This recording is a full unedited archive of my Friday night set at Masters club in Zagreb.

It was my first time visiting the city, and my first time in Croatia. I had arrived the evening prior and after having a moment to gather my thoughts in the crisp evening after disembarking the flight from Charles DeGaulle, I was met by the crew and driven into the city. I was invited to close out for Brighton at Funk club, when I arrived at the basement space it made an immediate impression on me. Low-arching brick ceilings extended over an enthusiastic crowd, a full house in good spirits, and eagerly taking in a deep and heady selections from Brighton. And if this openness to the subtler parts of the music wasn’t promising enough, I was also warmly welcomed and met many of the people I would end up seeing throughout the rest of my stay in Zagreb. Finishing his set before I went on, Brighton squeezed in my track “Dogs & Flies,” also setting the tone for the weekend, where that turned into a bit of a theme song.

After a little further exploration into the city, we retreated back to the apartment of my new friends Nina and Jakov, who were the consummate hosts for my whole stay. One evening we wandered the main square of the city, another Nina prepared a delectable baked chicken dish, there seemed always to be something interesting to experience.

The next night after Funk was the main event: Freefloating at Masters. The club, apparently so-called because of its proximity to tennis courts, is a hidden treasure. Entering the grounds that misty evening felt like wandering into an abandoned fairgrounds. We then finding our way up the stairs to the second story space, and finally peered inside. The venue struck me as a sea ship elevated in the air with its oblong shape, its dark and massive timber construction and outcropped lookouts above. The sound was full and heavy, with some of the massive speakers suspended in the air, further contributing to a sensation of being adrift. Davor opened the night with slowly churning deep techno, which set the stage for the audio enclosed. My set was a bit unexpected, even by me – I’d planned to play a mixture of digital files and vinyl, but with the setup it was only possible to work from wax. My pre-announced set was 2 hours, but the momentum of the night extended the duration well beyond. Combined with the vinyl limitation this turned into a real exercise in stretching and manipulating a small collection, which provided even more challenge and motivation. Through all this, the audience was energetic, adventurous, and supportive, which comforted me while I stretched to cover some variety of tempos and styles. I met so many friendly, engaging people during and after my set. Brighton cleaned up with a closing performance until about 9am.

Saturday night I played upstairs at Sirup’s Program event with Examine, we tag-teamed throughout the night, overcoming repeated electrical issues early on in the evening to turn out a night of warm, fun house music and acid techno including a heathy dose of classics. Sunday night I was invited to perform alongside Regard Less, Mimi, Rale and Brighton at Masters’ sister-club for their “Together Is Easier” event, a fundraiser for a family in financial distress. By Sunday, many of the faces were familiar friends I’d seen for 2 or 3 of the previous evenings. And Monday morning I rode back out to the airport, contemplative, inspired and energized.

When I was invited back to contribute to Modyfier again, I immediately though of this recording, because to me it represents the process, situation, and surrounding experience impacting and reflecting through a single session.

m50 – process part 295 (free floating) by modyfier

Dear Listener,

When it gets to making things, no matter what it is – mixing or washing dishes – it should be done easily and without hesitation. Each next thought kills the previous moment. The making of this audio story was easy and simple in and of itself because all the “chapters” have accompanied me for many years. Putting them together was a logical move (I hope, the only one). I would like to thank Modyfier for letting me finish what I should have a long time ago and for providing an outlet so I can share it with you. It’s a little bit of a sad story, but it’s all in the past now and gone already, isn’t it?

Dedicated to all blazing hearts.

