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Released in April 2021, my ninth album presents the results of my original musical efforts since the launch of the Flukutronic branding on Facebook and YouTube in July 2019. Expect the unexpected as you explore this eclectic landscape of flutes, ukuleles, and electronics.
Total Playing Time 1:02:01
LINER NOTES/TECHNICAL DETAILS
- Triple B Funk 3:49
- Chapter Next 5:12
- Tears of the Samurai 3:56
- A Step Too Low 4:18
- Taking Flight (Album Version) 4:30
- Funkutronic 4:01
- Happyish 6:38
- Saddish 5:32
- Summer Daydream (Album Version) 4:17
- Three From Afar 5:16
- From The Ground Up 4:20
- Waiting and Wandering 4:53
- Gloaming Chill 5:15
Triple B Funk
“If some people don’t like funk music then it’s just the wrong time for them. They will get it. It’s addictive.” -George Clinton
I did a “song sketch” originally called “Pueblo Funk” with the low B “Cliff Dweller” flute from Brent Adams. This flute gets the lead and first solo chorus while the opening harmony is provided by a high B NAF (also by Brent – panned right) and a brass B whistle by Mack Hoover (panned left). The whistle gets a half chorus solo before the the low B comes back to restate the head.
The ukulele is David Iriguchi’s tenor “Weeble” in reentrant A tuning. The bass is the Magic Fluke Timber with flat wound strings.
Electronics are provided in Reason courtesy of Reason Drum Kits and a couple of organ tracks. (The WARBL/Respiro combo here was used during composition but didn’t make the final track.)
Chapter Next
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” -Isaiah 43:19
This could have been called “And Now for the Rest of our Lives (Album Version)” as it was originally release as a single, but I decided to give it a shorter name. Originally recorded with low E whistle and reentrant A ukulele, this version features alto A whistle (mahogany wood by Simon Styles) and reentrant D (“B-to-B”) guitalele (mango by Pelem Ukuleles).
The electronic drum track was reused almost verbatim from the original song.
Also reappearing is the Timber bass and a cello/horn-like part courtesy of the
Respiro synth played with the WARBL wind controller (both re-recorded to fit the new key). There is also a piano track not used in the single.
Tears of the Samurai
“A warrior is worthless unless he rises above others and stands strong in the midst of a storm.” -Yamamoto Tsunetomo
This song is easily the most complicated piece in this collection musically, not necessarily in concept, but definitely in execution. It explores the Japanese hirajoshi scale in 4 different keys on the same Native American style flute. The scales are based on each of the first four holes of the flute, so I think of these as A minor, C minor, D minor, and E minor. The opening flute solo focuses on the A minor hirajoshi scale to get your ear used to the intervals and patterns to be explored in the rest of the song.
Now comes the complicated part. With all the modulation going on, trying to play this on a single ukulele was making my head and fingers explode. So I settled on using a different uke for each section to take advantage of the magic of transposing instruments. Thinking through my collection, I came up with the following sequence of instruments/tuning that minimized the number of relative tunings I’d have to deal with:
- Bonanza super tenor in reentrant F
- Ono baritone in linear Ab
- Iriguchi tenor in reentrant Bb
- Jupiter guitalele in linear C
Those keys correspond to the first four holes of a NAF in the key of F. The one I choose is a poplar flute made by Carlton Styron.
The song proceeds with a complete chorus in each key, and then a final section does a half chorus in Fm before cycling through all four keys and then back to Fm. To keep from recording 1-bar bits for this last section, I tried various ukes, and for whatever reason, this turned out most successful on a Kala super soprano in reentrant Eb tuning!
Rounding out the instrumentation were Kala California U-Bass, a WARBL/Respiro “cello”, and electronic drums/percussion/piano/koto tracks.
I’m no samurai, but I think a few tears were shed in the realization of this one.
A Step Too Low
“You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.” -Psalm 18:36
The working title of this one was “A+G whistle tune” as it arose from noodlings with the Shearwater alto A whistle with extra bottom G hole. The melody does indeed extend to that low G several times.
Once again, the ukulele is the Iriguchi tenor in reentrant A tuning, this time with a fair bit of distortion as a send effect so the acoustic tone is still present as well. Bass is once again the Timber.
Electronics include strings and several “drum-n-bass” style loops from the Reason collection as well as a “guitar” lead from WARBL/Respiro achieved with a string patch sent through a guitar amp sim.
Taking Flight (Album Version)
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” -Isaiah 40:31
Like “Chapter Next”, this was also previously released as a single. The single was shortened to be played at my daughter’s wedding. This version was stretched out with space for additional solos and an entirely new middle section. I also decided to change the key and instrumentation, switching from low Eb whistle up to alto G (both from Shearwater incidentally). This also necessitated a change with uke, this time to the Jupiter tenor guitalele in standard linear C tuning (i.e. ADGCEA). Bass is the Kala California fretless.
In addition to the whistle lead, there are 4 NAFs in this track with a low A NAF from Brent Adams getting the most time including the middle solo in addition to several harmony stints. High C and D NAFs from Terry Green are only heard in the intro and a low G from him is only heard in the outro.
Electronics here are drums and electric piano in Reason.
Funkutronic
Branford Marsalis: “I’m not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.”
Jim: “Pssh, what does he know?”
I love playing funk on the whistle. The best “setting” is based on the 5th note of the scale, e.g. G on a C whistle. This gives easy access to the minor third (Bb) and major third (B) which is so fundamental to a good funk groove, e g. based around the G7#9 chord.
For this song, I chose the E teakwood whistle from Pavel Mirra, so the base chord is B7#9. This fit well with the Pelem guitalele in B-to-B tuning and the Timber bass in standard tuning.
Electronics include electric pianos in the Clav and Wurly traditions. The drums are electronic samples driven by the Beat Map sequencer in Reason in addition to percussion sounds (cowbell!, toms, and cymbals) from Band-in-a-Box sequences.
Happyish
“Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.” -Psalm 126:5
Another “do over” track, this one started with a ukulele recording outside one Saturday morning. There were some timing issues due to not being able to hear my click track in spots over some very loud crickets. I released that as a “song sketch” on YouTube but decided to completely redo in-studio for this version.
The ukulele is a 5-string tenor “kiku” made by David Hanson. Bass is the Kala
California backed. The lead in the “A” section is a purpleheart C whistle made
by Charles Tarrio. The “B” section melody is a high C NAF by Terry Green which then takes a “A” section solo followed by a low G NAF also by Terry Green. The C5 NAF then repeats the “B” head followed by the C whistle for the final “A” head and outro.
Electronic parts are the drum kit programmed by sequences discovered with the Beat Map player device in Reason. The WARBL/Respiro makes another appearance with a “cello”-ish (bassoon?) part. Finally, a “rain stick” percussion part was added, also “played” by the WARBL.
Saddish
“Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” -2 Corinthians 6:10
This was recorded at dusk using the Hanson kiku on the same Saturday that the original Happyish take was recorded in the morning. This was planned as an untimed piece (i.e. not to a click track) so I kept it for the final mix and played the other parts around the uke track.
This piece is the first in this collection mixed completely on the iPad, in the Cubasis 2 DAW. This was largely to take advantage of the Eventide effects on that plaform including Crystals and ShimmerVerb.
The “bass” track was crafted starting with G3 NAF (by Terry Green) and A3 NAF (Brent Adams) recorded directly into Cubasis with a Blue Yeti microphone then effected through the ToneStack app including a bass octave pedal and some distortion. The individual notes were also moved and stretched to overlap better.
Next the EZ Anasazi C flute by Stephen DeRuby was recorded to the iPad, but I wasn’t happy with it so I pulled the rough mix at that point over to Reason, recorded the flute there (which has better comping tools), and then pulled back to iPad for the final mix.
While in Reason, I added some percussion in the form of a rain stick patch. I also discovered playing around with a pitch-shift effect, this sounded kinda like buzzing insects, so I sprinkled that in a few spots where the real insects weren’t loud enough.. These were “played” with the WARBL controller. Again, audio for these was pulled back to the iPad for the final mix.
Summer Daydream (Album Version)
“It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.” – Psalm 74:17
And yet another “do over” track, this was originally released on YouTube as a collaboration with Kevin Griffin. I had done a “song starter” with basic chording idea, but Kevin made the arrangement and played it on a steel string baritone ukulele. I added the other tracks.
For the redo, I kept Kevin’s uke track as-is, but replaced the MIDI bass line with Timber bass. I discovered some unwanted noises in the original C whistle track so decided to redo it, but I wanted to use a C# whistle from Simon Styles. So use it, I had to pitch shift everything else up a half-step, record the whistle to that, remove the shift, and then pitch shift the whistle down a half-step.
Electronics were the drum kit and an electric piano track in Reason.
Three From Afar
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” – Matthew 2:2
This song began as a couple of “song starters” built around fingering/picking patterns discovered on the Pelem guitalele. For the recording, I switched to my Jupiter baritone guilele in linear Terz tuning (“G to G”) along with the Timber bass.
Each of the three “flutes” here focuses on a specific minor scale for their lead/solo bits. The opening part is an Eb5 aluminum whistle by Chuck Tilbury focusing on the Phrygian mode in what I would call “Em” (if it were a C whistle). The second is a B3 NAF by Terry Green playing a Hirajoshi scale in an “Fm” setting. The third is a G3 NAF also by Terry Green playing the Dorian mode in an “Am” setting.
The drums come from the iPad app DrumJam pulled into the Reason session for mixing.
From The Ground Up
“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” -Genesis 2:7
This song started with the Axon app on the iPad. This is an unusual drum sequencer/synthesizer and the beats it generates can be hard to categorize. I’ve tried to add it on top of tracks before and never gotten it to work, so this time I decided to start with the drum track and build everything else up from that.
Ideas for the bass and uke parts were composed with another couple of iPad apps, iFretless bass and Futulele, but I didn’t use them for the audio production. The bass is the Kala California and the uke is a Bonanza super tenor in reentrant F (cFAD) tuning. Both were played straight into the iPad (with appropriate audio interface/microphone of course) in just a few parts.
The whistle is an alto A in padauk wood by Nick Metcalf. This was recorded and comped in Reason then pulled back into Cubasis for the final mix.
The mix was done in Cubasis 2 on the iPad with a good nuumber of effects. The Korvpressor compressor was used on bass, drums, and uke with Woodpressor on the whistle and Pro-C 2 on the mix bus. The STARK amp sim and FAC Chorus went on the bass, with FAC Chorus also going on the drums. Space effects included Eventide Crystals on the uke, AudioReverb on the whistle, and AltiVerb as a global send effect. Finally, Pro-L 2 was on the mix bus to achieve the final loudness goal.
Waiting and Wandering
“And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.” -Deuteronomy 29:5
This track took quite awhile to come together. It started as a sketch in Cubasis 2 with an Eb cuatro uke, G whistle, and Kala bass. For the uke, I was using the iRig Acoustic pickup/mic just dropped in the soundhole and it was picking up a ton of strap noise. I decided to use that as kind of a “Foley creaking camel saddle noise” which is prominent in the intro/outro and also the middle breakdown section. That’s the only part that got kept from the Eb uke though so I’m not going to count in the credits (sorry Covered Bridge! 🙂 ).
For the real production, I re-recorded everything except drums in Reason. The lead whistle is an alto Ab by Carbony played in an “E Phrygian” mode. The uke is Cocobolo Ukuleles Super Concert 001. Bass is the Timber. The middle section was originally intended to be a bass solo but instead ended up as a bass flute solo for the G3 Dragonfly. The parts were cleaned up (filters, EQ, compressors, bass amp, etc.) in Reason before transferring over to Cubasis 3 for the mix.
Parts added in the Cubasis session was the “strap-cum-saddle” noise with a heavy dose of Discord4 pitch shifting and ShimmerVerb atmospherics. Uke for the intro was also recorded at this point, played with the iRig in the soundhole trick from before. Lastly, drums were programmed in DrumJam, exported to Cubasis and arranged.
With all the cleanup done in Reason, the mix was pretty simple with just a compressor on the drums, two reverb sends, and a bus compressor. Mastering was a bit of a hodge-podge with the main work done in the FinalTouch app, but then some final level adjustments in Cubasis, and then final-final EQ/leveling in Reason.
Gloaming Chill
“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” – Psalm 65:8
My take on the “chillhop” genre, the drums are arranged from several slow loops from the Reason library. On top of that are the Kala Cali bass and two ukuleles, an Ono baritone in linear Ab tuning (panned right) and a Kala super soprano in reentrant Eb tuning (panned left).
The flutes are both by Terry Green. The primary is a B3 in New Guinea rosewood with a G3 in Surian cedar taking the middle breakdown section.
In addition to the drums, this song features several electronic parts in Reason including strings, electric piano, clav, and a couple of “special effects”.
CREDITS
A special thank you to the following individuals for allowing me to use their work:
Whistles :
Mack Hoover
- B4 brass “white cap” : Track 1
Simon Styles, Weston Whistles
- C#5 ash : Track 9
- A4 mahogany : Track 2
John Bushby, Shearwater Whistles
- A+G4 alloy : Track 4
- G4 alloy : Track 5
Pavel Mirra, Harmony Flutes
- E4 teakwood : Track 6
Charles Tarrio, Whorfin Whistles
- C5 purpleheart : Track 7
Chuck Tilbury
- Eb5 aluminum : Track 10
Nick Metcalf
- A4 padauk : Track 11
Rob Gandara, Carbony
- Ab4 carbon fiber : Track 12
Native American Flutes :
Brent Adams, Rainbow Music
- B3 POC “Cliff Dweller : Track 1
- B4 elm : Track 1
- A3 chestnut : Tracks 5, 8
Carlton Styron
- F4 poplar : Track 3
Terry Green, Dragonfly Flutes
- D5 blackwood : Track 5
- C5 silky oak : Tracks 5, 7
- G3 Surian cedar : Tracks 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13
- B3 rosewood : Tracks 10, 13
Stephen DeRuby
- C4 EZ Anasazi : Track 8
Ukuleles:
David Iriguchi
- “Weeble” Tenor : Tracks 1, 3, 4
Magic Fluke
- Timber Bass : Tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12
Pelem Ukulele
- Mango tenor guitalele : Tracks 2, 6
Jonathan Dale, Jupiter Ukulele
- POC/tamarind tenor guitalele : Tracks 3, 5
- cedar/sycamore baritone guilele : Track 10
David Ingalls, Ono Ukuleles
- WRC/Myrtle baritone : Tracks 3, 13
Pete Mai, Bonanza Ukuleles
- Cherry/laminate super tenor : Tracks 3, 11
Kala
- California U-Bass : Tracks 3, 5, 7, 11, 13
- Koa laminate super soprano : Tracks 3, 13
David Hanson, Cripple Creek Mandolins
- 5-string tenor kiku : Tracks 7, 8
Cocobolo Ukuleles
- super concert #001 : Track 12
Other:
Rudy Verpaele
- Respiro wind synth : Tracks 1, 3, 4, 7
Andrew Mowry
- WARBL MIDI wind controller : Tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8
CD Artwork:
Bandcamp Track Images:
5187396 : Tears of the Samurai
christels : Taking Flight (Album Version)
Wokandapix : Summer Daydream (Album Version)
susan-lu4esm : Three From Afar
Jim Hanks Music 