Albatross News

We now have a limited supply of 'hard copies' of the 'Albatross EP' for those dedicated followers of Ned Ludd out there. Unfortunately, we can't sell 'em for as cheap as the iTunes version, but if you contact us, we'll get you set up with one of them.

More news very soon, in minutes actually, just wanted this to have its own entry.

Deny The Cold

Regrettably, the hellish cold has arrived and scared away my ability to sleep. The past couple of days have been spent blissfully out of the studio and in the company of great friends doing enjoyable holiday things.

Friday night was an evening so extraordinary that blogging about it in detail would cheapen it somehow. Food was enjoyed, wine (VAST understatement) was consumed and a large crowd of new friends made Rebecca and I feel like happy new members in an incredibly warm and loving family.

Today, Rebecca and I bundled the kids and leapt over the bridge to catch the SF Youth Symphony's holiday concert. The first of what I hope to be an annual tradition for us. The program was light-hearted but quite well-thought-out and easy to get lost in. The main draw was Prokofiev's classic 'Peter & The Wolf' led by the symphony's 27 year-old(!) conductor and it was a nice reading. However, the selections played just before it were picked to highlight for the children and neophytes in the audience the different sections of the orchestra. Light waltzes and bright brass symphonies gave way to a stunning piece performed entirely by a quintet of drummers. The lone bass drummer stood stoic on stage beating his simple, but crescendoing, pulse while 4 other drummers slowly proceeded up the aisles toward the stage beating their single tuned toms. As they neared the stage, the rhythm became more frenzied and the audience more spellbound. Written as a 'wake' for the composer's musical idol, I was left utterly reminded how much more powerful music is when rended from the soul by an honest emotion and a unique thought.

The highlight, though, did not come from the stage, but from little Olivia whose response to first hearing the sweeps of the full orchestra were little gossamer tears that trickled down her sweet warm cheeks. From the first, she was completely consumed and did not disengage until the final strains. Selfishly, I grinned as I felt my parental satisfaction reserves overflow enough to warm me through until spring.

More Halou news soon, as I can hear the faint, siren-like whisper calling up the stairs from the studio. Much, much to do in the week ahead.

Ryan.

The Usual

Tonight, I've been trying to use Atmosphere for the first time and it really does not want to play nice with any other plug-ins. If I have any NI plugins open, it crashes the whole session and forces a restart.

To be honest, cool as it is, I think Atmosphere is probably something I would have found more useful 10 years ago. It's a little Jean-Michael Jarre-ish for me with its insta-ambient leanings. Nevertheless, the synthesis behind it and the GUI are very cool. Perhaps I will find a way to work it in somewhere.

On The Weekend

The volatile combination of weather and holiday shopping made things quite slow over the past couple of days. Unfortunately, I had little time to spend working on anything much in the studio - apart from cleaning things up now that rehearsals have subsided for the time being.

I did get the opportunity to work with Rebecca on finding a new tempo for the track I've been calling 'Stoplights'. Also found out Rebecca has been calling it 'Breath Makes Smoke'. In any case, we adjusted it upward 11 beats per minute, which is substantial. Typically, I don't move things up or down more than 5 BPM to get it right. I guess we both felt this particular track has the potential to be fairly energetic, which is hard to achieve at lower tempos.

Also, I did the original demo using dodgy synth sounds from Reason so I've been replacing those with real performances to work out what I/we will actually play once we go into the studio proper...

Ryan.

Last Night

Though Marin County hardly suffers from dynamic weather to the degree of, say, the East Coast, things can get pretty murky and dark. Last year around this time, Rebecca and I were nearly done with the R/R Coseboom album, a project taken on largely to pass the late fall and winter doldrums and maybe reflect a little bit of that time of year.

This year, Halou feels more vibrant and we have begun working on our next album in earnest. I have gone into some of the work that we’ve done so far on this blog, but I expect to really get into things right around the beginning of next year.

Last night, though, we got together for dinner and a little bit of recording and rehearsal. Rebecca – who can always be counted on to brighten a table with her face and her fare – served an elegant mushroom soup with fresh chantrelles, cannelloni stuffed with smoked cherries and Swiss chard (then topped with parsnip cream), and I-Li’s recipe for Moo-less chocolate cake. Almost more decadence than you should be allowed to fit into one sentence – or onto one table, but we found a way.

It was a good night for wine, too, actually. With the mushroom soup, we had the 2004 Ramey Russian River Chardonnay – a current favorite that Rebecca and I also had this Thanksgiving. With the cannelloni we drank the new Parallel Cabernet, perhaps my favorite red of the moment. To get us through the recording, we hurt a bottle of Valdez Rockpile Zinfandel – the new wine that the Spectator, Chronicle, etc. keep talking about. Lives up to the hype, no question.

We used the rehearsal to further work out the newer songs and tighten ourselves up on the older ones. ‘Albatross’ is already a new live favorite of mine with its tremolo guitar rakes and moog modulating. Also, ‘It Will All Make Sense In The Morning’ now makes a lot more sense to all of us as we were sort of confused about how to arrange it.

