Sander Roscoe Wolff

The work in this album was created to celebrate International Drone Day 2025. This ambient/drone work is based on 6 random vocal loops captured by Audio Damage Circa from a streaming radio station. You can hear the initial capture in Part 3. Part 2 is Part 3 time-stretched to about 15 minutes, using a process in Living Memory’s Auditor. Part 1 is Part 3 time stretched using Sonosaurus’s PaulXStretch to 55 minutes. I applied variable EQ to Part 2 and 3, and a few other simple processes.

I’ve been experimenting with non-musical sound for at least 50 years. In fact, Track 12 (Mysterious Oscillations) was recorded by me when I was about 10 years old. I’ve participated in noise performances at various venues, including at the Santa Ana Noise Fest, both with Ain Soph Aur, Toaster Music, and as a solo artist. I amassed a collection of noise recordings, and created a bunch of new ones, for this album. Strangely, I’ve received lots of positive feedback from brave folks who found many of the tracks to be *gasp* pleasing. I hope you agree.

In July of 2024, I decided to record a series of abstract sonic experiments, intending for them to be the start of a creative collaboration with a friend. They sat around for 3 months and, upon listening to them, decided I’d just release them as they are.

All tracks were recorded in one take, live, using a variety of virtual instruments and various effects running in AUM on a 2022 iPad Pro.

All tracks were created during the month of February, 2024, as part of the annual FAWM (February Album Writing Month) challenge. All tracks were recorded live, in one take, using an iPad Pro with voice, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, and various virtual synths. Various delay systems were used, along with other real-time processing. After the recordings were completed, no additional work was done to them.

Frank Moore was an American performance artist. Born with cerebral palsy, he overcame his uncomfortable isolation by creating participatory performance events that involved friends, collaborators, and audience members. He wrote extensively about his life and work and, after his death, his closest partners, Linda Mac and Michael LaBash, began to craft a documentary about his life and work. This project morphed into a series of short episodes, each focusing on a chapter from Moore’s book, Art of the Shaman. Because he was unable to speak, they invited friends, fellow performance artists, and collaborators to read the texts, including such luminaries as Annie Sprinkle, Veronica Vera, and David Steinberg. I created music for many of these readings, which are included here.

All tracks were created by Sander Roscoe Wolff, using a variety of sound sources, including Voice, Trombone, Cambodian Buddhist Monks, Live Looping Synth & Guitar, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Grand Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Recorders, Ocarina, Kalimba, and Cat.

Many thanks to Carl Off, Robert Douglas, Michael LaBash, Linda Mac, and Frank Moore.

You can purchase a printed copy or digital download of Frank Moore’s book, Art of the Shaman, here:

www.eroplay.com/artofashaman/

You can view the entire NSFW documentary series here:

frankadelic.com

After completing Songs of Intuition and Ignorance in July of 2021, I wanted to do something completely different. Songs was primarily a solitary process, with the exception of significant contributions by Kenny Blacklock on Particle Accelerator. I was working alone, stuck with my own habits and inclinations, necessitated by the global pandemic that raged on. I’ve always been interested in abstraction, and I pushed myself to write lyrics that were both abstract and evocative.

For my next project, I wanted to do something more expansive, less inward-looking. I wanted to create a kind of wordless sonic beauty I’d find comforting. To that end, I decided to collaborate more significantly. I knew many artists who were wood-shedding and recording at home. I began to compile a list of my ‘dream team,’ artists who are both adventurous and excellent. The plan was to request an unprocessed improvisation of an acoustic instrument in the key of Fm. These recordings would then become the raw materials for an ambient composition.

The previously-mentioned Kenny Blacklock was first because we’d worked together on a number of projects, and he’s almost always up for anything. He’s a part of the Northern California music scene, primarily known as a fiddler, but he’s a composer, producer, educator, and experimenter. He delivered several tracks of violin and, listening to them, I was enraptured. (This happened again and again, as more and more tracks came in.)

