The Sycamore Variations, by Christopher H. M. Jacques

The Sycamore Variations

by Christopher H. M. Jacques

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1.	Sycamore 1 (the rain has softened the earth, robin) 09:24	buy track
2.	Sycamore 17 (the road is only as open as you are) 05:56	buy track
3.	Sycamore 13 (budding branches, part 1) 04:59	buy track
4.	Sycamore 4 (a void to avoid) 08:38	buy track
5.	Sycamore 12 (tomorrow looms just beyond the horizon) 13:07	buy track
6.	Sycamore 11 (that thought won't extinguish itself) 06:08	buy track
7.	Sycamore 6 (or, the transformation) 05:18	buy track
8.	Sycamore 14 (budding branches, part 2) 04:46	buy track
9.	Sycamore 5 (a chance meeting on the forest's edge) 11:11	buy track
10.	Sycamore 16 (ripples on the pond's surface) 06:00	buy track

about

Fractals by way of tree branches.

Inspired by the spring unfolding around me, the Sycamore Variations features ten different variations of the same basic structure. Performed on piano, each variation begins with a droning root note -- the shoot peaking through the soil, the leaf bud sprouting from the branch -- and then develops greater and greater complexity through the course of the variation, building piece by piece on what came before. Repetitions and recursions remain a fascination of my own; the pieces here aim to exert a gestalt effect, where these repeated phrases become more than the sum of their parts, forming remembrances, extensions, intensities. This fascination is also a reflection of nature's endless iteration: each tree is the same, each tree is different; the more you look at one the more sameness you discover, and the more difference, too.

These variations are the product of a generative composition I wrote for the Empress Effects ZOIA, called the Sycamore Variations, which creates progressions, sent over MIDI, while also processing the audio (with delays and looping) that comes back from its MIDI destination. ZOIA plays the (digital) piano; I just guide its hand. The architecture of the composition includes some fixed points -- the droning root note -- while other elements are given over to randomness and chance, some with definable ranges and actions, some without. Each time the same, each time different. If you are interested in playing with the composition yourself, it will be available on Patchstorage shortly after this album is released, along with patch notes that explain its use more fully.

A few tracks were recorded with additional effects provided by patches I have written -- Parts V2, Decorrelate, Loom -- and reverb was added in the recording process. Some very light EQing and mastering occurred after recording concluded. I considered employing other instruments, but the charisma of the piano won me over, as it often does. The influence of other minimalist composers working with the piano -- Philip Glass and Harold Budd, amongst many others -- also contributed to this decision.

A few faults occurred in the recording -- brief moments of clipping. I hope you will forgive them.

credits

released May 5, 2023

Christopher H. M. Jacques -- patch programming, sound design, production, artwork

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about

Christopher H. M. Jacques Charleston, West Virginia

Ambient soundscapes inspired by my Appalachian home and too much time thinking about time.

Fractals by way of tree branches.

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