I’ve got much work to do on several other demos laying around. Next up, I’ve got this ‘Stoplights’ track staring at me from a lonely folder in a remote corner of an audio drive…

Ryan

Reload Image Roundup

The internets. Photos. Instantly. WTF.

DNA Lounge Photos

Flickr Photos

Live Footage

As Rebecca mentioned, the Reload event was great. Very healthy turnout of friendly people and (once we were onstage) little to no technical fuckups. A LOT of video footage to go through, but here's a small nugget:

Rebecca's Reload Recap

We had an amazing time in San Francisco at Reload the other night and we're so grateful to everyone who came and made the night so fantastic!

The lofty goal of the evening was to highlight new technologies and how live performance might be more interactive with their use. While we had a few "setbacks" toward achieving that goal, I was pretty content with the fact that it was an awesome evening of live music! That is a feat in and of itself. If ever Corey wants to put on another Reload, I'm in - especially if it's at the DNA Lounge, a fantastic venue.

The Podcast meetup was great. I was impressed with the turnout and thrilled with the enthusiasm of the attendees. I even met one person who had actually changed his last name to "Podcaster." I wonder what he'll be named in 5 years... or even 3...

Black Fiction was a nice surprise. I didn't know what to expect and besides the neckbeards, they were very well received!



One of the greatest parts of the night for me was Zoe Keating. I finally got a chance to get to know her a little better and I was thrilled to discover that she is as wonderful as you might imagine. She may be staying at chez Coseboom in the coming weeks and has promised to consult with us regarding updating our live setup. Oddly enough, we figured out that she was working at the culinary academy when I was a student there!



I have not one complaint about our set. I was so happy and relaxed and comfortable. Our new song went over as well as I had hoped and we were all really excited about sharing some more of the new music we've been working on for the new album. Hopefully, if all goes well, we will have some shows in mid-January and we can add another new one.



To the best of my knowledge, no audio recording of any value exists to chronicle the evening, but we do have loads of video. As soon as one of us has half a moment to catch breath, we'll post some of it online.

Special thanks to Darren for so capably managing our merch booth! You can see him in this photo I found online, slaving away, all bent over there on the right:



-REBECCA

Soundcheck, etc

Here at the DNA Lounge. Nearly 8pm. Soundcheck finished about an hour ago and went ok considering the technical elements involved.

Last Minute

As I type, I'm waiting for DVD Studio Pro to multiplex the video ouptut on the G5. I've spent most of the evening tossing things around in Final Cut, as is usually the case in the days before we play shows. This time, however, I ran into some annoying obstacles with Final Cut losing track of various clilps and mysteriously chopping/replacing others. It seems so random sometimes.

Tomorrow night is the final rehearsal. Last practice was a bit contentious, but only because we're playing a couple new songs that haven't been thouroughly though-out already. The two new songs in the set are definitely high points and we're all looking forward to finally playing them out.

RYAN

When Sleeping

These get the brain settled...

July Skies - Where The Days Go
Helios - Eingya
Console - Mono
Deaf Center - Pale Ravine

Rethinking Bass

Over the years I've spent some time thinking of ways to avoid bringing amps onstage for guitars. My original idea - which I still use - is the reliable Pod Pro that puts out a convincing guitar sound while eliminating all the negative aspects of amps (and stompboxes).

Now that I've added bass to the setup, I've had to consider how to do something similar for it. My original plan - the path of least resistance, of course - was to just unplug the guitar and use the Pod for the bass, as well. This definitely works, though I'm not in love with the results.

Tonight, I took a shot at running Guitar Rig inside the KORE environment and using the amps/fuzz inside it to get the tone of the bass and then added dynamic processing on top of that. I can't believe how good it sounds. It's a bit weird to get my head around using a laptop as my 'bass amp', but can't argue with the sound.

Rehearse, Record, Release

Rehearsal went brilliantly with very successful run-throughs of both the new songs in the set: 'Albatross' (from the upcoming EP) and 'It Will All Make Sense In The Morning' (for the next record). 'It Will All Make Sense...' for me is such a needed presence in our live set adding something that we haven't had up until now. Hard to articulate. 'Albatross' we've played before, but only now is it really working the way it should. I should also mention here that our friend, the amazing cellist, Zoe Keating will be joining us for the Nov 30th show, also.

The recording of 'It Will All Make Sense...' is really coming along nicely. So many great elements already - I'm quite pleased. Count recorded quite a bit of material for the song 'Seabright' in Dallas, as well. I haven't heard it yet, but he seems very energized by what was laid down. A few months ago Robin Guthrie (of Cocteau Twins), someone we've admired for quite a long time, played guitar on it also. Our timeline for the next album seems more realistic everyday, though those of you who followed us during the making of our last album will take that with a serious lump of salt. ;)

Today, I listened to the master of the 'Albatross EP' for the first time. These EP's are so fun to put together, as they remove a lot of the challenges that a full album brings. Admittedly, the EP format is not as vibrant as it once was, I still get excited by the possibilities it provides.