Next was flute. I’d originally asked my long-time Norwegian friend Ketil Vestrum Einarsen, who’s played or led some of my favorite bands. Sadly, he was unable to participate. Next, Emily Hay, who was an important part of the Los Angeles avant garde scene in the 80s, playing in U-Totem and Motor Totemist Guild. Since then, she’s had a long and storied career as an improviser, vocalist, and good egg. I’d been a stupid fan-boy of hers for years, and she was super gracious when I asked her but, sadly, she was unable to participate either. Finally, I remembered Ellen Burr. She’d worked with several people I know, both as an improviser but, also, with deep roots in classical and modern composed music. Her CV is insane. I reached out, explained what I was doing, and she agreed. The track she delivered was gorgeous, and I listened to it obsessively.

I’d met Jeff Kaiser at a looping festival in Long Beach. I remember watching him at that performance, operating software he’d written himself that made his trumpet bounce around the room doing somersaults and jumping jacks. At that time he was teaching in San Diego but, subsequently, relocated to the University of Central Missouri, where he runs a fantastic music technology program. Dr Kaiser has worked with jazz and avant garde luminaries in the LA music scene, has written scholarly texts, operated a record label, and didn’t laugh at me when I asked him for a track. He delivered an improvisation on flugelhorn. Again, I sat and listened to his recording repeatedly, and I remember the feeling of holding my breath in reverence.

I knew I wanted acoustic guitar, and guitarists are everywhere, but it didn’t take me long to realize that Angelo Metz was my first choice. I’ve seen him perform in countless different contexts, playing acoustic and electric guitar. He’s probably best known for playing Brazilian music, but he’s a classically trained artist who has complete command of his instruments. Plus, he’s an electronic music experimenter. Dr Metz was gracious and submitted a recording that, again, became an endless loop in my headphones.

Several years ago I’d become enamored of Scandinavian progressive rock, and was subsequently afforded the opportunity to interview a number of important artists. Strangely, many of the projects I most loved were, in some way, connected to Mattias Olsson. Olsson is perhaps best known as the drummer of ÄnglagÃ¥rd, but he he is constantly busy recording and producing a steady flow of great artists, working on his own projects, and playing on countless others. His Roth-händle studio is packed with all sorts of instruments but, in the hope he’d say ‘yes,’ I asked for glockenspiel, which is fairly easy to set up. He came through with a gorgeous track.

I knew I wanted bass, and Tom Peters is a local musician who performs with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and is on the faculty of the Bob Cole Conservatory. He’s also a wonderful composer, creating scores for silent films. He’s a live looper, too. His achingly beautiful album, Lamentations, absolutely captivated me. When I asked if he’d participate, he was amazingly gracious, and sent me four (4) different tracks. These tracks ended up opening and closing Part 1, and breathed a kind of magical intensity into the work.

I didn’t really know Katie Porter, but she’d been working with some people I know, and I’d been following her career with some interest. She’s a clarinetist, but specializes in bass clarinet, and seems to focus primarily on new music, improvisation, and experimental performance. I’d noticed that she had been in Germany for a concert series, and returned for a festival in the desert, so I just sent her a Facebook message out of the blue, explaining who I was and what I was doing. She had been booked for a recording session, and graciously provided me with a beautiful track, which ended up being really important to the culmination of all three parts.

Gigi ‘Gee’ Rabe is known as “LA’s Accordion Diva,” and that’s fantastic. She’s a graduate of CSULB’s music program, and plays absolutely every musical style. I’ve heard her play Klezmer, folk, rock, jazz, and classical pieces. She’s not, however, an experimental artist. I met her, briefly, way back in the 80s, and have been a fan ever since. Like so many musicians, she’d been cut off from her performance work due to the pandemic. When I asked her to participate, I got the feeling that she didn’t quite ‘get’ what I was doing, but she recorded an improvisation that, upon first listen, sent goosebumps up and down my whole body. The track starts out somewhat playfully but, tentatively, it works its way into a really beautiful and tender place, which I used several times in all three parts. It and Kenny’s violin form a lovely duet.

