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"Singapore-based sound artist and music composer Darren Ng’s latest release under the name Sonicbrat is a beautiful album filled with acoustic and electronic elements. The classically trained pianist creates delicate piano pieces and glistening soundscapes that embody a childlike innocence. A firm believer in chance and imperfection, Darren Ng thrives on improvisation and records most of his tracks on the fly. While the tracks are simple, they are also intricately detailed, making it hard to believe that they were composed on the spur of the moment.
Of Things Unending carries on from last year’s release Weaving, which is available for free download here. The formula hasn’t varied much from Weaving, however what is noticeably different is that the minimalist sound has grown to become richer, warmer and more melodic. This is the kind of music that floats over its listener requiring no effort on the listener’s part, yet manages to stay in your thoughts long after it has stopped playing. There is also a sense of familiarity in the pieces, but it never feels as if you have heard it all before, rather, it is more like rediscovering an album that you used to love but for some reason stopped playing long ago. The sweet piano pieces “Dreams of a Butterfly,” “Man in a Snow Globe,” and “The Bitter Sweetness of Parting” are exquisite. The electronically driven tracks “Catching Rainbows” and “Star Gazing” are also saturated in beauty. Piano and electronics converge in “Whispers in the Mist” and the haunting “When the Flowers Mourn” with stunning effects.
Of Things Unending is a solid album from beginning to end, containing no weak tracks. It is calming, gentle and meditative, and is an absolute pleasure to listen to."
A new song using KORG M3 88, toy piano, acoustic guitar (I suck) and acousmatics + sampling object sounds and antique bells. Hope you guys will enjoy this simple music.
WHEN I USED TO BE
ps: I really like this photo taken by Dong. My girlfriend looks so pretty +_+
A live recording of my improvisation concert @ Lasalle on 22/01/2008. Hope you guys will enjoy it. Free downloads available soon.
A live improvisation set at a lunchtime concert. All instrumentations were sampled, manipulated and processed live with KP3 and RC-20 into various effects processors. All percussions were done on the electric guitar. Only three instruments were used: 1) Toy Xylophone; 2) Electric Guitar; 3) Voice; In the middle section, the sounds and noises were feedbacks caused by sending signals from the INEKO and KP3 into themselves, causing a feedback loop and manipulated with EQ live, the rest were processed sounds with Plogue Bidule and hardware effects unit of the original live sampling.
Gear List:
Toy Xylophone Electric Guitar KORG Koass Pad 3 BOSS RC-20 Loop Station Alesis Ineko Multi-efx processor Yamaha MG10/2 Mixer E-bow Mini clip-on microphone MAC Powerbook: Running Plogue Bidule Recording: KORG MR-1000
[UPDATES]: New download address due to overwhelming downloads!!!... Click HERE for the free download now.
My latest project. This album was cut in 2-3 days, imperfect little pieces of electro-ambient improvisations did entirely on the KORG Triton ST88 and nothing else. I've composed this album in such a short time so that I could give it to my girlfriend who is leaving for vietnam today... as a little gift.
W E A V I N G | 織造
The W E A V I N G project builds on the ideology of minimalism and improvisation. The album is meant to be listened to from top till the end as a sole entity of sounds and melodies. The sub-harmonics, subliminal changes in timbres and the play of sub-frequencies and hyper-frequencies will leave your ears ringing at the end of the sonic experience.
[Click on either of the images to download the entire album for free!]
Feel free to download it and if you will, drop me a note on what you think of it :)
Thanks for the support! Hope you guys will enjoy the album.
This, according to Lucas aka LRG (from Argentina) of Anoise Records(based in Belgium), this video is not the final version, it's just something he did out of fun. The actual one will have a different story and image... but for now, this is what he'd done... Lucky me!!! :) Added another layer to the sound ambient piece. I wonder when the actual video is out what it will be like... if this is just something he did for fun... how would the actual thing be like? I can't wait!
CITY OF GLASS
Incidentally, on MrMisse Forum, I love this short film by Jacen Tan! Wicked!!!
And this, I am going... to support our favourite lighting dersigner LIM WOAN WEN!!! Very nice video and sounds! :) By our locals again!
