Olivia's Cowbell
Olivia's Cowbell
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- FormatWAV
- Bit Rate32 Bit Float
- Sample Rate44.100
Olivia Cirisan, composer and professor at the University of Michigan, reached out to ask me to be one of a group of composers to "remix" a song on her upcoming release. One was a driving, wildly intense piece called simply Cowbells, featuring only the sound of that unique cowbell attack, pushing through until it culminates in a great wall of sound. I was enchanted with the piece, but couldn't think of anything worthy to do.
Then! I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, WOW--what if I took the TAIL, the reverberation, the afterthought of that bell sound and instead of having a drive, just let it sit there and wallow around, not moving at all except for swirling around and around. In other words, what if I didn't use the attack but rather the release.
I took a sample of her sounds to create the swirlie stuff--just the first low octave that enters. I put that into RX11 and stole just the sounds after the attack--the release, then put that into a precious little program that is no longer supported, Iris 2, in Cubase. Adding a few of my favorite reverbie lushes, and there was my swirlie stuff.
But my OWN personal experience with a cowbell also intruded into the piece. I depended on a cowbell for my life and the lives of my dear pack goats while traveling with them in the wilderness areas in Wyoming, which are chock full of black and grizzly bears. Additionally, I would meet up with people and their dogs--even more hazardous than bears!--and I needed some sound that would carry FAR. The cute little christmas bells that people strap to their legs are not worthy of a warning long distance. Instead, I would carry this big low livestock bell. Sometimes I would attach it to a goat, but that was pretty obnoxious to hear that clanging away constantly, and I instead would simply carry it myself so I could give a nice rhythmic tong tong tong TONG tong tong as we moved along through the dark forest. To quietly trek in a wilderness forest, with silent gentle goats that are just as in awe of the beauty as I am, being surrounded by mystery and timeless wonder is an incredible gift.
To this day the sound of that bell brings back a special feeling.
So I sampled it, brushed it up in HALion7, took off the attack but saved the release, and then put it through a couple very special creative reverbs I have, and that produced the plodding sound that you hear throughout.
When Olivia releases her album containing Cowbells, I'll be sure to link it here so you can hear the sister song.