Thomas Park- Shadows In The Lounge [treetrunk 782]

As the vapers vaped and ‘retters ‘retted, plumes of smoke of various flavors spiralled towards the ceiling of the old lounge, which was now covered in a thin glaze of brown. The red satin chairs, once new, were torn in places and punctuated with cigarette burns. The wooden sculptures and armchairs were shiny, but a sticky to the touch. And as light bulb after light bulb expired shadows gradually began taking over the old lounge.

This session was recorded at Loud On 7th Studio– in one take with no overdubs. Sound and music by Thomas Park.

https://archive.org/details/Shadows_In_The_Lounge

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Eartrumpet and Mystified- Eartrumpet and Mystified [treetrunk 782]

Roger Mills is an ensemble-leader, a leading-edge thinker, a great musician– and most importantly for this release– one heckuva horn player. When I composed some generative Classical backdrops, I sent them to Roger. These tracks are what he created. I hope that you enjoy them as I do.

Artist Statement – Roger Mills

I met Thomas Park, albeit virtually, some years ago as a contributor to the Ambient Music mailing list run by hyperreal.org. We struck up an online friendship, exchanging ideas and thoughts about ambient music. Thomas began developing an algorithm that took snippets of audio to generate new sonic configurations, unrecognisable from their source. I was interested in the acousmatic concept of this, as I had been teaching a university sound design subject, and phenomenological concepts of reduced listening (écoute réduite), and the sound object (l’objet sonore) articulated by Pierre Schaeffer, were particularly front of mind. 

In 2019, my internet music ensemble, Ethernet Orchestra, released our second album ‘Oceans between Sound’, and Thomas developed an interface that remixed the album in real-time, layered with images of the oceans and waterways that separate the geographically dispersed ensemble. Thomas later contributed a track created by the algorithm to our next album, ‘Oceans Reimagined’, a collection of remixes by invited artists. The possibilities of what the algorithm was capable of spruiked my interest in collaborating on this project, Eartrumpet & Mystified. Thomas emailed a series of stems created by his algorithm as inspiration for trumpet improvisations. I felt a synergy between the generative, reconfigured, composed music stems, and my practice as an improviser, reconfiguring a canon of notes, harmony and rhythm, developed over many years. As the project developed, I also started processing the output of the algorithm, and multitracked processed trumpet, field recordings and my own library of sounds to build each track. The result is an EP of four tracks that illustrate an experiment in human-algorithmic interaction that speaks to an ambient music aesthetic being regenerated and configured.

Roger Mills 27 January 2023.

https://archive.org/details/EartrumpetAndMystified

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Thomas Park- Feeling And Resonance [treetrunk 781]

A live set, with no overdubs, at Loud At Seventh Studios.

https://archive.org/details/FeelingAndResonance

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Thomas Park- Fearless Compassion [treetrunk 780]

If showing compassion is silly and awkward, then showing it must require a person to be fearless. I think some of life’s great experiences are like that. They are often mocked and take great bravery to perform, courage, too, to defend.

This release was extracted from a single live session in “Loud At 7th” studio, with no overdubs (though a Looper pedal was used with my keyboard). The session was performed 01.18.2023.

https://archive.org/details/FearlessCompassion

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Thomas Park- A Brooding Silence [treetrunk 779]

Here are some live recordings, done in one take, with no overdubs. These were recorded in Loud at 7th studio, early morning 01.14.2023. The title refers to the silence in the part of Saint Louis where Thomas lives, in the year 2023 (part of the Covid era).

https://archive.org/details/ABroodingSilence

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Thomas Park- Counting Time By The Surface Of Water [treetrunk 777]

Some original piano played by Thomas Park was recorded to reel-to-reel tape, then re-recorded while the faulty player oscillated and glitched. The resulting sound was digitized and run through a generatve process before being re-composed and mastered.

https://archive.org/details/counting-time-by-the-surface-of-water

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Thomas Park- Three Local Pianos In A Day [treetrunk 776]

Thomas plays and records some piano improvisations at the Blues Museum, the Saint Louis Hotel, and Dunaway’s Books. Thanks for the folks at all 3 places for letting me play. All music recorded live without overdubs on 12.11,2022.

https://archive.org/details/threelocalpianosina-day

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2nd Harmonic Generation with DJ_Iterate – Drones Bright And Long [treetrunk 775]

Here are some generatively-mixed drone pieces– the loops were supplied by the 2nd Harmonic Generation. Thanks to him for his sonic donation(s)!

https://archive.org/details/DronesBrightAndLong

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Thomas Park- A Prayer To Summon Rain [treetrunk 774]

This is a mid-form piece of desert ambiance– all sounds were recorded by Thomas Park in a temporary studio on Wyoming Avenue, 11/2022. Instruments include: singing bowls (3), chimes, tuned drums (3), bass flute, recorder, melodica, harmonica, frame drums (2), concertina, voice (male), various industrial sounds (pre-recorded), gong (pre-recorded) and thunderstorm sounds (pre-recorded). In general, “A Prayer To Summon Rain” represents an effort to combine generative and actual, improvised music, where the improvisation is in the foreground.

“A Prayer To Summon Rain”

by Thomas Park, 2022

Things were thought not changeable

No difference, year nor day

But something odd had touched our home

And months would pass– no rain

The rivers, lakes, and ponds we knew

From times before in life

Dried out completely, leaving naught

But bowls of dust and sand

While walking to a place not far

My throat was filled with thirst

I lifted both my hands upwards

And sent the sky a prayer

The prayer was simple, born of need

For clouds to form, raindrops to fall on me

What once I hid in shelters from 

Was needed– so I prayed for rain

https://archive.org/details/aprayertosummonrain

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Thomas Park- Endless Dub Generation 1122022 [treetrunk 773]

Here are some recordings taken in real time of the Endless Dub Generation application– which is a Python-coded generative environment. The code (and music) is by Thomas Park.

https://archive.org/details/ThomasParkEndlessDubGeneration1122022

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