I met Charles Sharp in the mid 90s, when he and I both worked at the local jazz radio station on campus, KLON (now KKJZ 88.1). Even then his knowledge of music, all music, was shockingly encyclopedic, but he had a special interest in avant garde American music. Now, he co-hosts a KXLU program focused on improvised music, and is on the faculty of CSU Fullerton. Dr Sharp, like Dr Kaiser, is known for extended instrumental techniques. Like Tom, he frequently performed live scores for silent movies, as part of the Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble. He graciously agreed to record an improvisation with alto saxophone, which was both beautiful and interesting.

I had the good fortune to meet Daniel Smith in 2016, when he was first launching The Infinite Stage, which presents “innovative and experimental classical music experiences.” Dr Smith is a masterful cellist, deeply rooted in composed music from many periods. With the violin and bass in hand, I knew that I wanted cello to complete the string section. I explained what I was looking for and, using his cel phone, recorded some really lovely passages.

Once I had all the raw materials in hand, I loaded them all into my computer and began chopping them up into chunks. This was partly because some phrases didn’t fit the key, and partly to focus on passages that felt really strong to me. I intentionally did not listen to multiple instruments simultaneously. I had a reference ‘chord’ that played as I made the cuts. Once I had all the segments, some a single note and some quite long, I loaded them all onto my 2017 iPad Pro. I’ve been using this iPad for live performance since 2017, and decided that the tools available to me on that platform would help me to craft interesting and beautiful sonic transformations. I used a series of processes, including time-stretching, granular synthesis, modulation and delay effects to create the pieces that would end up in part one. I wanted to create abstractions that were not identifiable as the instruments used to create the sounds, but still have their sonic DNA. Once I’d processed all the parts, I began to assemble them into Part 1.

As I said, I was really enamored of the raw materials I was given. I wanted to create a piece that would showcase the artistry of the musicians, and the beautiful sounds of their instruments. Using the chopped up bits, I assembled Part 3, adding just a bit of delay and reverb.

For Part 2, I took Part 3, which was just under 2 minutes long, and time-stretched it to just over 20 minutes. I added a bit of delay and reverb but, other than that, it really is the same as Part 3, but much, much, much slower.

I was deeply moved by the generosity of the participating artists, and how graciously they gave of their talent and artistry, not knowing at all what the end result would be. We stepped off the precipice together, virtually, and I am eternally grateful for their courage and kindness.

Thanks to some inspiration from a Hop-Frog colleague, Eric Baughn, I began writing and recording songs in January of 2021. It was, at least in part, an extension of the massive Covid music creation process that started back in March of 2020, when I was furloughed. Eric had suggested collaborating on an album of songs, but was drawn to work on other projects, so I just kind of started, and went on from there. The first song, Particle Accelerator, was based on words I’d written more than 20 years ago. I rediscovered them and felt inspired to create a musical setting for them. During that process, Petaluma-based musician Kenny Blacklock heard it and asked for stems, which I gladly sent him. He returned a bunch of tracks, some of which ended up in the final mix. His contributions included acoustic guitar, piano bass, and tape strings.

I tried to give each song a unique musical setting, with it’s own logic and feeling. Structurally, some are fairly traditional, and some are quite experimental. Anyway, they’re all currently collected on BandCamp. Check them out if you wish to.

Thanks to some online music groups, I discovered an annual effort where musicians record 10 to 15 songs during the month of February, with the intention of releasing them as an ‘album.’ After some careful thought in January of 2020, I decided to join in. It was my second time doing it. The first, in 2016, was insane. For some reason, I decided to compose and record 1 new original music track every day. (I didn’t quite make it, and only got to 26.)

For this 2nd time, I kept my ambitions reigned in, and ended up with just 17 new tracks. Some were live performances, created using my iPad Pro. Some were highly composed pieces. Some were experimental and abstract. Many were created on my PC using Cubase and a variety of free and in-built virtual synths and effects.

Below, you will find a player that has all 17 tracks in alphabetical order. Below that, you’ll find individual players for each track. Also, you can download a playlist of all the tracks. It should open in your favorite music player.

