I got out one of my old backup hard drives and found, amongst what seems to be hundreds of unfinished tracks over the years, this “incomplete” song on it from 2004 which seems to be very much completed.

It’s quite a bit different than the music I produce today. This is very uptempo dance instrumental music.

This was recorded in my backyard the night of Sunday, April 20, 2008.

Last year, after I moved, I had planned to make a series of field recordings from my back yard, which is next to a series of wooded areas and in-town farm land. I put out a couple of recordings as free MP3s, mostly of crickets and katydids. Even though I recorded every couple of weeks until October, some of the recordings weren’t good. Later in the year, I got a Zoom H2 (which I love…), but after the first frost the sounds were over.

Here it is in 2008 and I plan to do recording on a bi-weekly basis. Each one will be edited down to 5 minutes.

We had a bad winter. One of the coldest in decades and the 3rd snowiest in 140 years of record-keeping. February had the most snowfall ever for that month. It was a long time melting, and now we’ve had week after week of heavy rains.

What do you end up with? I think that sounds like frogs. And note my neighbor’s sump pump hose draining just after the beginning.

The original audio was recorded from my Buddha Machine into a Zoom H2 as a 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV file, which was then transferred to my laptop and messed around with using audio software.

It’s from the same source file as Pulse Detector, but remixed every so slightly different. Pulse Detector was a shorter edit of the original file. Lengthy Stay is a longer edit. It’s not been looped, as the source file was recorded directly from the Buddha Machine in one big long chunk.

Lengthy Stay has a lovely and hypnotic ambient dub nature to it, along with a considerable amount of underlying background tension.

The loop is recorded from my Buddha Machine into a Zoom H2 as a 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV file, which was then transferred to my laptop and messed around with using audio software.

Pulse Detector has a lovely and hypnotic ambient dub nature to it.

Recorded and edited by Mark Rushton
10 minutes, 128kb-encoded MP3, about 10MB

The Ice Storm features recordings done on my Zoom H2 on December 11, 2007 during the ice storm in Iowa City, Iowa.

3 minutes and 20 seconds, 128kb-encoded MP3, 3MB

Mark Rushton – synth, keyboard controller, laptop, Zoom H2
Jon Harnish – bass guitar, effects box, speakers, amp

Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish produced this improvisational live ambient electronica piece on October 13, 2007 at Jon’s Weather Excuse studio in the New Bohemia section of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Recorded on a Zoom H2 that wasn’t properly positioned in the studio.

Every night is different, but all nights are loud in the summer. The katydids keep going with their multi-layered, out-of-phase rhythms. The crickets buzz, although less often and with less intensity as the week before. There is only a slight hint of road noise from the north. A nearby neighbor has the central air running, which you can hear slightly on the right side. This was recorded using my old Sony minidisc recorder and a pair of binaural microphones. I only edited for time, provided the two fades, and turned it into a 128kb-encoded MP3. File under: field recording

The katydids are out in my neighborhood every night now (late July 2007), and since I have woods behind my house there’s lots of them chattering away. Here’s 6 minutes of the sound, along with numerous other buzzing and rhythmic insects. It’s nature’s orchestra. I like how the rhythms get off track and are imperfect, but are constantly interesting. In the background, because of a northerly wind, is ambient noise from Interstate 80. This was recorded using my old Sony minidisc recorder and a pair of binaural microphones. I only edited for time, provided the two fades, and turned it into a 128kb-encoded MP3. File under: field recording.

This is a live remix of my track Psychometrics (originally released on my 2004 CD The Driver’s Companion), but with many of the layered loops taken out and replaced with a loop from the Buddha Machine / Buddha Box. It was recorded live at the Ambient Matyk Cafe in the New Bohemia section of Cedar Rapids in March 2006. You can hear me walking around on the wood floor and occasionally some traffic going by. File under: mellow, pulse, chill.

3 minutes and 25 seconds, 160kb-encoded MP3, 4MB

Memory Trigger is from my February 2007 CD release Regeneration X. It has such a nice SomaFM “Groove Salad” feel to it, if you know what I’m talking about. Very laidback rhythms and keyboard sustains. Nice flow and very subtle. I even stuck timpani in a couple of places and it works. Very accessible. File under: groovy electronica.