Jewel Dirks

Electric Earth Music is my genre of music which uses only sounds I've recorded from my natural environment.   I explore the sounds around me, much the way a biologist would look into a microscope to see how a tree grows, and then photograph those images in a manner that gives the idea of the tree's makeup--but in a whole new way.

For example, first I might record a tree branch knocking against another branch in the wind (...or a bird call or donkey bray or goat hooves or...).  I transfer that sound to my computer program--HALion or PhasePlant or Izotope, etc--which gives me the ability to play it on my keyboards in different octaves.  I process the sound using a whole wonderful universe of effects, such as reverb, filtering, chorus and such.   I usually end up with several dozen colorful sounds, which I can use to compose music on Cubase.

It's always fascinating to me to realize that each set of pieces in some way still reflects the core essence of the original sound.  Tree music will always differ from donkey music, which will always differ from coyotes or birds.  But it will still have "tree-ness," much the way a grizzled, wrinkled old woman's face reflects all her life of youthful exerburance and folly.

I do not use professionally produced synthesized instruments or sounds, but rather always produce my own "instruments" in this fashion, and always from these sounds I have recorded.  You can find these original sounds in my link of "Original Recorded Sounds."

Finally, these pieces are not "easy listening."  I might suggest that you only listen to one a month or every couple of months, or may even just one every couple of years if you're young.