- RYAN

NP

Console - Mono
Billy Bragg - Worker's Playtime
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Goldmund - The Heart Of High Places
Guitar - Tokyo
Johann Johannsson - IBM 1401: A User's Manual

- RYAN

Still Learning & Techie Things

Just picked up a bass guitar again for the first time in quite a while - probably since I recorded some bits on the 'W&S' record. I think I finally feel comfortable with it's combination of guitar/percussiveness and I plan on getting quite a bit of practice time in. I used to hate bass when I was younger, having been more-or-less raised on electronic music. The naivete in that was pointed out to me when I realized that the bass parts on all the early OMD records were real stringed bass guitars. Over the years, I've also come to realize that bass, much like drums, has a lot to do with how people categorize music. For me, one of the most reliable ways to move a track away from an 'electronic feel' is to use a stringed bass - preferably electric. Picking up an unfamiliar instrument is always refreshing and invigorating and I've so far had quite a bit of fun 'refinining' my bass playing.

Another facet of our evolving performance is the new integration of Rebecca's laptop running Ableton live. Anyone who has seen us live is familiar with Rebecca's three microphone attack and this is sort of an extension of that - with her now being able to loop vocal bits live. Still working out the kinks and details, but this is perhaps the most potentially exciting development we've adopted in a while.

- RYAN

Crazy Week

It didn't seem like it at the time, but the past week turned out to be a somewhat crazy one. Anyone who reads this blog (hi mom) knows the trouble I've seen with plugins, but we've also had the first Halou rehearsal in some time. This included running through 'It Will All Make Sense In The Morning' for the first time as a live band (I think we've determined this to be the first two-bass-guitar Halou song), designing a cover for the new EP on the fly, and flying down to LA briefly for a quick trip that included some serious DVD Studio Pro lessons and an overdue encounter with Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant who turned out to be every bit as charming and warm as you could expect.

Tonight I hope to nail down the details concerning the video elements of the upcoming Nov 30th show. We've never seriously recorded video of any Halou show and this one is illustrating for me how difficult that can be. Video just isn't worth doing unless it's done right.

- RYAN

Some New Music On The Way

The new EP is more or less done with an iTunes exclusive release just around the corner.

Tracks:

1. Cello - An instrumental piece a'la 'Separation' and 'Alaska'

2. Ingenue (Different) - We enhanced the percussion elements quite a bit, removed the dodgy synth sound and replaced it with a pretty minimal electric piano, and Rebecca resang some of the vocals. A version far superior to the original, I think.

3. Albatross - This song was originally intended to be on the album but we really couldn't find a place for it. We've played it live a few times and it always sounds really good to me. I'm happy it's finally getting out there.

4. One Sunny Day - 'Separation' from the new album is actually the instrumental coda to this song. We wrote this at the same time as 'The Ratio Of Freckles To Stars' and 'Ingenue' but revisited several times before resting on this version. The ambient noises throughout are a very good example of one of Count's big strengths.

5. Night Divides The Girls - Also written around the time of 'Freckles' etc, this song is one I really enjoy - the middle part in particular.

- RYAN

Ugh

Plugin hell.

On The Weekend

Not much time spent this weekend on music-related pursuits but I did manage to get some further installs going on the new laptop tonight. For some reason, the Native Instruments authorizer is being stubborn, but it’s the only hitch I’ve encountered so far. Looking forward to getting the v4 Komplete bundle from NI soon to optimize things to the Intel brain...

Count is off to Dallas soon to work with Shadow on another remix and I’ve just started on production of a new Dynamophone project that will require a serious time commitment over the next few weeks. So far, I've primarily been running tracks through a nice tube channel strip to get more satisfying dynamics. More creative work to follow, hopefully.

More soon

Ryan

Laptalk

A few months ago, Native Instruments was kind enough to hook us up with their new Kore interface that has finally really got me excited about using software synths in a live context. The challenge with this kind of thing continues to be that the software is released a beat ahead of computers that are capable of really harnessing the capabilities.

Yesterday, I bought the new Mac core duo laptop to provide a little peace of mind as I try to run everything onstage in a couple of weeks. Most of the sounds we use are from chains of plug-ins that I never thought could be accessed live. Honestly, I’m still not convinced. We’ve never played with laptops onstage for just this reason. The challenge these days is that we really can’t avoid it. Most of what we’re doing now really requires sounds quite a bit more involved than what you can get from standard hardware sound module. So, we’ll see what happens with this during rehearsals and, hopefully, we’ll try some new things onstage Nov 30th.

I’ve also been continuing the development of some of the demos we’ve got for our next record. Honestly, I’ve been a bit disillusioned by the usual instrumentation and have been holding off on doing too much until we get into a ‘real’ studio with a selection of (non-virtual) instruments to play around with.

Rebecca has been itching to sing lately and, I’m afraid I’ve had little to offer in terms of new material. Rehearsals do go some way to appeasing, but there’s no substitute for coming up with something new and satisfying...