Technical

To your left you should see a LastFM Widget, with some music on it. This music represents a sample of Dogsolitude_uk's baroque/industrial musical output, streamed through a widget from LastFM. You will find more on the Dogsolitude_uk Myspace Page as well.

The music is written on the PC, using virtual studio technology. Typically this will involve using either Orion Pro or Sibelius, and a number of virtual instruments. The orchestral sounds come from Garritan Personal Orchestra, a sort of 'Orchestra on Disc'.

Influences

You can probably hear them: Aphex Twin, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Bach, Purcell... The music produced here is part of an investigative journey by Dogsolitude_uk into the realms of music theory; an attempt to try and find out what it is about certain pieces that makes them satisfying to listen to. Is it the use of counterpoint, for example? Can it be found in rhythmic changes? How about in the intervals, those spaces between the notes which bring either discord or harmony?

Noble ambitions aside, another motivation is the fact that messing about with MIDI, VSTis and making distorted noises is simply enjoyable. The genres of Industrial Music, IDM, EBM and suchlike have provided a fantastic background aginst which to experiment with all sorts of ear-assaulting racket. Balancing and contrasting feedback, distortion and reverb against the cleaner sounds of a Steinway, or a simple square wave for example, is very satisfying business.

Combining the simpler techniques of chamber music with a chopped'n'crunched Amen break over an overdriven 808 kick is a happy thing to do.

Future Development

Writing music is very much dependent upon time, a scarce commodity in this postmodern age. In fact, writing music on the computer arguably takes longer than it would using just a piano and a pad of paper with staves on it. This is because one not only has to learn how to program a synth in order to extract sounds, one must also learn a bit about music theory and also about mixing and mastering (looks at favourite spot on floor).

As such, music will be written and added here as and when time, that ruthless bastard son of Chaos, permits. Work, relationships, studying Web Design, looking for work... This list of time thieves would take too long to fully describe.

Writing music for computer games and horror films would be cool though...