Yours,
Egor

khz – process part 294 (sagebrush grass) by modyfier

01. Surgeon – Dark Matter/Nika Turbina – Я – полынь трава (I’m a sagebrush-grass)
02. Nine Inch Nails – A Warm Place
03. Coil – Teenage Lightning (10th birthday version)
04. No Accident In Paradise – Exit 9
05. The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Ijosmyndir
06. Swans – Her Mouth Is Filled With Honey
07. Einsturzende Neubauten – Stella Maris (Soulwax)
08. Joey Beltram – South Pacific/Arseniy Avraamov – Simphony of horns
09. Palancar – The Darkest Evening of the Year
10. Steve Reich – Music For Mallet Instruments 1
11. David Lynch & Dean Hurley – Porticos
12. Стук Бамбука в XI Часов (Bamboo knocks at 11 o’clock) – Снежный мёд (Snow honey)

CHRIS (MNML SSGS)

Process part 127.2 was recorded on 31 January 2009. Process part 293 was recorded on 30 January 2012. This mix is a meditation on the intervening 3 years.

‘And the book says: “We may be through with the past…but the past is not through with us.”‘

chris (mnml ssgs) – process part 293 (we may be through with the past…) by modyfier

01. Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnason – “Saccades” (from “Sólaris”, Bedroom Community, 2011)
02. Tim Hecker – “Sketch 5″ (from “Dropped Pianos”, Kranky, 2011)
03. Ben Frost – “Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes” (from “By the Throat”, Bedroom Community, 2009)
04. Roly Porter – “Hessra” (from “Aftertime”, 2011)
05. Lawrence English – “Organs Lost At Sea” (from “Kiri No Oto”, Touch, 2008)
06. Tim Hecker – “Where Shadows Make Shadows” (from “An Imaginary Country”, Kranky, 2009)
07. Tim Hecker – “200 Years Ago” (from “An Imaginary Country”, Kranky, 2009)
08. Ø – “Näkinkengät” (from “Kantamoinen”, Sähkö, 2005)
09. Barn Owl – “Void and Devotion” (from “Shadowland”, Thrill Jockey, 2011)
10. Ben Frost – “Theory of Machines” (from “Theory of Machines”, Bedroom Community, 2006)
11. Björk – “All is Full of Love” (from “Homogenic “, One Little Indian, 1997)

CLAIRE

Creation is the essence of my existence.

Being prepared to harness the peaks of creative potential which exist in daily life with the appropriate recording device is a challenge that constantly plagues me in the battle between spontaneity and preparedness. I want to go for a walk. I want to ride my bike. It’s such a beautiful day, I want to do it now. But what if I hear an amazing sound? The desire to capture it, to record it into some sort of tangible form that can be later transformed and manipulated overwhelms me. It feels like a waste of a perfect moment if I hear it and the only memory which can resonate is the one inside the gate to my mind’s eye.

As such, I often carry a portable recording device with me wherever I go. Minimal, black, and pocket-sized, it looks like it could be an mp3 player. Subtlety is key, as recording is not entirely dissimilar to espionage. I bring my device to airports, on bike rides, to the forest, the jungle, the beach. I record soundscapes, sirens, strange noises that inspire me, people speaking in different languages, whispering, laughing, musicians playing on the street.

Some people are inspired by stillness, others by motion. It is possible to find stillness in motion if you dare go a little deeper. Travelling is the motion that inspires my stillness. In an airplane, on a bullet train, waking up in a strange bed still wearing my clothes, these are the moments that inspire the stillness of my creation. Melodies and rhythms swirl inside my head. Physically I lie still (or I sit) as my airplane lifts off transporting me to a faraway land, but psychologically my mind is enveloped by a cascading wash of sounds. Can I give them a material form fast enough to capture their essence before they disappear forever from my consciousness? This is when my moment of creation happens. Like lightning bolts, the sounds inside my mind permeate into virtual existence.

