15 People

Our wasted summer - TOTM 7-2010 by ooray
I could apologize for my lack of posting for this month, but I won’t. I’ve been running a hamster wheel of conferences, dealing with death in the family, and remembrances. And I’m pretty tired and worn out from all of this.

I’ve come out of this deciding that I can’t keep up a track a week. Having done it for 62 weeks is enough for me. But I am more interested in exploring less improvised, more structured tracks like this one above, which requires much more work from me. Maybe I will release them once a month, I will see.

This track is an attempt to write something shorter and sweeter, with more of a pop structure. It’s a work in progress, so be kind.

Dawn Sustained - TOTW - 06-23-10 by ooray
Another shoegazer cello track, with sustained and layered notes.

Largo - TOTW 6-14-10 by ooray
No fx this week. Just pure cello. Track this week starts with a section of Shostakovich’s Largo movement of his Cello Sonata.

I am sad to say that my mother-in-law, Margaret “Margie May” Ott died last night at the age of 89. Her legacy as a piano teacher remains, having taught for 78 years (starting with teaching a neighbor boy at 11). She has left behind an amazing array of students who went on to have distinguished careers, including Janet Guggenheim, Steve Drury, and Philip Aaberg among others.

I am grateful to have spent time with her and had the opportunity to play a few cello and piano pieces with her. Our talks about music, music history and science I will always treasure. We both shared a belief in the transformative power in music, and she took an interest in my cello studies (she said that Cello would be the instrument she would study if she had a second time around). She had a curiosity about the world that kept her young.

Rest in Peace, Margie May.

Waveguide - TOTW 5-31-10 by ooray

Sorry for the lack of updates. Grad school has been busy, and so my slim amount of cello time has been dedicated to practice lately.This week’s track is an experiment with vibrato-speed and grain-freezing.

Grad school being extremely busy, I have been devoting most of my cello time to practice. Hoping to start tracks up again soon.

Lalalalah - TOTW 5-10-10 by ooray

Shoegaze guitar mixed with straight cello for this week’s track.

Sorry folks. Real life beckoned (back from Spokane from a family event). I will try to have a track up later this week.

Having battled illness last week, I’m scrambling to get caught up in school. So unfortunately, that means no track this week.

Buoys on the horizon - TOTW 4-19-10 by ooray

This week’s track begins with the famous A-A-harmonic sequence from Shostakovich’s D minor cello sonata (which I am practicing and is currently giving me much grief), mixed with distortion.