On Being a Codger
I didn't intend to record an album or make this web site. When I am not working on a specific project, I usually spend my time trying different musical ideas on the computer. I'm not the kind of composer that sits at a piano or strums a guitar. I don't have melody lines running through my brain. My fascination is directed toward listening to the way layers interact rhythmically and harmonically. I do work on a lot of music that is more traditionally structured and melodic because I like to explore different directions at different times. Left to my own devices I tend to lean more into the abstract world of sound.
This collection of eleven contraptions - "contraptions" seems like a better description than compositions - all share a number of things in common. First off… none are particularly dramatic, clever or ironic. Maybe a tiny bit of soaring, but for the most part, it is a series of tuned percussive patterns laid on top of each other. If you know about moiré patterns, you can understand that this could be considered audio moiré. They take their beauty in a type of minimalism. So perhaps it is more akin to sitting on the ground and inspecting nature immediately around you as opposed to, perhaps, hang gliding over the Andes.
I assure you this is not mathematical music. There is no underlying formula at work that the computer is mindlessly playing out. The sounds and structures are the result of human interaction and intervention.
- Charles Bobuck 2012
Randy and Chuck from their days on the Louisiana Hayride