You can also view the site where the challenge originated.

 

 

 

Here are the individual tracks, with brief descriptions:

An exciting, up-beat instrumental piece with acoustic instruments. Produced in Korg Gadget, running on an iPad Pro.

 
 
 

Produced on the iPad Pro, this track an imaginary duet between two fake flutes that twist and interweave in an intricate and beautiful way.
 
 
 
Here’s a tune to dance to, maybe. Created in Korg Gadget on my iPad Pro.
 
 
 
Mysterious oscillations eminate from beneath the shallow shadows. Holding my breath, the hand of death passes by. Lights from sightless eyes shine in the narrow way, we stay inside the shuddered room, a womb for our fears. Created, I’m pretty sure, in Cubase on my PC, using various free VST synths and effects.
 
 
 
A RAWQ song, with me singing (badly.) Get out your lighters!

I Dare You
Copyright by Sander Roscoe Wolff
02212020 20:08

A calculation in the mind
begins the count down
The sand is falling, grain by grain,
onto the sticky ground.

Perambulators rumble by
transporting hopes and schemes
They and I begin to cry
and tremble ‘midst our screams.

He who cannot speak, cannot lie.
Look me in the eye.
He who cannot speak, cannot lie.
Silent, you and I.

Laugh, go ahead, I dare you.
Turn to face the light.
Speak, go ahead, I dare you.
You are in the right.

A percolation in the ground
disturbs the ebb and flow
The sky is falling, do or die,
upon the earth, below.
 
 
 

This is a tribute, homage, or rip-off of one of my favorite and little-known tracks by King Crimson. It evokes, in a small way, the feeling of the track that inspired it. It was produced on my iPad Pro. The lead ‘guitar’ was created with GeoShred.
 
 
 
An experiment with a complex set of delays, recorded live, using a variety of samples and synths. Produced on my iPad Pro.
 
 
 
Another experiment, this time with piano, delays, reversed audio, and a mess of other effects. I think this was created in Cubase on my PC, but I’m not entirely sure.
 
 
 
Here’s a dance number for people having mental breakdowns. I’m pretty sure this one was done in Cubase, on the PC.
 
 
 
Fake guitars, delays, preverb, and whatnot. A live performance on the iPad Pro, featuring GeoShred.
 
 
 
An upbeat, but strange, musical exploration with acoustic-ish instruments. Created in Cubase. I quite like this one.
 
 
 
Chance encounters with budding flowers, dancing showers us with petals. Metal tines ring, I sing this tired tune. Created on the iPad Pro.
 
 
 
This one is pretty wack, but I like it. I think it might have been created in Korg Gadget.
 
 
 
Sometimes I just love to play guitar, and create many layers of parts. I quite like how this turned out.
 
 
 
She holds her breath like a wreath, beneath the blossom’s glory. It glistens, listening to the call of forgotten voices. Choices, now made, begin to fade away. Live performance on the iPad Pro, featuring GeoShred and a whole bunch of delays.
 
 
 
An electronic journey of sonic impulses. Evocative and strangely beautiful. Created in Cubase on PC with a variety of in-built and free virtual instruments.
 
 
 
My idea of an electronic minuet. I can imagine people in fancy Elizabethan costumes prancing about to this. Created on iPad Pro in Korg Gadget.
 
 
 

Thanks to some online music groups, I discovered an annual effort where musicians record 10 to 15 songs during the month of February, with the intention of releasing them as an ‘album.’ After some careful thought in January, I decided to join in, but with a slightly modified vision. I decided to compose and record 1 new original music track every day. Before I started I knew that I’d work ‘inside the box.’ Everything would be created in Cubase (on my PC) or in Korg Gadget (iPad) using software synthesizers and mostly original sounds.

There was another challenge that is reflected in some of the tracks. It is the ‘A Synth – A Song’ challenge, where all parts in a track are created using just one synth. The idea, of course, is to push the capabilities of the synth AND one’s own programming skills to create something interesting.

