New Album "Cornerstone" By Jay Rothman Out 06/16/23

My version of liner notes, a brief story about each track

“Merely to do what others have done is often safe, and comfortable; but to do something truly original, and do it well, whether it is appreciated by others or not – that is what being human is really all about, and it is what alone justifies the self-love that is pride.”

— Richard Taylor

I saw this quote on another Substack I really enjoy “Poetic Outlaws”, and it looks like I nicked it. I spend a lot of time wondering what I’m doing here, what my purpose is, what’s the best use of my short time here. I’m very fortunate that I get to create for a living, and that I get to do something that I love, which is to make music. However, since I need people to pay me to do this job, I often have to write music in service of someone else’s creative vision. That’s fine, and I enjoy it. But I have a creative vision of my own, and whether or not it’s something other people like is secondary in importance. This is music that I needed to make for myself (with the exception of one track which was supposed to be for someone else, but I snatched it back, haha). So much of making art is about communicating something about the human condition from your own unique vantage point. What is it like to be me, or what does it sound like to be me? Hopefully it will resonate with someone else, but if it doesn’t, that’s fine with me too, because the important thing is I manifested it, pulled it out of the ether, and put it out into the world. And with that, here are a few tidbits about each track…

“Bird’s Eye View Of A Deserted Land”

This track began with the repeating bell-like tone that runs in the background throughout, almost like a meditation bell. I set up the patch in my Eurorack system and just listened to it for a while, filling in the space with instruments in my head. A stylistic reference was the angular guitar work of John McLaughlin on Miles Davis's album "Jack Johnson", and some of the Rhodes piano focused tracks on the Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. For a lot of the tracks on this record I aimed to combine more traditional Jazz with Noise Rock, Post-Rock, and Ambient music, and I think this is a good example of that. The breakdown at the end called to mind an endless vista as seen from the sky, thus the title. Instrumentation - Drums, bass, guitar, piano, Rhodes, backwards tenor saxophone, Mutable Instruments Rings, and Make Noise Strega.

“Everything Is Vibration”

I started this with the synth sequence that begins at 1:20 as a full performance. Programming a chord progression on the Sequential Prophet 6, I let the sequence run for about 5 minutes while changing the filters, envelopes, distortion circuit, and panning. Once I had that as the basis for the track, I went back and created the intro featuring piano, cello, and guitar. My favorite part of the whole record is the part around 5:00 where the synth gets really crunchy. Some kind of ASMR thing kicks in and I get goose bumps every time. Instrumentation - Piano, cello, violin, guitar, Prophet 6, bass, Moog DFAM

“Dropped Through A Door In The Floor”

Heavily influenced by "Sue (Or In A Season of Crime)" by David Bowie. My favorite track off my favorite David Bowie album Blackstar. It doesn't necessarily sound like that song, but I wanted to create something that fused Industrial with Drum n Bass, and fuzzy lead guitar riffs. I find that field recordings of clocks often mysteriously make their way into my tracks, and they snuck into this one as well. Instrumentation - Guitar, bass, drums, sampler, Moog DFAM, mellotron, clocks

“Warmth Of A Different Sun”

This one began as an improvisation on the Moog Matriarch which I caught on video and put up on YouTube here. It's the ethereal floating sound that kicks things off. As I added layers on top of it, the track began to sound like a big machine gearing up for something dangerous. At around 3:40 things quiet down and a subtle throbbing can be heard from the Moog DFAM that leads into a marching duet between it and the bass. It reminded me of a nuclear reactor, so I created a music video for it using nuclear, atomic imagery from the 1950's which can also be found on YouTube here. Instrumentation - Moog Matriarch, Piano, Bass, Drums, DFAM, guitar

“Ballad”

The chord progression came first on piano for this one. I transcribed it for tenor sax and played each voice of the chord along with the piano. For the second run through the progression the saxes lay out. I'd say the writing of the first half of the track is influenced by John Coltrane's record "Blue Train", and the second half is influenced by Joy Division, which is a great combo! Instrumentation - Drums, Tenor Saxophone, Piano, Bass, Guitar, DFAM, Matriarch

“Body At The Riverhead”

The other track that started with a chord progression. The way the chords reminds me of Jazz influenced R&B like Anderson Paak, Toro Y Moi, or Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, but then it goes off in another direction at 1:30. I added another bell patch reminiscent of the one that starts the album, and then the slinking piano line that shows up again at the end. This was also an exercise in restraint and just letting the track breathe, not going over the top and adding more after the drumline snares. Instrumentation - Matriarch, Piano, Bass, Mellotron, Drums, Pulsar 23 Drum Machine, MI Rings

“Somewhere”

A bit of an outlier stylistically, but I love how it complements the other tracks around it. I wrote this piece for a stop-motion animation originally, which is why it sounds as if it's telling a story. We ended up going in a different direction for that score, but I would listen to this track a lot in the hopes that I could find another purpose for it. The middle section of flute and pizzicato strings is influenced by "There Will Be Blood", and for me, it brings to mind a midnight ritual. I considered extending that section out to about 15 minutes, adding a hypnotic chant throughout to commit to the magic of it, but decided to leave it as is. Maybe I'll create some pieces specifically for rituals in the future. The scale that this particular wooden flute is tuned to actually dictated the feeling of the entire piece. It's an unusual scale, and to get the arrangement to work I just kept the piano and strings within the same scale (C# D E F A B C). Instrumentation - Piano, Violin, Cello, Strega, Flute, Conga, Tambourine, Hot Jazz sample

“Finale”

Another example of my writing method that starts with an improvisation which eventually becomes the middle of a track. This began with the Vangelis-esque synth line that starts around 2:05. I created a new opening section influenced by Sonic Youth's wall-of-noise jams, but substituted the feedback for a cello run through heavy distortion. It ends up sounding a bit like an angry whale. Instrumentation - Piano, Guitar, Bass, Cello, DFAM, Morphagene, Prophet 6

“Pendulum”

This came about somewhat accidentally after I thought the record was complete. I was messing around with the Pulsar 23 which is half drum machine / half Mad Max synthesizer that you patch up with alligator clips, layering loops of it, and the overdub I created was a slightly different length than the first loop, which created a Steve Reich-style phase shift effect. I hit record and just listened to the two loops fall in and out of sync for about a half an hour, it was very hypnotic. I took my favorite parts from that half hour recording, including parts where the loop ran backwards, and recorded a mysterious piano, tenor sax, and clarinet part to create a "chorus" of sorts. Since the sound of the two loops started to sound like criss-crossing clocks to me I brought in some of my trusty clock recordings to accentuate the timekeeping theme. Instrumentation - Pulsar 23, Piano, Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Clocks

The album “Cornerstone” by Jay Rothman is out on all streaming services 06/16/23!