Bloom Transparencies V.1

by Chris Berens

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Transparencies 1 01:01:02

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about

Bloom Transparencies V.1 is a musical collage consisting of a background track with several layers of "blind" overdubs on top. My goal was to create a long piece that could create ambience in a space, affecting the mood whether or not those in the room were actively listening to it.
The background track was created using Brian Eno & Peter Chilvers' generative music app Bloom. It was recorded by letting Bloom "play itself" over speakers for about an hour in my kitchen while recording through a microphone. Life went on around it while it was happening, which is captured in the recording.
The "blind" overdub layers are six guitar tracks that were recorded while listening only to the Bloom-created background track. As the tracks were stacked on top of each other, I could hear & respond only to the original background track, not to anything I'd previously recorded. This lent itself to many unexpected interactions, some unusual dissonance and a few happy accidents.
I then mixed the tracks, blending them together and adjusting volume levels so that they combined to create a sonic collage. The result is something akin to a photo collage but happening in time: seven unique but related musical events converging to create something larger than the sum of their parts.

credits

released December 5, 2011

Recorded, mixed, mastered & produced by Chris Berens.
Instruments: iPod Touch (Bloom), Danelectro Hodad, Danelectro/Coral Baritone Sitar, Epiphone Double Neck, Epiphone EB-0, Gibson B-25-12.

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Chris Berens Fullerton, California

I think of the instrumental pieces here as ambient musical meditations; snapshots of certain unstructured moments that had a mood of contemplation, struggle and raw creation.

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