[UPDATES: Adoralula sent me a better balanced track so I've changed the file to 02]
As I've mentioned before, I'm collaborating with some overseas musicians on individual projects... It seems the collab between me and Adoralula from Thailand, a young man who's music I truly adore... acousmatical, ambient, mysterious and unique... I've sent him a very simple straight forward ambient piece... Whispers In The Mist [01]
I've composed this very simple progression, very structured in a way... to give room for Adoralula to do his magic... and magic he did! :) He had broken the structure and created randomness without even taking my music apart... Whispers In The Mist [02]
I like it... his lack of music knowledge adds depth to this collaboration as his approach is purely from "sound"... the clashing harmonics and abrupt cuts kinda add a new dimension to the piece in my opinion... a harsh gentleness, an oxymoron... quite poetic... so now it's my turn to add on what I think would be suitable... we will keep on passing on to and fro until we think it's completed... have a listen to his acousmatical approach. :)
Photo by Adoralula... I love this photo. There are more and they are all very nice.. visit his myspace :)
Incidentally, I've also completed a small simple part for BOSQUES DI LE MENTE [SPAIN], again, this is to leave room for his input. At this point, really simple accompaniment... have a listen. Wonder what he might do with it :)
Well, I've just finally finished music for Anthony Chen's film... probably did about 12 versions before he's finally happy with it. Now that I am done (sort of) with this year's projects... (left with just the Museum's sound installation for the Greek exhibition) I can finally start to collaborate with artists I've met on Myspace. Currently I have a few artists to work with...
Bosques de mi Mente [SPAIN] With him, we are going to make an album together, for now, probably using toy instrument. He is from Spain. A good friend of mine now... at least online and also sharing artistic visions and ideas. We share similar approaches in composing so perhaps that's why we are now working together, it just came when we were chatting on MSN one day, so kinda came naturally. This album will be free for download. This is the first of many I am sending him for him to compose over, add on or whatever, and then he will pass it back to me and I'll add on... so on and forth... for now it's just a toy xylo going :) Let's see where this will go...
adoralula [THAILAND] With kid, we are making music together for his upcoming compilation album. There are other artists involved and they will be collaborating with him for their fair share :) I am probably doing one or two pieces with him... I simply adore his music... and him asking me to collaborate with him makes me really happy. This is my part I am sending him for now...
Carledvin [SWEDEN] Carl and I met incidentally on myspace and we adore each other's works. I find his beat making (with really minimal gears) and music making very creative. We hit it off slowly but went well and he paints really well too. You can see his paintings on his site... He had asked me to collaborate on an album together to my delight... perhaps a more upbeat one... He is also one brain behind audiomatic and they make amazing beat oriented music. Carl is also responsible for pulling me into a-noise records. Love you mate... so yeah I am now part of a-noise records based in Belgium... the artists there are very nice people and have good hearts... it's unbinding though so I am free from any binding contracts... check out the a-noise records myspace.
PIXE [FRANCE] Pixe has been on my list for some time, and we visit each other's myspace every now and then when there's updates. Recently he'd just asked if we can collaborate. Of course I'll say yes! I love his stuffs... We are working out how to go about doing it now.
PS: The magic is... try playing both the players together... and have a listen... they were not composed together... and different tempos and keys and time signatures but ... heh I just love "chance", don't you? :)
LRG (Lucas Gingles) [ARGENTINA] Oh I missed him out... he is the man behind a-noise visuals (think it's gona be a DVD box... the man behind the visuals for a-noise boxsocial... which I am now part of and according to MR.A (boss of a-noise)he is gona do visuals for me :) I was really happy when LRG emailed me and said he would like to collaborate with me as I had always wanted to work with visual artist... and also dying to have visuals for my music... hehe... so naturally I was all excited... click on his name to view his photos... and here's the a-noise boxsocial video teaser (which I am not in it yet): the grand anoise boxsocial
I know a-noise seems to be a more beat oriented independent record label. So how do I fit in? I've asked, and MR.A said that they want to slowly cover all genres... he'd pulled KOHHEI WAKI [JAPAN] in as well... Kohhei san is on my top friends list on myspace and we had been chatting and sharing. I love his works too... at least another ambient and electro-acoustic musician... so to balance it out on a-noise :) Me and Kohhei, we are not on any collaboration yet... but I think in the future we just might ... I am looking forward.
(You can click on the names to listen to their music or view their works...)
So december won't really be a free and relaxing month I guess. But at least I am doing my own music now... kinda reached my short term goal for now. Blessed...flattered...
Yep, after thinking about the "plastic bags" in the previous entry, I was inspired to compose this piece. Listen with headphones for a better experience as usual :)
FLIGHT OF THE PLASTIC BAGS
Gears and Instruments: KORG Radias, EHX2880 Loop Station, Toy Xylophone, Melodica, Cello, Violin
Music composed and arranged by sonicbrat All instruments performed by sonicbrat Recorded @ Home
Yep, extracted this from the movie, so there's actually a break in the song with a scene with "silence" then the credit music rolls in... so here it is: SOLOS OST
Music composed and arranged by sonicbrat Violin performed by Gerald Chew Vocals performed by Joanna Dong All other instrumentation performed by sonicbrat Recorded @ home
Ok... so I am dying to do some music but most of my gears on show so I've got almost nothing at home. So what to do?... hmmm doodle with some softwares.... so here's a piece I've done for fun... nothing great, did this in a couple of hours just to let it out... Dedicated to my David bro... some breaks for you :)
[Do listen with headphones for a better experience]
TELEPHONICA
Have fun!
