60SM Volume I
2018 – 2019
Experimental, Ambient
45 tracks
45m
“The 60SM (Sixty Second Moments) is a sandbox in which minute-long snippets of ideas, failed or successful, are stored like a directory of samples. Each Moment is a unique experience and presents itself as if a world already set in motion for the listener to happen upon for a short time.“
⏱︎
Somewhere in early days of 2017, I experienced the end of a relationship both parties weren’t actually capable of sustaining for a myriad of reasons. At the time, it was impactful enough to send me into depression to be expected for that age and immaturity, but it would serve as a catalyst to further me into both better understanding what was expected of me as a member of society and furthering my incentive for creative endeavors at all- because that is what stopped for about a year.
Fast forward to the end of October of 2017. There was an Instagram challenge going around to post a photo in black and white for seven days, and my sister had challenged me to it. I decided to raise the bar a bit and instead post a five minute grayscale video in the style of macro photography in nature. To further the experience, I made seven five minute ambient/soundscape to accompany each video. Where these videos have gone, I have no idea; but the music lives on as the album called 7 day challenge on Bandcamp.
Early 2018, I started getting an itch to make ambient music again, but I needed good reason to do it. I wanted to hone in my techniques without committing to full-length compositions. I wanted to step away from making purely emotion-driven soundtracks to dissociate to. From this itch came the 60SM.
⏱︎
The idea was to create tracks that were just for experimenting, and then trim it down to exactly one minute. It didn’t matter if the idea never got used, it worked as a journal entry to document an attempt at a technique. Before I knew it, I was making several of these a week. I decided to name everything abstractly and to provide cryptic “poetry” to fill the lyrics section in Bandcamp. The goal was to eventually erase the memory of why I made that track, and replace it with the identity it abstractly presents itself as. At the time of writing this, eight years later, I can say it certainly works. There were only a few rules:
– It had to be exactly sixty seconds, not a millisecond off.
– Each track would have a fade in and out spanning exactly five seconds.
– After forty-five tracks, the volume finishes.
In hindsight, that last rule was crucial. It forced me to eventually stop making short blips of experiences and actually use techniques I had tested with them before making another volume. It is also not obligatory to make the 60SM; but it is handy when I just want to get my hands dirty with new ideas that don’t really belong anywhere, or ideas that would be too complex for a twenty-minute track.
⏱︎
Her detailed mind is to this day one of the most blissful moments of ambiance my ears have experienced. It feels reminiscent of a person’s aura as perceived by someone who cares about the context in which that person exists. It is like breathing in the whole of someone’s Being, and then feeling it change the chemistry in your lungs.
There are tons of bowed instruments taking up the majority of the movement- the raw, sweeping strumstick and a strong electric guitar with a -1 octave pitch effect applied. The warmth is made up by singing softly through the same multi-effects pedal I had used in all my previous works found in the Empty Air Collection.
The crisp, rattling sounds are a pair of drum broomsticks being waved around the room. The acoustics of the room are beautifully captured by this technique, which now allows the same bedroom I grew up in to be captured and treasured.
Lyrics:
even asymmetrical minds will become parallel for a short time
This feels like it speaks from a place of looking back at a relationship between two very different individuals. Regardless of the dissonance, there was still a moment where they complimented, or resonated off, each other.
This composition is a continued experienced from her detailed mind. The same bowed strumstick plays feverishly over the atmosphere through a dynamically pulsing tremolo. The pad throughout is very likely my first keyboard using the classic Warm Pad patch we all know and love. The overwhelming bass tone was probably a straight sine wave sub being played into the shimmer reverb on the multi-effects pedal of the time.
The same broomsticks are used again, only this time they are being crumpled and twisted to create a more tense texture.
Lyrics:
where did all our time go?
why’d we pass so quickly?
we hid under the bedsheets too often
This speaks to me as a reflection of time wasted hiding in the comforts of a relationship that prevents the need to grow and learn in the world. The relationship is seen as a safe space, when in reality it is an excuse to never confront the reality waiting outside.
Swell my chaos revisits the technique used in the second part of the extensive ambient album Sigh Of Little Dipper from 2016. All it required was a delay effect on the Zoom G1Xon multi-effect pedal which allowed me to modulate the time using the expression pedal attached. By maxing out the feedback, I could bring the time to its shortest, creating a piercing scream, and then slam the pedal back to a time long enough to decay the feedback while repitching the tone into a low thud.
The crackling sounds like it was possible made from Audacity’s vinyl noise generator and then heavily processed from there.
Lyrics:
“the future is a cold one
i say we warm it up”
thus the inchworm raged and raged
the tapeworm continued his venture
The tendency for abstract poetry to take on a theme of looking forward destructively speaks largely to an aggressive need to control one’s decisions. The quote is some ambiguous entity remarking on the grim future, and how a collection people can change that. However, with the description of a raging inchworm and a determined tapeworm, the future being warmed up paints itself more as a threat than an improvement.
The use of worms is peculiar, but could be seen two types of personalities. The inchworm is an otherwise harmless bug, but it feels the need to rage. The tapeworm, however, is a parasite on some mission. The mission of a parasite is rarely a good one.
Bone shave continues to rely on the bowed strumstick theme, but this time it is complimented by what sounds like slow attack electric guitar with very long reverb tails sustaining the notes.
The shuttering texture is quickly scratching the muted strings of the electric guitar, adding to the macabre feeling of the composition.
Lyrics:
why must i continue like this?
the boiling never stopped
loneliness is a good friend
There is an obvious tone of despair and hopelessness saturating this lyric. A little on the nose for any creative interpretation.
Glass shave feels like a less despairing, more bizarre parallel to bone shave. The bowed electric guitar begins with a very noble and resolved arrangement that feels reassuring. The creaking that then takes over is incredibly untuned strings rattling against the guitar while being bowed as a choir begins to ascend.
The Morse code-esque pulsing is the sinewave patch on the keyboard I used at the time with a downsample effect applied.
Lyrics:
can i go now?
i would like to go home
BUT THE SOUP ISN’T READY
another window to be replaced
This paints a picture of irrational hostility. A simple request being met with an otherwise reasonable counterargument is reaffirmed to have turned violent at the implication of a broken window.
⏱︎
Matthew Reeder 