Textures. Undulating waves of sound. Reality blended with artificiality. Electronic synths and samples meshed with recordings from real-life encounters: random happenings and synergetic moments. Technological devices obey their command under the weight of my nimble fingers, transforming digital recorded soundscapes into pristine reductions: gently moving textures, delicate slices of life. Synthesized sounds layered with fragments of creatures and adventures great and small. Sounds from nature mesh with gently sculpted electronic noise, creating a hybrid form. The organic mixes with the mechanic. Through this process emerges a sophisticated bricolage of (what is, in this case) staccato hi-hat rhythms and deep rumbling bass. And a melody that is not quite melancholic, nor happy…

>>Can you guess where the sound of the bass comes from?
>>Can you hear the crickets chirping in Japanese cricket-speak?
>>Can you hear the clinking of forks as Amanda speaks of deja vu over dinner?

Plotting their escape route onto the timeline of my Ableton Session, these fragile moments of my most creative process often occur within the timeframe of a flight, a hazy rainy morning, a quiet evening in, or an interlude of stillness that reveals itself subtly within the chaos of my day-to-day existence. Some days I wake up with the remnants of a dream and in the dream there is a melody. It is impossible for me to start my day until I get it down in some form or other so I can use it later.

This track represents the fusion of these moments of stillness and inspiration, of digital technologies and electronic sounds. Techniques and inclinations moulded as if they were sculptures. Sonic tapestries carefully injected with intricate fragments of recorded reality.

>>The bass comes from a violin.
>>The crickets and frogs were recorded by the roadside in Okinawa, Japan.
>>The vocals were recorded during MUTEK 2009 while eating dinner with my friend Amanda at a restaurant called Atma.
>>The melody was recorded by my friend Marc-Andre Mignault during a live studio jam session. I believe he made it in Reaktor.
>>And the track was started one rainy morning after a DJ gig in Prince Edward Island, lying in bed while my newfound friends made coffee, eggs, and bacon. Because the sounds were already inside my head, it seemed to write itself.

Incidentally, this track also represents the first time I really felt like I had captured the sounds inside my mind’s eye, for real, exactly how I wanted them to be.

claire – process part 292 (making hypnotic melodic) by modyfier

HAKIM MURPHY

My fundamental creative process comes simply from my experiences and education, however diving deeper into the process, I have come to know that I received my talents from my ancestors and beings from other dimensions (which are your inner-selves) as well. My rhythms and tones come from taste and the vision I have set out to accomplish when making a tune. This taste, or should I say feeling, comes from deep within the infinite realms of the cosmos and I feel lucky that I am able to materialize creations from an alternate dimension.

Inspiration also strikes me at the most random times, usually when working on any art project. I am also compelled to make tunes because it serves as my self-therapy. This self-therapy gives me the chance to let out my repressed inner-selves and give them a chance to shine so they can be heard.

Which brings me to this mix. I have put together 14 original sound pieces that I have materialized for the purpose of presenting deep tunes that are suited for dancing and listening. My main musical ideas have been centered around this concept of making interesting tunes for the people who like to dance. I guess I make dj tools in essence, but over the years, these tools have progressed into full-fledge compositions using a creative ideology that I call deconstruction.

Deconstruction is when less becomes more; for instance I make a tune with just one, two bar loop and manage to express myself using just those means. I came to this philosophy because I realized that I needed to continue to practice my craft and did not like being bogged down trying to make the most amazing masterpiece every time by taking weeks just to arrange a tune. Using this philosophy, I have come to make tunes so much quicker and am now able to rapidly articulate my feelings. I understand that creating good art takes time, but you also need to have reference points within your art timeline to keep it fresh and to see if you are progressing.

Getting into the creative zone is not very difficult for me. I just close my eyes and conceptualize a name or a particular feel I am looking to portray. Usually, what I am feeling is enough inspiration to begin a project, and I am compelled to materialize that feeling through the rhythm and tones.

My day to day routines change because of my experimental nature. I like to change up machines and programs from project to project. I also change mediums as I like to make videos, take pictures, and write prose/poems to express what I am feeling.

I think once you can achieve the un-seen, you should never turn it off. It only benefits you to be able to call up new things as it helps your creativity. This also puts your self on a higher level of satisfaction because that connection is very strong and attracts you to other like minded artists.

