Just getting started
Hello!
Welcome to my first blog post! I am currently staying in Lima, Ohio for a solo creative retreat to explore a new town I haven’t seen before, to take pictures of architecture, work on this website, and also compose some music.
I have many hobbies and interests so it can be hard to make time for them all. I recently discovered that I have both ADHD and am on the Autism Spectrum (the combo is referred to as AuDHD), which finally explains why I have so much trouble focusing and finishing projects. Learning about AuDHD has been causing me to reevaluate my entire life. It has been very validating to realize that certain behaviors and quirks were not my ‘fault’ or some sort of moral failing, but simply a difference in brain wiring. I’m sure I will have much more to say about AuDHD in future posts.
For most of my life I thought of myself as a classical composer, wanting to create choral and chamber music. I still really love those forms and always will, but lately I feel drawn to exploring more experimental styles, like electronic drone music. I purchased a Stylophone CPM DS-2 drone synthesizer and have started learning about modular synthesis. Thanks to this YouTube video by William Jacobs, I also discovered the music of Éliane Radigue and have been enjoying (((very slowly))) going down the rabbit hole of her works. So far I have only listened to Trilogie de la Mort but I look forward to listening to so many more albums.
My spirit leans toward meditative, contemplative works and there is something about drone music that is just so spacious and awe-inspiring, like standing in the middle of an enormous, undulating farm field against a cerulean blue sky. When I was a teenager I fantasized about becoming a farmer even though I had always lived in urban/suburban areas and had zero experience with agriculture. I could barely keep a cactus alive in my bedroom window. Now I realize that that old longing was probably more about wanting the silence, solitude, and spaciousness of living in a remote place and wanting to be alone and as far away from humanity as possible than about actually growing food. I also recall being attracted to droning sounds as a child. Whenever my mom would run the vacuum cleaner I felt instinctively drawn to start humming a melody on top of it and found the little dissonances especially delicious.
Over the coming weeks (if I can win the battle with my AuDHD and stay focused) I am planning to share some of my music, photography, and writing on this site. One of the main reasons I created this site was to create a sense of accountability, to push myself into finishing projects. We’ll see what happens!