Sunday Post

On top of giving away one of my illustrations and getting played on the radio for the second time! I have also being delving back into my little red book of chance this week.

Behind its mock leather cover lays a composers nightmare: 45 pieces of music, mapped out by the indifferent hand of fate. A plethora of awkward chord progressions, sewn together by breakneck tempos and irregular time signatures are crying out to be realised. And did I mention that 'The Furry Gamble' gets a look in too!

Thanks to modern music making software, everything is achievable, even if it's not pleasant to listen to. Any composition that isn't too physically demanding will feature at least one live instrument, and all the tracks will manipulate found sounds and ambient recordings, which I will use to craft sample based instruments, broadening my audio palette and grounding these strange tracks in some sort of reality... if reality is needed that is. 

So far I've chipped away at the first 9 tracks, which will make up the first 3 EP's. There will be 15 EP's in total, each housing 3 tracks. 

Each EP focuses on a certain number of rules and restrictions. For example the music in the first EP only uses major chords, the music in the second uses only minor, and by the time I get to the last EP everything from the mood to the number of bars and sections will be decided by chance.

The plan is to release one EP a month starting January 2015, but the exact date hasn't been set yet.

Course, this chance malarky doesn't stop at music... but I'll quit now before I get into detail about my little navy blue book of prompts, for another Sunday maybe.

Happy thoughts,


- The Wormling

The Wou-Wou & The Wormling Wednesday Giveaway - Ground Rules

The premise is simple enough. Every Wednesday I'll give you the chance to win one of my original  doodles from my bloated back catalogue. No hidden agendas or costs, just my way of showing my appreciation.

How it works:

At approximately 9:00am GMT I will post a photo via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter advertising which doodle will be up-for-grabs. Gathering you want it, you then have a 12 hour window in which to leave the comment "the early bird catches the wormling". I will allow spelling mistakes, but it has to be that sentence or your name won't go into the hat, and you won't be in with the chance of winning. The hat pull will happen that same night once the results have been gathered, and if your name gets picked I will hastily contact you for your delivery address of choice. 

No postage and packaging cost will be necessary, but a donation to my paypal 'donate button' to the right would be kind. Better still, I will attach my address so you can send me one of your doodles, poems, stories, favourite recipes... if you so wish.

In the event that no-one bids for the doodle I will still place it into a sealed envelope, but instead of sending it off to someone, I'll leave it around and about for a stranger to "hopefully" find and enjoy.

Happy thoughts,

- The Wormling

Pixel Envy

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

Call it indecisive, call it generous, call it whatever you will... because there will be not one, but two new homemade tracks for 'Music Monthly' this October!

The first track is called 'Pixel Envy' and will be available to stream and/or buy from tomorrow, the second, '24Bit Multimedia Monster', will be unleashed on the 20th. Both will be dressed in the accidental artwork of my partner-in-crime Chelsea (purposeandform) Ellis.

But wait, I've more good news, especially for those of you who favour the artsy side of 'Wou-Wou...'. Starting this Wednesday (and continuing every Wednesday thereafter if all goes to plan) I'll be giving away some of my original artwork, for free! No hidden agendas, no "Share This Photo..." malarky, just honest clean giving. More info Tuesday!

Happy thoughts,


- The Wormling

Sunday Post

Doodling... I have done little else this week. Sketching knobbly naked nobodies with misplaced limbs, odd hairstyles and crooked hands... now that's what I'm talking about! There's something so tremendously satisfying creating a new person from scratch, without thought, just letting them appear through your pencil.

As much fun as all this is, it doesn't leave me with much to write about. So instead of trying to pluck something interesting to say from the ether, I'm going to let my six favourite (thus far) doodled oddments do the talking...

 

 

If you like 'em, jump ship to my Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts, where nudie folk are uploaded daily. 

There'll also be more 'Compact Discovery' and society6 uploads throughout the week.

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

It’s been a balanced old week here at ‘Wou-Wou...’ HQ. On Wednesday (my fun day) nothing seemed to go quite right. I finished the odd job off, but when it came to anything creative I turned to pot. 

Par exemple, top of my list of things to achieve was the fettling of the first instrumental, whose chords, tempo and time-signature were all decided by chance, using a system I’ve coined ‘The Buskers’ Bamboozle’ - an elaborate creative randomiser, that utilises dice, coins, and hats to make those all important creative decisions.

The track in question is called ‘The Moist Go Between’ and is the first of 45 tracks created using ‘The Buskers’ Bamboozle’ to varying degrees. Recording it was a total joy, but mixing it has been a total nightmare, and I don’t feel as if I've got any closer to the sound I want for it. 

Nothing I’m sure a bit of swatting up and time won’t fix, but by the end of Wednesday I was feeling flat and woozy from staring at the computer for hours.

Thursday evening I had the idea to bring back the short-lived Major Gubbins fixture ‘Compact Discovery’ for my latest instrumental ‘King Skirmish’. I’m rather happy with how the paper CD cases look, especially as they're done using my cheap-o printer...

The same can’t be said for the CD’s...

But it’s only meant to be a bit of fun, so until I find a cost-effective way of printing onto CD’s, I’m not going to sweat over it.

Yesterday was possibly the best day in ‘Wou-Wou’s...’ short history, as not only did the ‘Make It Ugly’ paintings go up on the ‘Wou-Wou...’ society6 page, but ‘King Skirmish’ was played on BBC Sheffield Introducing! I’ve never been played on the radio before, so it was a massive high, especially considering that I uploaded the track on a whim.

Well that’s about it. More daily doodles, ‘Compact Discovery’ and society6 uploads over next week.

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Music Monthly - King Skirmish

All hail 'King Skirmish', the very first track in what I'm aiming to be a long standing monthly music making commitment. A fun little challenge to blow the cobwebs off if you will.



Enjoy!


- The Wormling