To listen in depth beyond these sample tracks,
please go to my Bandcamp page at:  https://michaelwilliamgilbert.bandcamp.com/
 

Cognitive Dissonance (Live)

Michael William Gilbert

Throughout my musical journey, live performance wasn't a direction I took often. With the rise of Eurorack and my own renewed interest in modular synthesis, I've had the chance to experiment with playing live. In the years leading up to the pandemic, I did a bunch of live sets at various venues. Since my last gig at the end of 2019, I've been
Throughout my musical journey, live performance wasn't a direction I took often. With the rise of Eurorack and my own renewed interest in modular synthesis, I've had the chance to experiment with playing live. In the years leading up to the pandemic, I did a bunch of live sets at various venues. Since my last gig at the end of 2019, I've been focusing on studio recording. With live music making a comeback, I decided to slowly get back into performing. I was asked to do a set at the NESF (New England Synth Fest) event on April 22nd. For the performance, I put together a new piece called "Cognitive Dissonance" using only my modular synthesizer. The set combined live playing, live improvisation, and pre-recorded samples triggered with pads for swapping samples on the fly. This is a recording of that gig, and I'll let you decide (or not) how the title and the music are intertwined. I did a minimal cleanup in Logic, and the piece was then mastered. I'm excited with how the recording turned out and am looking to keep performing live in the future.
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The Light That Wraps Me and All Things - single

Michael William Gilbert featuring Adam Holzman

These have been strange times in so many ways, and remain so, between racism, social inequities, climate change, the pandemic...but we are also the beneficiaries of light that illuminates and catalyzes our existence. Light and its metaphors are inherently egalitarian; the light that “wraps me” also “wraps all things”. We’re all in it together, and
These have been strange times in so many ways, and remain so, between racism, social inequities, climate change, the pandemic...but we are also the beneficiaries of light that illuminates and catalyzes our existence. Light and its metaphors are inherently egalitarian; the light that “wraps me” also “wraps all things”. We’re all in it together, and it shines on us without individual regard. The human collective can come to terms with this, and get along, or the light will innocently and beneficently continue to shine on our collective disappearance. How well the music in “*The Light That Wraps Me and All Things*” reflects this is up to you.

This music owes so much to *Adam Holzman*, who once again reminds us that he matches the creativity, technique, nuance, grace, and personality that he has on electric instruments on the acoustic piano. This is as much our piece as my piece; Adam, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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The Vanished Day - EP

Michael William Gilbert

“The Vanished Day” grew out ofthinking abouthow the traumas of the past year have felt: pandemic, the lack of racial and social justice, climate change, authoritarianism, economic inequities… I have found the totality of it unsettling if not overwhelming. The impossibility of grasping it all in social, emotional, or intellectual terms, led to this
“The Vanished Day” grew out of thinking about how the traumas of the past year have felt: pandemic, the lack of racial and social justice, climate change, authoritarianism, economic inequities… I have found the totality of it unsettling if not overwhelming. The impossibility of grasping it all in social, emotional, or intellectual terms, led to this track.

The piece is a six-part suite, building from ideas born in the great electronic music studios of the 50s - 70s, and integrating more contemporary influences. The electronic sounds were created with Eurorack & Aries modular systems, with the addition of musique concretè, voice, and hand percussion. Among all the various genres of music I have worked in, it is this pre-MIDI approach to composing electronic music that I began with in the mid 70s. It has been an element of everything I have composed since. Being personally involved in the modular synthesizer revival that started in the early 2000s has been fascinating. It continues to grow to this day, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

More about musique concretè and electronic music at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music
More about Eurorack modular synthesizers at https://www.modulargrid.net/e/modules/home
More about my music studio at https://www.mwgilbert.com/studio
About Tall Dog Electronics modules in my studio Eurorack rig https://www.tall-dog.com/
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She Looked Back - single

Michael William Gilbert featuring Adam Holzman

Since finishing the pieces from my current EP, I have been working on a new piece outside of my comfort zone. It started as rough sketches and a chord chart, but I was stuck at further production attempts. I tried a few iterations, all unsatisfying. I ran the piece by a musician friend who suggested looking outside the box. After further dialog,
Since finishing the pieces from my current EP, I have been working on a new piece outside of my comfort zone. It started as rough sketches and a chord chart, but I was stuck at further production attempts. I tried a few iterations, all unsatisfying. I ran the piece by a musician friend who suggested looking outside the box. After further dialog, it evolved into a Latin-influenced jazz fusion arrangement.

Here is “She Looked Back”. It’s a collaboration between myself and Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson), and features a couple of other players who requested anonymity (their call). It was primarily recorded in my studio (Siri’s Little Corner) and Adam’s Secret Laboratory NYC. I mixed it, and it was mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Sean Magee.
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Requiem for John D

Michael William Gilbert

This is a piece I wrote for my close friend and colleague John Duesenberry, who passed away last year. He was a true musician and composer, and we shared our works in progress with each other. We did this more or less continuously from 1975, when I met him at the Boston School of Electronic Music, until he died.
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