jon glassett dawt calm

I know this has been posted here before but with the site reboot and subsequent purging of old posts, it seems appropriate to share again.

In the beginning (back around 2006), I was an admirer of Pumpkinrot’s brilliant Halloween displays and scarecrows. Over time, he and I (and his awesome wife, bean) became friends and, eventually, collaborators. Twice now I’ve provided music for his annual Halloween haunt video–once in 2008 and again in 2009.

This is the video for his 2009 haunt, titled “The Corn Witch”.

I love doing these and look forward to future projects with ‘Rot. It really is a trip. We’re like two Horror fanboys making movies in a virtual garage. So much fun.

Here’s another new piece of audio. Be advised: I creeped myself out with this one. Or, rather, whoever wrote the patches for the soft synth I was using creeped me out.

I was playing around with two especially unsettling presets in Dimension Pro. Except for a few minor setting tweaks these are basically the straight up preset sounds shipped with the synth. They were so sick and captivating that I ended up writing six minutes worth of nightmare fuel.

I recommend listening alone in a darkened room with headphones and then going directly to bed (without saying your prayers).

Listen: Hell Hive

Like “Sketch #1″, this is a piece that was lost in the Great Blog Erasure of 2010. It, too, is an earlier effort. I barely had Sonar out of the box with this one but it seems like it turned out pretty cool.

The inspiration for “Phantom Satellite” was a story that a friend and I have been kicking back and forth for a while. It involves a massive, invisible structure orbiting the Earth and occasionally coming into view for certain unfortunate souls. The intent of this piece was to paint the moment when this thing appears in the sky.

Now, as much as I love that visual, someone once offered an even better one. After listening to it without the benefit of my little back story they said it sounded to them like being shot into space inside a coffin. I don’t think anything could have made me happier.

Listen: Phantom Satellite

This is a recording that I originally published here a year or two ago. It fell down when I accidentally broke my site. Lucky for me, I have occasionally had the wisdom to back up certain things.

The sound quality is a little rough–even rougher than my newer stuff, if you can imagine that–as I was just barely beginning to understand the ins and outs of computer-based recording. I still clearly have a lot to learn, but it’s sort of encouraging to hear something like this because I can compare it to newer projects and actually detect something that sounds like progress.

I still like the tune, though. Like a lot of the stuff I do on my own it’s in the ambient vein. Think “music for movies that don’t exist yet” and you might get an idea of where I’m coming from.

Listen: Sketch #1

Hi there. As you can see, the website has been fired up again. I’m still making some tweaks here and there but, for all intents and purposes, this marks the end of my long hiatus. The appearance of the site will likely change a bit but there aren’t any further blackouts, shutdowns, or disappearances planned.

There are a handful of MP3s on the way soon. There’s one up already (see the post below this one or the “audio” section). The plan is to start posting those up on a semi-regular basis. I mean, I’m starting to crank stuff out at this point so why not, right?

Check the ‘about’ page for a look at the new-ish direction of the site. Nothing major. I’m just narrowing the scope a little bit and getting more focused. The goal is to stick to the topic of creativity. Shouldn’t be too hard as that’s a pretty wide topic when you think about it. I’m actually pretty excited and I hope you will be, too.

Here’s a new piece of dark ambient music. I was thinking about UFO sightings and alien abduction stories.

Listen: Lights in the Sky