koven j. smith dot com » music

Homunculus

Koven — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:18:31 +0000

Earlier this year, I posted some in-progress music for a short film I’d been asked to score. Well, the film is now finished, and it is called “Homunculus.” The film was produced by Humble and conceived and directed by Sam Stephens. I love it. Check it out:

Homunculus from HUMBLE TV on Vimeo.

…aaaand just for fun, here’s the score alone, for those of you who want to check to see if the math works out (it doesn’t):

Download audio file (01%20Homunculus.mp3)

There’s a little bit more about the thought process behind some of what you’re hearing in my original post from March. From the more overtly 12-tone approach described in that post, I added in some chopped-up found-sound recordings of music boxes, and some hot blaxploitation-style drums for the “chase” parts of the film. All in all, I’m pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out. There’s more about the making of the film on Humble’s Vimeo page.

The obligatory Michael Jackson post

Koven — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:23:56 +0000

Well, what can I say? Shock. Distinctly remembering multiple birthday parties in fourth grade in which Thriller was the only album we played; once we got to the end of a given side, we’d just flip that rekkid over and listen all over again.

My favorite moment of yesterday, though, came at the end of the Femi Kuti concert at the Prospect Park bandshell. As everyone began filing out, the sound guy had the bright idea to play “I’ll Be There” over the soundsystem. Several thousand people suddenly stopped in their tracks, and started singing together:

Download audio file (beThere.mp3)

It was a beautiful moment, and one that sent actual chills down my spine. I wish you could hear the singing better in the recorded excerpt above, but you get the idea.

New short film music

Koven — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:39:52 +0000

Just a short post today, in between working on lots and lots of things. I’ve had the good fortune to be asked by a friend of mine to score a short (three minutes) animated film, and I thought I’d post some of what I’ve been working on to that end. I don’t think I can reveal too many details about the film itself at this point, so I’ll confine myself to talking about the music.

The director was looking for something relatively dissonant, or at least unsettling, for the main texture of the piece. To that end, I whipped out George Perle‘s Twelve-Tone Tonality, which is, after 15 years of stealing (and mostly misusing) its ideas, still one of the most difficult/rewarding music theory texts I have ever read. Perle is so pithy that there’s nary a single wasted word in the entire text–every bit is crucial.

Aaaanyway, working from the “Inversionally Complimentary Cycles” section of the text, I worked out a tone row for the piece, and then transposed it into four additional voices, moving in parallel, which gave me some nice tonal blocks to play with. After orchestrating these blocks a bit with some sounds I liked, I recorded them and then cut up and arbitrarily pieced the shards back together, which produced the “glitchy” sounds you hear. I then worked out a little melody with an inversional relationship to the original row, and started flying that over the top. This is shaping up to be a fun little piece, methinks. Anyway, have a listen, and let me know what you think!

Download audio file (stephens_20090309.mp3)

P.S., As I was writing this post, I found out that George Perle passed away in January at his home in Manhattan at age 93. To a guy like me, who’s still at heart a music theory geek, this was heartbreaking to learn. He will be missed.

George Perle, a Composer and Theorist, Dies at 93 (nytimes.com)

The Listening Room

Koven — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:38:48 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve done a music post here, so it seemed about time. For the last few months, I’ve been working on a commission for the choreographer Daniel Charon called The Listening Room, and I thought I’d post a few excerpts from the score as it develops.

This score has, for whatever reason, proved to be a difficult one to get a bead on–it’s gone through multiple iterations, each one evolving significantly from the last. The piece is in roughly four contiguous segments, with two themes evolving gradually throughout the piece’s 15 minutes. I’ve been attempting to strike a balance between harder rhythmic elements and more free-floating melodic sections, with varying degrees of success. On a purely technical level, I’ve been separating out rhythmic elements for more clarity, stratifying snares, bass drums, and cymbals in separate layers rather than mixing them together all at once, as I would normally tend to do.

Anyway, here are some excerpts. Hope you enjoy them!

Excerpt the first:
Download audio file (listening_e1.mp3)

Excerpt the second:
Download audio file (listening_e2.mp3)

An album for every year you’ve been alive

Koven — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:12:28 +0000

Image via WikipediaSo this is an internet meme that’s been out there for a while, but I’m only just now finally getting my contribution in (how typical). I first discovered this on the excellent music blog Idolator; the idea is that you choose one, and only one, album for every single year you’ve been alive. I’m not at all sure why, but this proved to be an utterly riveting exercise rather than an exhausting one. It’s strange what limiting you to only one album per year does–it forced me to choose Outlandos d’Amour, my least favorite Police album, because 1978 didn’t have nearly the competition for slots that 1982, the year of my favorite Police album (Ghost In the Machine), did. Certain years were particularly painful to do (2003 and 2006 were especially heartbreaking), with four or five amazing albums gunning for the top slot, while some years were so thin with competitors that a wild card like Weird Al’s Dare to be Stupid could make it in. Anywayz, here’s my list. Derisive comments, as always, are welcome.

