Home Page
April 2nd, 2012 - Difficult Day
It was an intense day. Lots of stress to get rid off lead to this improv. Which is tiring itself. It’s interesting to find out how much you can break your cycles and routines when you try to play fast and meaningful. There are forgiving moments because of speed. And the slow parts breath life but still maybe I am not super relaxed. I fall into the same boring riffs every now and then. Next one I want to try writing down the music, spend more time on it. Anyway this is a weekday decharging improv.
March 22nd, 2012 - Cover – Chopin – Fantaisie Impromptu Op.66
I met Chisato almost a year ago. I’ve never worked with such a big talent and a performer. I’ve never met such a big talent and a performer before. So many things I discovered since then, about piano, about music and composition. She is incredibly humble. Once I told her I cannot believe she’s teaching us, morons. Because as soon as she plays the simplest piece you realize there’s so much more that you never knew about a couple of notes, a chord or sound.
Anyway basically I wanted to play this song and we practiced. And this performance is a recording of extreme excitement of mine combined with unfamiliar piano. I play better 2nd times but you don’t get to do that. I skipped a couple of notes here and there, probably I ruined the song but I lived this moment. And the girl I like recorded it.
March 5th, 2012 - Another Day
This piece was recorded in February. It is very basic. I started jamming on a rhythm figure. Some of the improvs started to sound nice. Decided to give it a go. I’ve done about 10 takes of this. Sometimes some moments shine and some of them are terrible. It’s hard to get a one piece performance settled without writing it down. But I keep discovering about music and guitar.
January 29th, 2012 - Cover – Yani
Selcuk played this one night when we were at his place and I immediately thought we should record it. He’s just awesome. A couple of weeks ago finally we were able to spend a couple of hours and a bottle of wine to do this. We practiced half an hour and recorded in one take. We should do it more often.
What amazed me besides Selcuk’s great voice was the recording quality. Condenser mic worked very well in this one. I was worried about the noise from outside but it wasn’t too bad. Maybe next step for me is to try a couple of dynamic mics with some mixing gear. well… I’m on a budget…
December 10th, 2011 - Gel
This is a theme from 4 years back. I made a very personal video and music for her, to come over. It didn’t work, I had to go myself. Anyway I revisited the theme now and experimented on the stuff I’ve been discovering.
Performance is still very important for me but it evolves. Now I have a performance of equalizing, playing with frequencies and effects. It’s possible to program these but I prefer to perform. In a way like a DJ. I always believed DJ’s had no talent, they just made their way in music by learning to control tools. But if you think about it guitar is a tool, like a turntable.
November 8th, 2011 - A Remarkable Experiment
It has been an experiment. Remarkable only for me. I kept the bottle for almost 2 years. It had some wine in the beginning, I kept adding coffee, pills, bourbon, vitamins… Everybody hated it, it was disgusting. But I kept it for about 2 years near me, carried it everywhere I go. It ended this week.
It’s an experiment in music as well. I wanted noise in this one, dirt. After recording the base I searched ways of disturbing it with a solo, disturbing everything. It was annoying to listen, somehow later I started liking it. It’s maybe randomness. I have no idea.
November 2nd, 2011 - Cover – Satriani – Bamboo
The sound quality of Satriani in this song is amazing. Full of feeling and expression. It’s a very simple song but powerful. Playing this on a dark weekend day fills one with autumn. I was not depressed though, I enjoyed this performance a lot, I felt it.
October 17th, 2011 - Cover – I got rhythm – Gershwin
Another guest artist Mariano Mendiburu. So I said let’s do something fun, and Mariano used to play this song when I went around, we decided to do it. He likes Jazz standarts. We’ve spent around 2-3 hours on a Sunday afternoon but had lots of fun. He said it would be weird to wear pyjamas since we record in bedroom (it’s quiet out there), so I am the only one keeping the pj spirit in this one. I think we should do more.
October 10th, 2011 - Cover – Bach Choral
Cover – Bach Choral from Arda Mardar on Vimeo.
I played this long time back but lost the notes. I had to wait until I go back home, find the book and copy the page. This is for a film I’m making.
September 2nd, 2011 - Naked
Naked from Arda Mardar on Vimeo.
Another 2 hour recording. This time after a tiring work day. Sometimes when I come home I just want to stop doing anything. So I stop for a couple of hours, then something creeps up, I get close to computer, and then something kicks in, can be a recording or some tweaks on an ongoing project. I end up doing stuff. I sleep happy. I don’t know why…