Improvisations

This brief improvisation for mandolin made me think of the composer Edgard Varèse. He was one of my early influences; I was a big fan of his music when I was in undergraduate school at Hamilton College. Many wintery evenings were spent listening to scratchy records of his music in the drafty old Listening Library. The sounds are all made directly on the mandolin (with lots of reverb added in the mix!). I also added some scratchy record noise to the final mix using Nomad Factory’s RetroVox. I imagine this as a long lost recording from Varèse’s Blue(grass) Period. :-) I’m in the photo playing a Summit F-style mandolin. The lighting effect is created by using a slow camera exposure with me sitting VERY still while quickly moving a multi-colored light “box” in my right hand. Photo by my talented son, Chase. -William BradburyPlease feel free to add a comment on the Feedback/Contact page.