Some of these are completely realized recordings, and others are sketches. Overall, I’m fairly happy with what I created. I didn’t end up meeting my challenge. I really only recorded 26 tracks. Also, I’m still working on one that I started in toward the end of the challenge. That will be a full fledged song, played with some ‘real’ instruments, and will have me singing.

Below, you will find a player that has all 26 tracks (and one alternate version) in alphabetical order. Below that, you’ll find individual players for each track. Also, you can download a playlist of all the tracks. It should open in your favorite music player.

You can also view the site where the challenge originated.

 

 

 

 

Produced in Cubase using a variety of virtual synths.

 
 
 

Produced in Cubase, this track has an ever shifting time signature, which gives it a floaty sort of feel. All of the synth patches were created by me, using a variety of inbuilt and free VST instruments.
 
 
 
Here’s a tune to dance to as you skip and stroll along the river Seine. Watch your step, though, as it is in 7/8.
 
 
 
This is a simple song that evokes a feeling of nostalgia… Created using one Steinberg VST, HAlion, in Cubase.
 
 
 
Another track created in Cubase, using just one synth: the free Eclipsis VST.
 
 
 
Music to make sleeping children dream of ghostly apparitions. This track was created entirely on the iPad, using Korg Gadget.
 
 
 
Produced in Cubase using just one synth, the free VST, Eclipsis.
 
 
 
Produced entirely in Cubase, using just one synth, the free VST, Matrix 6000.
 
 
 
Here’s a dance number for people with two left feet.
 
 
 
Produced entirely on iPad, using just one synth: Korg Gadget’s Changmai.
 
 
 
This is a recording of a live looping performance on the iPad using just one synth, Wolfgang Palm’s amazing Wavemapper inside Michael Tyson’s AudioBus3 and using his LoopyHD for Frippertronics style looping. All sounds were created by me in Wavemapper, using samples that I recorded. No editing or effects were added after the fact.
 
 
 
This song was produced on the iPad, using Korg Gadget, and inspired the following lyrics:

“The empty mirror reflects a sadness I cannot see. It politely refuses to let me be.
It asks me to look but nothing is there. It’s hidden the last of me.”
 
 
 

An imagined landscape of reds and browns, with swirling winds and plucked strings.
 
 
 
This is an allegorical piece, telling the story of how love brought me out of chaos and into peace and joy. It was composed on Valentine’s Day, for my beloved wife, life partner, and friend. It was produced entirely on the iPad using Korg Gadget.
 
 
 
As one moves lower, into the deep, the last glimmers of light from the surface begin to fade, and darkness becomes blinding.
 
 
 
This is a musical thought experiment using a systems-based composition technique. No effects, other than reverb on the master mix, were used. No dynamics were manipulated. This track was created using Cubase, and one synth, am early virtual analog synths made by Steinberg. Best heard on speakers.
 
 
 
This one is is kinda groovy in a vaguely latin way, when the band has had one too many to drink, perhaps.
 
 
 
A spin-off of the systems-based approach of Discadance, with a much more relaxed, languid feel and a bit more variety in the tones.
 

It inspired a brief poem:

The horn howls like Ginsberg,
cold as the light-knife cuts through
the darkness.
A cloud blanket softens the night,
dampens the forgotten spirits
that haunt Angel’s Gate,
forever waiting for imagined
invaders.
I ache for that softness,
breathe it in,
but the edge remains.
 
 
 

This is a recording of a live performance, made entirely on the iPad, using Korg Module and Loopy HD running in Audiobus 3.
 
 
 
The Flemish Cap is an underwater ocean area East of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It is best known because of the collapse of previously abundant sea life due to over-fishing by EU member states in the 1990s.
 
 
 
The creation of this track proved to be surprising. A friend was discussing the value of watching the footage of the evacuation and rescue that took place in Florida after the recent shooting. I found myself responding rather passionately and, immediately after, recording tonight’s track. Here’s what I wrote.

When I was 12, my Hebrew School showed all of the students at least three big reels of 16mm Nazi death camp footage. Most of it was filmed by the Nazis before the liberation. It had no sound. It was just silent b/w moving images of horrors that, as a child, I could not previously imagine.

