News, Thoughts, Sights & Sounds
I'm pleased to announce the re-release of the long out of print La Honda Country Fair and Music Festival 1998 album.
This is fundraiser for the La Honda Elementary School Art and Music Programs with 100% of the proceeds from sales on Bandcamp going to them.
https://handsonsound.bandcamp.com/.../la-honda-country...
At the La Honda Art & Music Fair next weekend, there will also be a signed and numbered limited edition of 20 CDs for sale.
Enjoy the music and support art and music in our schools.
On May 15th, as part of the College of San Mateo Electronic Music Festival I performed an original improvisational piece at the school’s theater. In the show program, i described the composition as-
Using homemade instruments/interfaces, field recordings and designed sounds this improvisational soundscape draws attention to the ever increasing presence of electricity, motors and electromagnetic frequencies, both seen and unseen as elements that contribute to the sonic backdrop to our world.
Whether it be the drone of electric vehicles, the hum of transformers, generators, appliances, machinery or computers the ambience of the natural world is giving away to the sound of machines.
Listen to the mix from the Livestream of the concert on YouTube- https://handsonsound.bandcamp.com/track/hum-whats-that-buzz-live-college-of-san-mateo
In addition to my concert performance, on both nights of the festival I set up a 4 speaker array in the theater’s courtyard and created, as “walkout music” some generative ambient soundscapes using Enos’ Bloom and Trope apps. The vibe felt good and was met with only glowing reviews and comments…such as “this place just feels so much nicer and comfortable,. It’s real peaceful”
I was thrilled to see that the Joni Mitchell & The L.A. Express – 1976 U.S. Tour album was released on vinyl for Record Store Day last month. These tracks were pulled from the Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years 1976-1980 box set. I am credited as Tape Transfer Engineer and Production Assistance for both of these. As a music fan, for me, this was my favorite era of her music…as Joni ventured more into jazz and surrounded herself with heavy weight players. It was a real thrill to go thru the rehearsal tapes that were recorded prior to her 1979 tour and listen to Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker and Don Alias working out their parts. A couple of those rehearsals made their way onto the box set.
I had the honor and pleasure of participating in a month long songwriting workshop with Brian Eno this past January. Held in 3 sessions per week over Zoom, we had weekly lectures, Q&A sessions with Brian and also listening and feedback sessions. Each week the workshop attendees were given an assignment by Eno. Here we have the very first class assignment, that we were given 20 minutes to compose during a break in our first lecture. His creative prompt was to chose one of several silent short videos and write something for it.
Title- Passing Into A Recent Past.
Lyrics/ Poem to accompany the music:
Thru the window, so close yet passing into a recent past, I see the work of hands and machine.
Organized and left to ponder, the harvest and the seasons before.
All lies still beneath the ever changing sky, keeping watch.
So close yet passing into a recent past.
The journey continues.
If interested, you can listen to all my assignments from the Eno workshop here.
https://handsonsound.bandcamp.com/album/brian-eno-workshop-2025
After having pursued the concept of air and wind for sound design/experimental and ambient sprojects for several years, in 2024 I became interested in the transmission of sound thru electricity and light. What we have here is a composition of mine that is…well… an experimental electronic music composition using field recordings made with a Photon Smasher LED microphone, a LOM Elektrousi EMF microphone, software synthesizer instruments and NASA sonification recordings. On Vimeo, you will hear a 5.1 version of the Dolby Atmos mix. The concept for this piece came to me after reading about some strange sounds that were being heard by astronauts on the International Space Station in August of 2024.
Want a fantastic listening experience? Check out tiny mike on Apple Music…in Dolby Atmos. elements. I got the co-producer, recording engineer and cover photographer credits on this one.
A brilliant young singer/ songwriter, George Croft, played down a sets of tracks for me in the Spring of 2024 at Sound Union in Redwood City that yielded his solo album “Better To Be Tough- Songs of Love Hope & Redemption”. Mixed at Hands on sound and mastered at Wildwood House on Salt Spring Island in BC. Check it out on apple Music Spotify etc and look for George’s extremely entertaining and informative Instagram account. George Croft Music
Capping off a very successful 4 year run of producing and editing the “Lost or Found” podcast, host Dr Michelle Choi took on the task of writing a book abut her life and then go it published. Entitled, “Untangling- Liberating Myself From an Enmeshed Family and Impossible Medical Career”. It was my honor to work with Michelle on the audiobook version, with her doing all the voiceover recordings here at Hands on Sound and me editing the final product. The book and audio book are available on Amazon and a Barnes and Noble. The podcast is on all the usual platforms and can also be found on Michelle’s website. Dr Michelle Choi MD
I was thrilled early last Fall to get the call asking me to work on the 2024 San Jose Sharks Holiday video. It was the 10th anniversary of the ever memorable and popular “Holiday Sweater” video that I had created with them and Bob Kilburg. It was a blast recording the players, providing sound for the video shoot and doing the mixing.
This tidbit of a post has been sitting around and collecting dust for several years…making it go live just a memory of the COID era. I just realized that the Blog here hasn’t had any entries in almost a year. While the page has been quiet, Hands on Sound has been keeping busy.
Like so many, I have been working remotely for much of 2020 and 2021, serving my clients from a distance for most of the year. With the exception of a handful of location sound gigs, it’s been all Post Production editing and mixing, Podcast production and Music Production.
