We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Iridium Flare

by James Vitz-Wong

supported by
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

    If you are reading this and you donate/download this album, contact me and I'll draw you something.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
From our perspective, the light of very distant galaxies gets distorted by the gravity of masses in between our eyes and the source of light. The result is a circular splattering of the image that is the distant galaxy.
2.
Everything we can see in space is so far away. We can only look so far into the skies. So far, we are incapable of travelling to almost anything we observe.
3.
The somnambulant beach. Waves crash quietly, but not gently. The moon in the sky somehow does not illuminate the surface, rather the opposite; the ocean lights up the moon. A glowing black, it reveals the wire structures beneath the façade of the mountains.
4.
The room is dark. The rain is slow. The dreams walk around you, but the sleep hasn't arrived yet. Which one will take you tonight?
5.
It is hard to tell whether you exist in this space or just perceive it. Is that rain?
6.
The Derelict 04:55
Status: abandoned Last Activity: c100yrs Size: TBD Notes: This vessel does not appear in any of our database records, though the designs seem to be of I.G.S. make. So far, visual inspection has found the hull completely breached in many locations and decayed beyond salvage-ability. There is still much of the vessel to be discovered. Update: The main chassis is of an extremely developed design, more intricate than any technology used to-date, yet an analysis of the hull decay has dated this derelict to pre-warp travel.
7.
In the shadows and the sand, you are spotted. They fly in with their metallic wings, abduct and soar over the poisoned city. Gathered with the other collections, you are processed first as a group, then restrained individually. In each chamber you learn everything you never wanted to know, everything you will never forget. When our eyes open again, we slowly unlock our own cuffs, shakily walk out of our cells, spread our new wings, and fly.

about

Iridium Flare - light from something natural, reflected from something artificial. The green picture with the cats has nothing to do with this.

Recorded November 2012 - February 2013 in a dorm room, practice room, and storage room in Oberlin, OH.
James Vitz-Wong - bass guitar, contrabass, flute, beatboxing, and electronics (all tracks)

Thanks to Mark Morritz-Rabson for letting me try out his Line6 PODxtPro (3, 6)
Prof. Dan Stinebring taught me about the phenomena that is Gravitational Lensing.
Rebecca Lawrence helped me find the story of the Dreams That Have Us.
Kevin Vitz-Wong helped me write the official status report with regards to The Derelict.
Toni McFall helped me figure out how They've Come to Take You.

Everything you hear was improvised and live-looped and mixed using Mobius (www.circularlabs.com) and captured using Soundleech (www.milosoftware.com/en/index.php?body=soundleech.php) and Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net). All of the titles and stories were conceived a long time after the recording.

Some minimally invasive editing was performed on Track 1 so as to fold over some of the empty space (when the drone loops kept droning, but I wasn't playing).
Track 3 was not recorded live - only the three individual loops from a solo jam had been saved, in their most developed state. What you hear is the gradual fading between those synchronized loops, without the layering of each loop.
Track 7 had a little bit of volume leveling to try to give a good shape to the dynamics.

Besides what is mentioned above, every note, every sound, every texture, every echo, every loop was performed live and improvised, one take, one person, one instrument, one computer, without very much elbow room.

credits

released February 17, 2013

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

James Vitz-Wong Los Angeles, California

James Vitz­-Wong is a multi­disciplinary artist and performer from Seattle, WA, currently residing in Southern California. James holds an MFA in Performance and Composition from CalArts and a BM in Classical Bass Performance and TIMARA from Oberlin Conservatory. Current focuses include audience interactivity and immersion, live digital processing, improvisation, installation, and dance. ... more

contact / help

Contact James Vitz-Wong

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

James Vitz-Wong recommends:

If you like James Vitz-Wong, you may also like: