Once upon a time, I bought a synthesizer, and began learning how to make my own music. So I wouldn’t lose anything (this was before I ever owned a computer), I recorded everything I finished on DAT (digital audio tape—because I did have one of the first DAT recorders).

During the 1990s, I put out one CD and several tapes under the name Tinty Music (kind of a stupid name, but there is a story behind it—and I never thought of anything better), and even performed live on a few occasions; the sounds ranged from ambient music (albeit a little New Age-y in spots—at least, early on) to noise collages. I managed to sell a few copies of each release, and generally got good reviews from the zines I sent copies to.

The adventure ended shortly after most of my equipment was stolen in August 1998.

I’ve recently begun going back through the archives, working with the previously released material to put it online. In most cases, I did very little beyond basic mastering; in others, I used the capabilities of the software at my disposal to fix problems, make small edits, or transform some of the recordings I was never completely happy with into something I am happy with. I then created PDF booklets with new artwork—because one of the most frustrating things about buying music in digital download formats is that the downloads usually don’t come with anything besides cover art. Doing this brought my photography and graphic design interests into the mix.

As of March 26th, I have fifteen releases available on Bandcamp for streaming (no 30- or 90-second clips—full tracks and albums) or purchase.

The first of the projects I uploaded was a collection of nearly all the pieces I had recorded that were less than two minutes long—a total of 71 recordings that fit neatly onto a single CD-R. The embedded track in this post, recorded in 1989, is from that collection.

(27 March 2014)