Oh check out my album of PIANA live in Singapore gig if you haven't... nice photos taken by THE ASYLUM which really shows our WW's beautiful lighting design... which, in her own rights, a genius :)
What do you do when the director says, "darren, use these two nursery rhymes to compose a song... in the style of a slow ambient rock piece sorta like R.E.M style"...? My answer was... "sure... can I add a little Sigur Ros flavour in it?"...
Here's the lyrics to the song made up of two nursery rhymes:
Verse: Bye bay bunting Daddy's gone a hunting To get a little rabit skin To wrap his baby in
Chorus: Rock-a-bye baby On the tree top When the wind blows The cradle will rock When the bough breaks The cradle will fall Down will come baby Cradle and all
So... here's the theme song of pillow man, sang by my brother Jonathan Ang... (yeah kinda last minute so the recording ain't ace but good enough for the show) ... Do listen with headphones...
Composed, arranged, performed and recorded by Darren Ng @ home Vocals by Jonathan Ang
ROCKABYE BABY [ROCK MIX]
ROCKABYE BABY [SLIM MIX]
You know, rock is not really my thing but oh well, as requested... gotta please my director. Can't say no to her for sure. So here you go, my first... ambient rock piece? :) I know it's not great, it's my first time doing this kinda music so I know it ain't fab but Well... hope you guys like it... it was fun doing it though...
An ambient sound art piece made up using kitchen ware sampling, faulty cables, guitar, synths and piano... [As usual, listen with headphones for a better ride :) THANKS!]
I closed my eyes And got carried away by darkness When I opened them again I was standing in a city made of glass The only people I saw Were my own distorted reflections...
Hope you guys enjoy this piece I cooked up when I was supposed to be working to meet deadlines :P Oh well...
Taking a break from it all... A simple song improvised out of fun; toying with my new toy xylophone... [Do listen with a headphone for a better experience :P]
My baby is feeling stressed and down. Did this song to cheer her up. Dearie, hope you will feel better after hearing this song...
TWINKLE ANTHEM
The stars speckled across the sky As the moon light kissed my cheeks softly And the night sang its lullaby in the wind As I felt closer, and closer still... and I almost touched them...
It's not great but hope you guys enjoy the night sky with me, and a little reminisce of our favourite nursery rhyme... :)
Yes, was asked by a London, UK vocal artist PLUM to remix or so call "take it away" with a raw track that she did. Here's the original recording she sent me:
PLUMBADA VOC MIX
I struggled with it. Why? Coz the "raw" track per se was already so "completed" and for all who knows recording and mixing, this was sent to me on stereo .wav file and I didn't have the isolated tracks to play with so I had to work on this mix itself. This may not cause much of a problem if I just go with the direction of this already dictative track. However, I felt I didn't want to stick to this "Plumbada" mix style. I wanted to change it to something else. So I began to wonder what I can do...
Apparently, I had to find the BPM first and then strip samples and EQed off the vocal ranges I don't want (like the low singing pitched down vocals that kinda dictated the bass riff)... Once I've gotten my elements, I began to piece them together... adding guitar, cello, violin, glitches, blips, and some drum programming. The rest is history...
Am I pleased? Not really, but it was where I could "carry it to" with the time I had. Hopefully PLUM likes it, if not I will be one apologetic soul who destroyed her vocal tracks. :P Anyway it's all fun... just wanted to push the boundary a little... so here's the rather solemn IDM/Ambient/Electro-Acoustic version:
PLUM-Meted [Remixed by Sonicbrat]
[Yep, do me a favour, listen with headphones please, thank you :P]
In the new week, I will breathe... and walk my usual way. As life crescendoed, I get left behind. That rift so familiar, ever so condescending. But I can hear them still. The sounds of reality snaring in my ear-drums..
Here's the trailer of the Film I was composing music for Boo Jun Feng. Music is still not fixed. Will do so when I come back from Spain, Barcelona.
Yeah, I said I was going to dump the previous rendition. Here's a new approach. Well... I am so drained from work and sleepless nights and family stuffs. I am glad I have my girlfriend giving me all the love and support I need now. Thank you hun for everything... this is for you.
A short piano composition... HOME COMING
Do listen with headphones for better experience. Thanks! :)
Yes, another picture taken at Thomson with my ulta cheapo mini digi-camera :P