1975 – Miles Davis, Pangaea
1976 – Joni Mitchell, Hejira
1977 – Fela, Zombie
1978 – The Police, Outlandos d’Amour
1979 – Gang of Four, Entertainment!
1980 – XTC, Black Sea
1981 – Mission of Burma, Signals, Calls, & Marches
1982 – Michael Jackson, Thriller
1983 – Men at Work, Cargo
1984 – Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
1985 – Weird Al Yankovic, Dare to be Stupid
1986 – Paul Simon, Graceland
1987 – John Adams, Nixon In China
1988 – Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
1989 – Tone Loc, Loc’ed After Dark
1990 – Living Colour, Time’s Up
1991 – Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
1992 – PJ Harvey, Dry
1993 – Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
1994 – Jawbox, For Your Own Special Sweetheart
1995 – Pie, Strictly Seance
1996 – DJ Shadow, Endtroducing…
1997 – Stereolab, Dots and Loops
1998 – Fugazi, End Hits
1999 – The Dismemberment Plan, Emergency & I
2000 – Faraquet, The View From This Tower
2001 – Bjork, Vespertine
2002 – Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003 – Jay-Z, The Black Album
2004 – The Bad Plus, Give
2005 – The Books, Lost and Safe
2006 – Matmos, The Rose Has Teeth In the Mouth of the Beast
2007 – Caribou, Andorra

Dance For a Small Room – This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Koven — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:36:47 +0000

Okay, kids–the time is now. “Dance For a Small Room,” a new work that is the result of almost eight months of collaboration between Ellen Cornfield and myself, premieres this weekend at the Abrons Arts Center. The work features the full company of Cornfield Dance in addition to two guest artists from the Jose Limon Company. Full details may be found on the “Events” page.

In addition to the electronic score, the work features the talents of several wonderful musicians who accompany the performance onstage throughout the work. I’ve been working with these folks (Ben Syversen-trumpet, Michael Eaton-tenor saxophone, Don Undeen and Morgan Price-bass clarinet, John Lindaman and Jeff Litman-guitar, and Madelyn Burgess-electric bass) all week in rehearsal, and their efforts continue to astound me. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Here are a few excerpts from the score–enjoy:
Download audio file (DFASR_Part2_20080616.mp3)
Download audio file (DFASR_Part3_20080616.mp3)

Hope to see you there!

More “Dance for a Small Room” music

Koven — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:51:35 +0000

First off, thanks for those of you who came to the Latin Hustle show a few weeks back–the response was overwhelming and beautiful. There are some nice pitchers that various friends took of the show, which hopefully I’ll be able to post soon.

Aaaaanyway, I’ve pretty much been writing music almost nonstop since then, in preparation for the upcoming performances of “Dance for a Small Room” with Cornfield Dance (see the Events page for more information on that). So here, with little fanfare, is some very new music that you will be hearing as part of the new piece. It’s super-new (less than 24 hours old!), so please forgive the fact that it cuts off, seemingly right in the middle. That will be fixed later. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Added an ending, sort of.

Download audio file (Improv%20Section_20080604.mp3)

The name of this band is Latin Hustle

Koven — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:08:24 +0000

Kids, come on out and see me play with John Lindaman’s Latin Hustle tomorrow night at Spike Hill in Brooklyn. It’s going to be a great time. We’ll be playing some of John’s True Love Always tunes, several lovely JoÃ£o Gilberto songs, and at least one Mariah Carey tune. John puts it best; here is an excerpt from the Latin Hustle blog:

Newly added to the Latin Hustle Fantasy Bossa Nova League Dream Team are the redoubtable Koven J. Smith on drums, the indefatigable Madelyn Burgess on bass and vocals, the insoluble Gideon Crevoshay at the piano and with vocals, and the indescribable Sean Imboden as “The Flute Player”. Individually, they are formidable. Together, we are unstoppable. This summer, all the pieces fit.

More info on the events page.

Some new music

Koven — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:24:01 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week or so–I’ve actually (ye gods!) been writing music of late. Ellen and I have been working on a new piece for a while now, and it’s taken an unusually long time to take shape. We’ll be workshopping a segment of this new piece with Cornfield Dance at an event at the Alvin Ailey studios in a few weeks (more details on that will be forthcoming as soon as I have them). For the time being, though, here is the music I’ve been working on for this piece so far. I’m not sure how I feel about this music yet–I like it, but in a “we’ve just met” sort of way. I think I need to live with it a bit more. Anyway, here are about eight minutes of what will eventually become “Dance For a Small Room.” Enjoy!

Download audio file (Small%20Room%20Draft%2020080405.mp3)

Sonic Freaking Uke

Koven — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:11:52 +0000

So here are a few pics taken by my friend Matt Chandler during the Sonic Uke set at last Saturday’s Ukulele Cabaret. I like that my hands are blurry in both pictures–it makes me look like the fastest drummer ever made.

A video of our complete set can be found at the Midnight Ukulele Disco site. I think you get a good sense in the video of the full power of our set and the general excellence of the multiple costume changes. It doesn’t really tell you what it’s like to play “Big Takeover” with Ted’s hula-skirted ass right up in your face, but I guess that’s a pain I’ll keep all to myself.

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Listening to: Deerhoof – Wrong Time Capsule
via FoxyTunes