Architects of the Atmosphere

Had an interesting e-mail from Rick yesterday.  When he was still living in Pittsburgh we were getting together rehearsing and recording a lot.  We developed quite a knack for the improvised, electronic/ambient music that we were creating.  Because of the nature of improvised music we tried to record everything.  As a result, we've both felt that there were some recordings unaccounted for when we got together our output and starting releasing pieces.  Rick has now found one of those recordings.  The piece itself is about 17 minutes long, so not long enough for an entire album, but definitely a start.  He said that the recording quality and playing are both of a high standard.  He also found another piece as well, meaning two tracks but at this point he's having a problem getting the file open.  Hopefully he will and with an luck the recorded quality and playing will be just as good as the first piece.  Without pushing luck to far, maybe it will even be a typical 30 minute AoA jam and we'll have enough material for an album.  If not, we should be able to use it as a jumping off point and write some other tracks around it.  The plan is to get the new track out there to the radio stations and promotional website etc that have supported us in the past and see what kind of reaction we get.

Digital Buddha has not been forgoteen in the excitement of the new AoA track.  I worked compressing and EQ'ing drums the other day and continue to write and record.  With any luck the first track should be ready to send off to Rick soon.  It's pretty exciting approaching Buddha's stuff again with a new outlook and new musical specturm.  I'll be quite interested to see what the reaction is to the music since it's quite different from what was put out before.  The closest comparision I can make are the different King Crimson era recordings.  I guess you can call this Digital Buddha Mark II.

Worked a little on the new Buddha tune over the weekend.  Should be able to finish it up in the next week or so and then move on to the next couple of tracks.  New Buddha music will definitely be heard during the first quarter of this year.  Once it's completed I'll be putting the music up on MySpace, Soundclick, etc and working very hard to try and get a record/distribution deal, either digital or physical.

Hope to finish up Tired Scenes tonight.  I'm planning on spending a lot of time typing after Jack goes to bed and trying and finishing this thing.  Once it's complete, I'll be working to get an agent and publisher.  I really hope to have something going with this in the next few months.  I'll also be looking at MySpace to see about their literary section and getting some more stuff into literary journals. 

This year I've begun to notice that time is not my friend.  I've realized that I'm older than I thoguht I was.  For a long time there was no sense of urgency in what I was doing because I felt like time was out there.  There was always another day, another chance, another pass at making it.  I now realize that isn't the case.  I'm not a young man any more.  It's hard in any creative field to make a living at what you want to do, it's even harder when you're not in your twenties anymore.  I'm really going to try this year to be the exception rather than the rule.  With Buddha, AoA, Centrale Electrique, Tired Scenes and the performance art piece I have planned I feel like this can be a very fertile year.  I just have to look at time as my enemy and fight tooth and nail to make things happen and not give in to being tired, feeliing like tomorrow is another chance, etc.

Well I guess that's it for now.

So here we are, 2008.  Same old world it seems as 2007, so far today I've seen Jennifer Aniston's butt on TMZ, heard about Britney Spears and her custody fight on the network morning news, read about a degenerate father burning his child with hot oil and a hair dryer and spent last night watching the Iowa Caucus returns.  Really makes you think about what a sick, twisted world we live in when this kind of stuff is the stuff we see on a daily basis.

I'd like this year to be different, better than last year.  I'd like to see myself and the world change.  Sadly, who knows if any of it will really happen.  On a personal level, I'd love to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise and get out of the financial hole I've been in for years.  In many ways, I feel like a character in a Cyberpunk novel, off the radar and grid, yet constantly under the thumb of a system I'm powerless to change or climb above.  I know that sounds depressing but truly, I'm not depressed, just in the midst of taking stock of where I am.  I'd also love to get daycare for my son so my wife won't have to work so hard at night and find a new job, one that would allow my wife not to work.

After that lengthy and rather dark preamble talking about art seems a bit self centered and possibly pointless, it is however what I do and who I am so I thought I'd update everyone on where I am on current project and where I hope to end up in the next year:

 

Tired Scenes From a City Window/Sketches-My long awaited poetry book is just about finished.  I think all of the pieces have been selected and I'm currently typing them into the computer, getting them ready to be sent out to publishers and agents.  As you may or may not know, at one point I was known more as a writer than a musician.  I hope to have the book completed and to then begin doing poetry readings by the spring around the city.

 

Nameless Generation-Combining poetry and music, this is my performance art project that I've often threathened but never completed.  With the current state of the world-both macro and micro and the fact that this is almost confrontational in nature I feel that there is a very real possibility that this could be completed in the next year.  I have some pieces completed and hope to finish the rest soon.  Stay tuned as there are a few other things taking priority over this one right now.

 

Digital Buddha-The original beast, the band that started it all for me.  After taking several years off and doing nothing with the project writing has begun on a new Digital Buddha album.  I think I have three tracks in various states of completion that will soon be sent to Rick to lay down guitars.  The original Buddha started as an electronic progressive rock project but mutated for a host of reasons into some sort of industrial band.  These new pieces are back to the original electronic progressive rock feel that we never should have veered from.  There's more of a down tempo jazz feel to some of the pieces at  this point.  What will happen after the project is complete, I can't say but I can tell you that the material feels fresh, interesting and vital. 

 

Architects of the Atmosphere-While it's true that AoA has been pretty static and quiet over the last year, I feel that there is more AoA music to be created.  I think we could see another album being completed this year.

 

That's where my head is at at this point.  While the opening paragraphs of this section may have seemed rather depressing I think you can see by the projects I'm working on and have plans to complete, I think you'll see that I am optimistic about the future.  I have a lot of things planned and am looking forward to tackling them all one by one.  In addition, I'm looking to spending a lot of time with my family.  My son is almost three now and it's a wonderful time to be a father.  These are the good years with him!

AoA has uploaded a new album on Soundclick.  The complete Signals From Cydonia is now available to stream or to purchase as a download.  The album is two tracks, just like Ionization.  We've gotten a lot of great feedback on this album.  One of the tracks, The Probe Awakes, has been a favorite of several different people who have stopped by our site  on MySpace.  We invite you to stop by our Website.  Click on the music link and stream away.  While you're there feel free to leave us a comment on the message board and let us know your thoughts.  You can also purchase the CD.  To do that, please stop by our On-line Store.  The album is a digital download.  As with our previous release Ionization we weren't able to upload the full album artwork but we did put up the front cover.  Also, if you purchase either album and drop us an e-mail we'll send you our first album Stellar Evolution.