Ethan Bellhouse 3rd year Recital portfolio

Introduction
Going into this year I had some idea of how I wanted my recital to pan out, I knew I wanted
to do a recorded project that focused in on a handful on inspirations while also being an
expansive example of my listening experience. I wanted to create music that combined
elements of folk, Ambient, Experimental electronic music and classical but also influenced
by modern art ideas such as impressionism, abstract, expressionism and minimalism. I
believe in these tracks I demonstrate these ideas effectively.
I also wanted to learn Ableton and be able to use it to compose my works and effectively mix
and master them. I have a long way to go in perfecting my use of Ableton but this was an
invaluable opportunity to work on that skill and Dr. Michael Terrin was a great help in
overseeing my Development through that.

Orange Peel
With this track my goal was to create a track that explores ideas around a sound collage,
acousmatic style ambient piece. I knew going into this piece I wanted to explore a few ideas
including use of given text (text prompted by myself but created by another person), use of
lo-fi textures commonly found in the works of artists such as Phil Elverum and Liz Harris
(aka Grouper) and the use of field recordings. In finding a way of combining these elements I
decided that it would be best to work out the structure using live performance and
improvisation on the sonic palette. I performed the piece for my Semester one Performance
assessment and came to a basic
structure. I then decided to record
and refine the track over the course
of semester 2, changing elements
that I couldn’t otherwise perform
live, such as the addition of strings
and percussion as well as changing
the ending to give the track more
room to explore other ideas.
 The track explores the concept of finding
a sense of catharsis in mundane
situations, this theme is carried both
through the given text by Emma Daisy as
well as the use of samples and Minimal,
yet Dense instrumentation comprised of
Droning instruments such as reverbed
guitar and Droning Synthesizers. The
Samples used are to amplify the texts
meaning and give more clarity to the ideas presented, trying to pinpoint what kind of
catharsis I’m looking to find in some ways but obscuring it in a fog of instrumentation.

Rotunda
With this track I wanted to use sampling to create a minimalist IDM inspired track, using the
sample as a way of creating a rhythmic sound akin to a snare, hi-hat, tom, etc. This was done
by taking the slice tool in Ableton’s simpler instrument and changing the transient
percentage, this moved the slice start marker around and allowed me to create a shifting
textural space based on one
rhythm. I then took these and
filtered them through some
delays with randomly shifting
time knobs, which allowed
the textures to morph in tone
and collect artifacts. After
this I connected everything
together with a kick pattern,
sub-bass synth reminiscent of
dubstep and a plucky synth
inspired by deconstructed
club, these are all running
through modulating delays to create movement.
 The composition of this piece is
intentionally disorienting at first, as it

represents how societal structures

such as the internet make it hard for us to focus and intentionally disorient us as a way to
distract from the problems these systems create. The sub-bass being reminiscent of early
dubstep artists like Burial, Kode 9 and Skream is used to represent a pull away from
disorientation similar to how the dubstep scene originally was seen as an opposite to the
excess of lifestyle found in the garage scene of the time.

410 Fitzgerald St
410 Fitzgerald street is an attempt to create an abstract impressionist Sound Collage/ Field
recording. Using Abstract sounds created through sampling and filtering samples through
digital effects as well as a mixture of Soft Synths and Recordings of Guitar Provided by Lara
Pollard, this recording intends to recreate
a scene from memory. similar to the
impressionist painters around the mid to
late 19th century I wanted to colour the
Recording with my own textures, like
building a field recording from scratch. I
also wanted to use some more abstract,
glitch textures to show how certain
details in memory can morph and shift to
fit our perspectives. I also wanted
originally to record with some strings but through the process of putting this together I
decided that it would be better without them, however I have used some of the ideas in other
ways.
One of the ways I wanted to build
the textures from this track is using
youtube videos as a way of
obtaining samples, particularly in
the vein of ASMR videos and to
obtain string samples. In doing
this I wanted to explore mixing
different audio qualities in the
piece with the quality of the
recordings with youtube
compression algorithm being
different from the high-quality
recordings created with Lara’s
guitar. I found that I could
combine these in a way that added texture to the samples without making them stand out.
I also wanted to use this as a way of collaborating on a piece using some scored elements. I
ended up starting to use a text
based score however I decided it
would be better to use that score
as a way to dictate to the musician
what I wanted and make myself
feel more connected to the
recordings I took, as the score
feels like in a way disconnecting
from the music as a whole.

Parkside
with this track I wanted to explore creating a track that is ambient but also loud, particularly
inspired by artists such as Tim Hecker. The body of the track consists of a guitar track that’s
been sent to a reverb with an lfo on the decay time, this gives the reverb a breathing, choral
effect. The reverb is then
bitcrushed and hard tremolo’d to
give a pulsing effect which really
draws you in, about halfway
through the track this breaks down
and eventually the drone focuses
in a bit more allowing other
elements of the track to poke
through.
The other elements of this track are elements that hide under the drone and pop up throughout
the track. The first of these is the
original guitar track which is run
through a granular max device
that takes random chunks of the
guitar track and plays them back,
creating a glitchy kind of texture.
The next texture is 808 drums,
these aren’t playing standard
kick, snare and hi-hat patterns
but instead are looping patterns
of things like maracas, toms,
congas, ect. These are set to
random chance values to give the texture a bit of variety and then the midi track is also linked
to an arpeggiator in free value mode which allows for some really glitchy drum textures.
Another texture I used was
utilising sample libraries in a
more synth-like way, this was
done through processing and
“breaking” the sounds using stuff
like arpeggiator as well as
automating them to cut off fast,
this method was inspired by Keith
Rankin’s project Giant Claw.
Finally, during mixing I added
some elements that pulled the composition together and evened out the spectrum, this
included a subharmonic boost which gave some extra presence to the low end as well as a
shimmer plate reverb that kind of glued the upper harmonics together a bit more. Some of the
smaller textural elements also get sent to the reverb sometimes to exaggerate their presence a
bit more.
The track conceptually
seems to follow on
from the last track in
that it is conceptually
driven around the
concept of memory,
however this track
Moreso deals with
memories appearing
and disappear over time
and connecting us
between different eras
of our life.