Moreover materializing tones from other realms keeps us human as we are special types of creatures who can create something that evokes great pleasure in other human beings. Furthermore, I love life and what better way to contribute to the history of human intellect than to make music. It is interesting making connections through this international language that is just felt and articulated, wave forms are just funny like that. Well, enjoy this hour of music from the depths of my soul and welcome to my world of jack through a deep house medium.

hakim murphy – process part 291 (machining dreams) by modyfier

[00:00] Beeper
[04:32] Hyperspace Gate
[09:12] Openess
[13:10] Flash Mob
[19:08] Bumps
[22:20] Freshness
[26:32] Muffintop Dreams
[32:41] Taste O’ Rainbows
[35:53] Dark Peace
[40:04] Slowdown
[44:23] Mad
[48:23] Friendly Fire
[55:05] Essence Synthesis
[62:10] Wakabadai

WANDER

I started writing this track last October during my stay in Whistler. I was trying to capture the feeling of watching and waiting for the snow to fall so my friends and I could get up into the mountains to snowboard and ski. I was trying to capture the anticipation of looking out the window up into the mountains, watching the snow line creep down from the alpine into the trees. I was watching and waiting as the rains in the valley gradually turned into small showers of snow and then finally into blizzards during November.

You can tell the point in the track when the snow starts by when the chords drop in just before the half way point. I created hazy textures as a backdrop to represent the mist and rain and finally the snowfall. Out in the snow everything sounds a little muffled. The landscape changes dramatically over a few short months and nothing can be seen clearly, just vague shapes under the snow.

Now that I am back home in Scotland and saving to return to Whistler, I have finally found the time to finish the track while I am waiting to get back to the mountains again, where life is so much simpler. You know exactly what you are going to be doing every day: getting your gear on, meeting some friends at the lifts and finding a nice spot to ride, looking for powder stashes and fresh tracks. I miss those times very much. They were an amazing period of my life and I feel a little lost without them and all the good friends I made. I have tried to put as much of that feeling into the track as I could.

For me, making music is about trying to capture the energy and feeling of a particular moment and representing those feelings through texture and tone. And, like with snowboarding, once I get started and into a flow I get lost in the moment and time slips away from me.

When I listen to this track I am back up in the mountains, riding through glades. Snow is falling and I’m lost in the white void.

wander – process part 290 (winter is coming) by modyfier

SHAPEDNOISE

To really be yourself you should live according to your own demands but while respecting other people around you. Never stoop to compromise with anybody offering an exchange, or you’ll weaken your dignity as a free and clever human being.

shapednoise – process part 289 by modyfier

FALKO BROCKSIEPER

Techno is “music that sounds like machines” (J. Atkins).

One of the reasons why I enjoy creating this music myself is interacting in the environment between intuitive composing and sequential programming. The two go well together.

A sequence is the path to a machine-like structure. It’s about setting parameters for something to run by itself, to do the job. At a certain level of complexity it’s also about giving control to what is out of your hands – you are not perfectly in charge of what’s going on – and you can actively set the parameters to provide you with that very situation. Math becomes your production partner, it allows you to let loose and get you somewhere you didn’t intend to go.

My track for Modyfier addresses multi-layer sequencing based on a 5-note chord, played over 6 octaves, with just a sinus tone. While all of these 30 notes play once at the same time at the beginning of the track, they all have different loop points (a sequence of loop points), so they gradually drift apart and eventually get back together. The result is a poly-rhythmic, non-recurrent sequence of harmonic tones, covering a wide frequency spectrum. Without having to set any of these notes manually and make intuitive decisions, I get a theme and a bassline and some sparkle on top.

What I heard inspired me to group the notes into three frequency ranges to allow seperate dynamics & FX treatment of bottom-end, mid- and hi-range.

Finally beats, minor arrangement & a tweak of modulation were added.

falko brocksieper – process part 288 (sipping on sinewaves) by modyfier