Bath City Test Piece

This is the title of the first track uploaded to my new myspace.

It's a minimal house inspired piece created from samples recorded around the City of Bath.

This is the first major musical piece I have had to produce as part of my course in Creative Musical Technology and I have learnt a lot about my strengths and weaknesses in creating it.

I have learnt a huge amount about recording in outdoor, public spaces, about editing and manipulating samples and about arranging and structuring the percussive elements of a 'dance' track.

I am incredibly pleased and I guess you could say proud of the results. It's not perfect but achieving perfection was never part of the task. This piece is definitely better then anything similar I have done before so in terms of artistic development, it's being great.

I feel ready to move on from what I have done with this piece, taking with me the lessons I have learnt, and am incredibly excited about working on some more, minimal style compositions where I can explore to a greater extent some of the ideas presented in 'Bath City Test Piece'.

Another project nearing completion now is my 'Deaf To...' piece for the Enslave Your Senses art festival held in Bath on the 22nd/23rd of May. This is a soundscape using incredibly quiet, unnoticed/ignored sounds which I have recorded, amplified and arranged. I will be uploading this piece to the myspace soon.

This Blog This Blogger

I've been maintaining this blog for a while now.

I started it whilst working in a fairly dull office job as a place to vent some creative tensions whilst sat for long hours in front of a computer, not having any access to myspace or facebook.

It became a place to discuss my music, my ideas, and a place to promote the work I was doing at the time.

I took great pleasure in developing the words I wanted to use, honing my skills as a writer and a thinker.

In a world that didn't really care about creativity, about ideas and beliefs, this blog was a little online sanctuary.

I can't really say that this is still the case.

My posts are less frequent then before - I just don't seem to find the time to write here anymore. When I do, I don't care so much about the quality of what I'm saying, I don't take the time to structure my writing or to word things as they should be.

So what's changed?

I'm in an academic and a creative environment now - a complete contrast to where I was two years ago. And I don't find myself sat for long hours in front of a computer with nothing to do - if I'm at a computer, I'm making music, or writing an essay.

I also keep my own, personal, real life journal now. Its made of hand made, thick, quality paper and is bound in a thick leather cover. I try to write something a couple of times a week, just to keep note of what I've been doing and how things have affected me. I look forward to reading back through it one day.

Most recently however, I've started micro-blogging on Twitter.

It's taken me about two years to catch up with the rest of the world but I've finally succumbed and become obsessed with blogging my opinions, my day to day activities, in 140 characters or less.

There's something really great about the word limit, the instant nature of it, chose your words carefully but quickly.

Some people think that Twitter is the final nail in the coffin of written word, of prose and structure. Perhaps. But more importantly, it has forced me as a writer to think carefully about what I want to say, exactly what it is that's on my mind, and the instant and throwaway nature of it all just makes me aware that what I say had better be good, because in about a minutes time something will be coming along to replace it, pushing my thoughts to the bottom of the pile.

find me @oliverjowen

I will, of course, continue to run this blog - perhaps improve the quality with some lengthier, more thought out pieces.

Bath

This was a bit of an experiment for me trying to get some interesting panoramic images. The images will also form part of the content of a music piece that is made using samples recorded around Bath.

I like the general effect in this picture but it is definitely a crude attempt - better attempts will follow soon I hope.

Being a Photographer

Yesterday I took some pictures of a model that Trish and one of her colleagues had styled for a hairdressing competition.

They had done a really good job on the hair and thankfully it was a lovely, bright sunny day so we were able to get some great photos around Bath. I think they stand a good chance in the competition.

As I walked home, feeling pretty pleased with the images I had captured, I began to wonder what role I had played, as photographer, in the days proceedings.

The model was attractive, she had been styled well and the lighting and scenery was great for shooting in. All I did was adjust the settings on the camera to get a good exposure and framed some shots.

To those who have never used a good quality camera then this would probably seem challenging and I'm sure they would struggle to achieve the quality of photos that I did, however, my training in photography is pretty basic and I wouldn't even call myself a serious amateur. I don't think it would take very much for someone who was keen to learn to be able to match my skills very quickly.

So what was I really bringing to the session? My photographers eye? Knowing when an image looks OK and when it looks great? The ability to frame and compose an image so that it works? And how do I make the jump from guy able to get good shots under the circumstances of yesterdays shoot, and master photographer, able to consistently produce inspiring images?

The images are still sitting on my camera at the moment but at some point in the next couple of days I will transfer them to my laptop and will upload a favourite to this blog along with other examples of my photography.

Oliver Owen Music World

Today I will be delving back into the world of Myspace as I try and inject some much needed life into my online, musical presence.

I set up a Myspace music profile about 6 months ago as I tried to launch a new musical project, Tapper. I poured loads of energy into writing, recording and creating the online profile, but after a while, I kinda realised that there were other things I wanted to be doing. The Tapper project, although fun for a while, just didn't have enough long term interest for me.

So the profile has been sitting redundant for a fair few months now as I try and figure out where to go next.

As part of a University assignment I need to showcase some of my work online, through a Myspace profile or similar.

This requirement has given me the push to get the profile up and running again, functioning as a more general outlet for all of my musical projects for the time being.

I'm interested to see how I get on in what will be my third attempt at Myspacing. I wonder how well the profile will work, showcasing such a wide variety of music.

www.myspace.com/oliverowenmusicworld