisoft v1.21 AU - Analog-to-MIDI plugin, and G7 (by Sibelius). I've been having a terrible time with Garageband freezing up, but I finially realized that I only have 1GB of RAM in the Powerbook G4 1.67GHZ that I'm trying to use. This is at least upgradable to 2GB; so I'm now focused on getting this upgrade to see if it helps with the Garageband issues. I don't dare try using other audio tools yet, if I can get Garageband to behave, I'm sure it would be worse to try to use LogicPro, or CuBase (plus I don't know how to use these applications). I'm slowly getting more proficient in the recording process that I'm attempting to define, but I want to take a step-back from the technology "tweaking" and find a good balance between the development of musical ideas and the necessary technical precision.

I've been doing research on the Creative Commons licensing process and will place all of my original recordings and music-videos with a Creative Commons license to allow others to freely distribute and use as long as attribution is maintained. This may not be significant for the first "album" of music presented on this blog, but moving forward into the next few years, I plan on distribution of the music via the JAMENDO website. The JAMENDO site is dedicated to the Creative Commons method of distribution. The recent release of the RADIOHEAD album and music video with a Creative Commons license indicates that this will be moving into a mainstream media distribution mode, and hopefully there will be a convergence of traditional corporate media and creative individuals where the two parties can mutually benefit from the creative process (i.e. share-the-wealth) without being encumbered with copyright litigation. All of my projects will be allowed to be licensed for commercial purposes with the open-contract for mutual benefit, and I will do everything I can to stay within the boundaries of the Creative Commons licensing process and give credit to others whose material I reuse to the purposes of music and art development.

The whole album "Healing, Again, Forever" will be available on JAMENDO for download in about a month.

I'm also planning on a corresponding YouTube music-video for each song that will include as much photographic and graphic data that I have produced, as well as anything that I can find via a Creative-Commons license to remix and give credit to the author; this will hopefully build some bridges toward collaboration -- which is the real goal for this project.


KP1-11.2 Scrub Your Mind by Kevan Paul is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Remix Song: KP1-7.2 MEDICATION, by Son Volt; mandolin and violin added

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This song by Son Volt represents the Alt-Country style, which Son Volt was considered to be a pioneer. The live-version of the song has a longer grundge guitar jam; this version has a more interesting slide-guitar part. I added a mandolin part with a sizzle, and the electric-violin on a preset from the Digitech GNX-4 that I called KIVEBOMB, which makes the violin sound like a mellow electric guitar.

The theme "medication" has a meaning of a blessing and a curse. Modern-Medicine indulges in medications for every symptom. Some medications are essential for life sustaining, such as insulin, blood-pressure pills, etc., but other medications seem to get in our way of progress, and we find out later that the side-effects of many medications result in legal law-suits, lost time spent on hope for relief of our symptoms, and in the end, dis-satisfaction by all involved. The mystery of the brain still eludes the treatment for many of the symptoms that we are plagued with. Healing sometimes requires medication -- let's hope we can find the correct ones, as we learn more about the mechanism of the mind and body interaction.

Remix Song: KP1-4.2 Baal T'Shuva, by Michael Hedges

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This was another Michael Hedges solo track from the "Beyond Boundaries" album. I didn't know what the title meant, until I looked it up on WikiPedia. The phrase means "He Who Has Repented", but I don't know what the reference is as far as why Michael gave the song that title.

The title seems appropriate to the message of healing, especially spiritual healing. Repentance can be a very emotional and painful experience, but the after-effects are a feeling of relieve and composure. There is so many moments that need reflection and repentance, For me, I want to repent from procrastinating this recording project --- I started this project last winter, as far as the concept, and the methods of recording. I'm not really sure why it has taken so long to get the project going to do the actual recording and editing, but I have no more excuses.

As I was playing through the song, I kept hearing allusions to the Hallelujah hymn that is sung at Easter time, I don't know if this was sub-conscious or not, but I echoed the allusion in the violin part.

I love the way the guitar sounds (hopeful, full), and this was main reason for choosing this track to add violin and percussion.
Upon request, I've added another link to this song provide connectivity via viddler.

New Song: KP1-3.2 MOVE FORWARD, composed and arranged by Kevan Paul

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"Move Forward" is an original composition based on a violin theme that has been going around in my head for about six months. The addition of the 104 beats-per-minute drum track gave my original version of the theme a whole new feelling, and I just went where the rhythm wanted to take me while trying to keep the run intact.

I was desperate to find some guitar samples to go with this, but I had to settle for the cheesy GarageBand sample loops for lack of a better option. The intent was to give it a sporadic "heavy-metal" sound in certain sections to give the impression that sometimes you have to just "grind it out" and keep moving forward regardless of the circumstances or how many people are expecting or predicting your failure. When failure is not an option, this is song that I want running around in my head. I had recorded this song last Sunday, and had it running in my head all week. When I get the chance, I want to re-record the guitar tracks with my own electric guitar or from a friend.

The primary violin part is going through the DigiTech GNX4 with IPS (Pitch add = 4th Up). This may seem a little "bright", but I wanted the theme to stand-out. I can't remember what the RaySpace settings were, but this was the first song that I applied RaySpace to after I bought it online from QuikQuak.com,

The recording isn't as perfect as I would like, but the artistic intent is representative for what I was trying to achieve.

Remix Song: KP1-2.2 Rickover's Dream, by Michael Hedge

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This song is a "re-mix" from a solo guitar recording by Michael Hedges, on his "Beyond Boundaries" album. I added original violin parts that I feel adds a whole new dimension to the song, as well as the synthesizer percussive effects that give the song the "dream-like" essence that keeps true to the title that Michael gave it.

The violin part was essentially a one-take improvisation, with mild editing (I did not hear too many weird notes), and the synthesizer track was deliberately random to give a sub-consciousness effect of the Rapid-Eye-Movement phase of sleep (when the dreams occur).

Dreams are an essential part of daily healing, and the reason I selected this song via the title and ability to add violin tracks (one with dubbing to a second track for the runs and fills).

I can't remember the synthesizer settings or the DigiTech GNX4 settings that I used on this song, so I hope I can replicate if I need to someday. I'm going to use the blog to keep better record of the settings for future reference.