Pieces of Mind
This material was composed between 1987 and
1992 during the "great Midi explosion," which was a
revelation to me. I had been a guitarist since the age of 17 when at 34 I lost the use of my fingers and a lot of other
stuff thanks to arthritis. I went without music from '80 until '86 when I acquired a Roland MPU-401,
Sequencer Plus for my PC1 (dual floppies!), a modest group of synths and a little
Boss mixer.
The ability (or illusion) of having an entire band, even an orchestra, under direct control was very liberating. You could actually turn down the drummer, not with a baseball bat, but a conveniently-located knob!
I went nuts in terms of genre, attempting Latin, classical, jazz, a lot of space music -- and for the last two "MetalSynth" collections, hard rock, featuring my own FM programming and sequencing techniques that struggled, with occasional success, to simulate electric guitar, complete with feedback. But, unlike my son Paul, who also became infected, I did not develop any special fondness for "techno," even as my rack grew ever-more loaded.
Accordingly, my eventual seven collections, from which the anthology below, "Pieces of Mind," was assembled, feature three and five-minute pop tunes with hopefully-identifiable melodies, etc. But they are all instrumental. I didn't start singing again until 2004, after ten years learning the lap steel and re-entering the world of real-time music, often with human musicians, some not quite real-time. For some lap steel work, go to the "Man of Steel" page.
- click the underscored links to hear the MP3s
- Contact Travis at: travischarbeneau@gmail.com