There’s a part of me that feels injured by that experience. There’s another part of me that cherishes it. I think we can too easily look away from the horrors of the world and, in doing so, believe that we are disconnected from them.

As we know, though, safety is an illusion. We know that none of us are immune from the pain and suffering that others feel. We are not separate from each other. Your pain is my pain, and we need to see the truth so we can understand the problem and work together toward a new paradigm.

Gun control is one small part of the problem. We’ve allowed ourselves to isolate the others, those who make us uncomfortable, when we should be reaching out to them and bringing them closer. We have a systemic cultural problem, and there is no easy fix for it.

BTW, ‘Kaddish’ is the Jewish prayer of remembrance for the dead.

Translation:

May His great name be exalted and sanctified in the world which He created according to His will! May He establish His kingdom and may His salvation blossom and His anointed be near during your lifetime and during your days and during the lifetimes of all the House of Israel, speedily and very soon! And say, Amen. May His great name be blessed for ever, and to all eternity! Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, above and beyond all the blessings, hymns, praises and consolations that are uttered in the world! And say, Amen.
 
 
 

This piece was created in Cubase using one synth, the free VST, Sonigen Modular.

Lyrics:

What’s so great about a wall?
What is their beef, those Mongol hoards?
With beards and swards
Sweeping the steppes
With dissonant chords.
Why do they install
This monumental wall?

Strong fences make good neighbors
but the hooves and neighs of foaming steeds
bear no quarter but those hung and drawn.

These effortless sketches stretch South and West,
but I’ve forgotten all the rest.
 
 
 

This tune is really just an excuse for a tune, rather formulaic and sad, except that I like it, kinda. It was fun creating the beat, and I quite like some of the patches. Some are stock and others more custom.

Lyrics:

Head your bang, your bang diddy bang bang.
Head your thang, your thang diddy thang thang.
 
 
 

Here’s another fun odd time signature for all the counters out there. Also, this track used just one synth for all of the sounds, the free VST Sonigen Modular. The track was created in Cubase. The title refers to one of my favorite musicians.
 
 
 
This is a recording of a Frippertronics-style live looping iPad performance using an app called Yonac Steel Guitar.
 
 
 
Dance, everybody! Everybody dance!
 
 
 
A song about the struggle to embrace love. Recorded in Cubase with virtual drums and organ, real guitar courtesy of the Sandblaster, the Industrial Guitars Indy Rail lap steel, and my Japanese Fender Fretless Jazz bass with custom humbucking Seymour Duncan pickups and Aguilar preamp.

Lyrics:

Worthy
by Sander Roscoe Wolff

I’m not too bad. I’m not too good.
I’ve not done all the things I should.
This road is rocky. I stumble and fall.
I can’t get up, so I just crawl.

The darkness calls. It knows my name.
My forgotten goodness is hidden by shame.
I look to the depths and decide to go.
But you tell me one thing that I did not know.

You say, “You’re worthy. Worthy of my love.”
You say, “You’re worthy. Worthy of my love.”

Your words, they shake me. I start to cry.
I feel unready to live or die.
I turn to leave but I’m caught by surprise.
I see the truth in your blue eyes.

I said, “I’m worthy. Worthy of your love.”
I said, “I’m worthy. Worthy of your love.”

Some days are dark, and some are sad.
Now, through it all, my heart is glad.
Some days are dark, and some are sad.
Now through it all, my heart is glad.

I said, “I’m worthy. Worthy of my love.”
I said, “I’m worthy. Worthy of my love.”
 
 
 

– This track uses the same note information as the original, but is realized entirely with one synth, Arturia’s Moog Modular VST in Cubase. Some of the sounds are stock patches, some were tweaked, and some completely original.
 
 
 

 

I was exploring an ancient archive buried deep on an old hard drive and discovered a bunch of music files from 2000, when my friends and I were exploring various ways to support the local music scene. One way we found was to run an automated streaming radio station, which continued for about a year. Here’s what I found: