Tracks like this don’t happen too often, they are rather special and I used to just keep them for myself. Having a site like this makes it really easy to share these little one-off concept pieces with people and I am happy to let this ‘cat out of the bag’. As with all the limited time download tracks this one will only be available for limited amount of time, so grab it while the cat is out and about.

It was late, around 4am and I had just finished working on the music for this track. I knew I wanted to add something to keep the song moving along, some vocals of some sort, and the phrase ‘And that was his first mistake” popped into my mind. I thought about it for a minute and decided that I was going to talk about this guy named “Johnny”. I wasn’t sure what I what else I was going to say but I had the first sentance in my head. I hit record and just went for it. I ended up being able to do the whole thing in just one take, ad-libbing it totally off the cuff. I didn’t go back and do any overdubs, just a few edits so that some of the vocals would appear to come from a different direction. I didn’t edit any of the rhythms or word placements.

While recording it was *really hard* to keep from laughing. I finsihed, hit stop and totally lost it. I don’t know if anyone else will find it comical, or enjoyable, but I figured with this internet thing and a blog I could just put it out there and let it have a life of it’s own. I hope you enjoy ‘Johnny’s Mistake’.

New Local Link: transelectronic link to johnnys mistake
Sendspace Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/gvxu8g

I am in the process of mastering some of my back catalog, getting ready to release it and I came across one of my favorite tracks from 1995. I just had to post it on the site. It will only be available to download for free for a short time so grab it while you can. It is from the upcoming “Basement Sessions 1994 - 1996″ to be released in February of this year on Transelectronic.net. Happy New Year!

download : rj valeo - the time tunnel [1995]

Artist: RJ Valeo
Title:Sunrise
Catalog Number: trans.003
Type: Digital LP
Release Date: 08 December 2008
Duration: 60 minutes +
Purchase:

Originally released in Jan 1997 as “Transelectronic Theory - Sunrise”. Sunrise was recorded on the floor of my bedroom studio from September - November of 1996.

Looking back at this release, and listening to it again, I realized how one of the tracks was just out of place, so just like Lucas would have done, I took the opportunity to replace the track with one that was better suited from the same time period. The new track replaces the old one at the second to last place in the original track lineup. In addition I have included 1 additional track from the same time period. I would have included it initially, but I was limited to 60 minute cassettes and the songs simply didn’t fit, thus making this the definitive “Sunrise” release.

This release used hardware for all of the sounds. The partial gear list is: Korg Monopoly, Roland Juno 106, Roland S-550, Roland R-70, Roland TR 909, Korg Pandora, Oberheim Matrix 1000, Oberheim OB-1, Yamaha SY-22, Yamaha TX81Z, Alesis Midiverb and a few other pieces of gear.

All of the songs were done in the “performance to DAT” methodology, in which I would get all of my parts together and do a live performance of the song and capture it on DAT for the final version. So, in a simple sense all of these are “live takes” in the studio. The object of this release was to capture the feeling of a sunrise in sound - that magical moment when the sun shows itself for the first time in a day, and I think it managed to pull it off. I have put this release on my iPod and it seems to work well for a subway ride, or for some other activity that you can simply “be in the moment” for.

Purchase release here:

I am proud to announce that one of my compositions from the “Days EP” for the Modyfier blog was selected for inclusion in the October edition of the UK’s venerable “The Wire” magazine. It is currently available at Other Music, Kim’s Video, and other places imported music magazines are sold. It is the one with Richie Hawtin on the cover.

Here is the little blurb they posted about me and my track.

07 Richard J Valeo Monday Night
From Days (IO)
Since 2001, Brooklyn’s Richard J Valeo has worked up his rhythmic fragmentary Techno under a variety of aliases including Transelectronic Theory, Isomer Transition and plain old RJ Valeo. Following his recent September album on Type Records, Days appears on his own imprint IO.

Artist:RJ Valeo
Title: The Hardware Excursions
This release is now available on Io Records as a paid release.

As of lately I have had a real fascination with hardware and making it sound as raw it can sound.

I really love the texture and grit of equipment, especially when something isn’t working right. My ears prick up when I can hear the values step on tunings due to dirty pots and knobs. My favorite is when oscillators sound like eggs being cooked in corn oil, all spittery and sputtery.

I thought about it for a while and decided that I wanted to find a hardware delay that sounded kinda nasty. I wanted to hear the low bit rate of an old digital delay, so I sought one out. I knew that I would be tweaking it out so I wasn’t worried when I first took a listen to it.

At first the DM1000 sounded rather nice. No real grit to speak of, no real bit rate degradation.

I opened it up (with the encouragement of Matt Scopp) and found some nice little pots that said, of all things, clock. Nice.

Actual 4 bit sound playback sounds totally different than 4 bit crushed audio, played back and output as 24 bit from a computer. The real 4 bit output has real crunch, density and presence

In order to make some nice sounds I hooked up a few more pieces of gear. My trusty Oberheim OB-1 that has just been resurrected from the grave, and, i dug up the ‘wrekah’ — a bent ibanez distortion pedal that does one thing, wreck sound

I hooked the wrekah up to the Elektron Machinedrum. You can hear it come in at 4:32 in session 2.

All of that and some midiverb 4, and away we go.

There are 2 different pieces in this series. The first piece is entitled ‘oberheim’, and it was the third take during the first session. That session took place during Matt Scopp’s visit. The second piece is entitled ‘hardware’ and was recorded earlier today. I mastered both of these tracks today, July 26 2008.

Theses pieces are about playing with tension and release, challenging the listener’s focus, and the suspension of disbelief. These are themes that I enjoy exploring again and again. I feel there is a lot of work that can be done in this realm.

I found it interesting to look at both of these waveforms side by side so I decided to share the screen grabs. It appears that both performances have a similar overarching structure, as well as, interestingly enough, timing. It could almost be said that they are different performances based on the same score.

Session 1 Overview

Session 2 Overview

Recently I had the honor of participating in a series of releases curated and released over on the modyfier blog. Shepherded by the ever-insightful Rayna, this series of site-specific works focuses it’s attention on not only the product of the works, but on the process behind them.

I wrote a 3 page paper to accompany the 4 composition to be posted on the site. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote.

“… Another aspect of the project was that improvisation was used as a central part of the compositional structure. The general form for each song was created using a MIDI sequencer, but the final recorded version was a combination of improvised performance and structured composition. It was this paring of improvisation and composition that allowed this series of compositions to stay fresh and novel. …”

Visit modyfier for the full text as well as to download the tracks. They are experimental and minimal.

Artist: Richard J Valeo
Title: Programmatic Responses
Catalog Number: trans.009
Type: Digital EP
Release Date: 14.05.2008
Purchase at:
Purchase at: Amazon.com

Programmatic Responses, the first release by artist RJ Valeo since his Type Records release ‘September’, explores some darker and more complex ideas first presented on his first release.

Through the use of constantly evolving rhythmic and melodic structures, “Programmatic Responses” draws us into a hypnotic world of rhythmic evolution. Created from overlapping pattern fragments repeated at un-synchronized lengths, and overlapping melodic elements that are built from Reich-like “phasing” time signatures, the compositions on “Programmatic Responses” are based firmly in the digital-futurist world.

Created using a custom developed live composition and mixing environment (comprised of Numerology and Bidule) the compositions were performed and captured live in one pass with no post production. With “Programmatic Responses”, Valeo — a student of the groove, creates the perfect soundtrack in response to and for the constantly shifting inhabitants of modern cities everywhere.

RJ Valeo - September

The best way to describe this album is… cold. Melodies are based around drones and long hissing tones that just generally sound very absent. They sound nice. Real nice, in fact. RJ is a fantastic producer. He sounds like he really knows how to get the sound he wants out of his equipment. Everything is EQ’ed beautifully. That may be part of the problem I had with certain parts of the album. Sometimes I feel like its style over substance. Key word here is sometimes. Certain parts of the LP are absolutely stunning. When things come together for RJ, they really come together quite nicely.

His sound does not sound contrived or stolen at all. This is far from generic IDM but I can hear the influence in the music. I can also hear hip hop, house and many other forms of electronic music. Type does a good job choosing artists who make music that is influenced by the artists they like, not a direct rip-off or mashing of the sounds of said influences. The album is good, and I really look forward to hearing RJ improve on this but sometimes I really don’t mesh with the songs at all though. That said, when RJ is good, he’s really fucking good.

-Laurel Near
March 4, 2004

link to article