Yesterday I put the finishing touches on my looping cadenza that will connect the “Aqaurius” and “Pisces” melodies in Zodiacrobatic. It took me a little longer to create than I had planned, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

The cadenza will begin towards the end of “Aqaurius” when Erik starts introducing samples of soprano lines I pre-recorded. Using those licks as a jumping off point, I’ll create a frantic, swirling improvisation that begins kind of pointillistically and gets much denser, approaching the perpetual motion figure that will serve as the foundation for the melody. During the improvisation, two multiphonics will be played and subsequently triggered in Live to create a richer texture and the scale will change from the “Aquarius” scale to the scale I use for the “Pisces” melody. (Should I have made a Pisces/scale pun?)

I’ll end the improvisational section with a lick that kicks off the perpetual motion. It’s a 16th-note figure that I record and trigger immediately in Live, adding a second harmony figure on top of it. This forms the loop. With the loop established, I’ll continue to create variations of the material live with the soprano and also by triggering variations within Ableton. It all sounds very oceanic. Once I get bored of doing this, I’ll add a couple of grain delays that sweep the pitch up and trigger the drone that will support the melody:

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After the first time through the melody, I’ll trigger a pre-recorded sample of the accompaniment line, Erik will drop the beat, and we’ll be off. Here’s what the Live set looks like: