home to roost

made on the modules alone

3:01 · 132 BPM · F sharp minor

Every sound in it comes out of a daylight noise module, fifteen of them, and nothing else: no synth of our own, no sample, no voice from outside. Nobody set a level either. Two PECKING ORDERs mix it, and the front one’s roof is the master.

0:00 / 3:01

The rack

Every module it was played on, a card each time it’s used, in the order the sound goes through them, with the cables between them. While it plays, each lights with its own part, and the cables go in and come out when they did: BORROW’s, the arps’, the choir’s, and FIREFLIES’s at the end. The notes and gates come from the score, so they have no cables.

THRENODY's panel: a mushroom cloud in gold newsprint halftone dots on black, its cap between the top knobs and its stem running down the middle, with fifteen knobs and jacks and two lit buttons on a staggered grid — threnodythe low strings

MONOLITH's panel: a tall black slab standing on a stony desert at dawn in gold halftone, the sun just over its top behind WIDTH, the big knob, rays across the sky; the slab's edges one frame of bare circuit board lit white in cells, NEAR a round lit button at its foot — monoliththe choir in the break

FIREFLIES's panel: an old glass jar with a punched lid in gold dots, the whole panel tall; inside it a plume of sixty little oval windows of bare circuit board, most of them lit yellow-green like fireflies, a few strays out among the knobs and jacks — firefliesthe chimes

ANGUISH's panel: a newborn lamb's face front-on in the dark in gold halftone, wet curls running down to the foot, its two eyes almond windows of bare circuit board lit white, sixteen small eyes glinting in the black round its head, CRY the big knob under its face, CARRY a round lit button and SPRING a black one either side — anguishthe lambs

The PECKING ORDER panel: black, and in gold dots eight hens roosting up a ladder roost, four up each side to the top, two by two, under the boards of a pitched roof with light through its cracks. A jack by each hen, I to VIII; the knobs up the middle. — pecking orderthe back’s mix: strings, choir, chimes, lambs

ELSEWHEN's panel: black, a tall pointed doorway in the middle of a stone wall in gold dots, its ring of arch stones under the name, a vaulted hall going back and back inside it in a window of bare circuit board, and a wedge of light falling out of it across a stone floor to the foot — elsewhenthe room: a cave, between the two

SPIRAL's panel: straight down the well of a stone spiral stair at night in gold halftone, the treads winding round, and at the bottom of the well a lit spiral of windows of bare circuit board, two arms round a round centre, ZOOM the big knob below it and FALL a lit round button at the foot — spiralthe arpeggios

BORROW's panel: a magpie swooping straight at you in gold halftone, wings spread across the panel and beak open, its head under the name; four violet lights round the big BORROW knob, three of them lit — borrowthe arps, SPIRAL’s line on a second chip

THUMP's panel: a black rabbit in gold halftone dots on black, lit from above, its eyes two dark hollows and its ears either side of the name, with twenty-two knobs and jacks on a staggered grid — thumpthe kick, its 808 on each root, the clap, the hats

POKE's panel: a chip's die under the microscope in gold halftone, its bond wires fanning out to the panel's edges; BEND on the die's centre with a square cyan light in each of its four blocks, the CLOCK switch below — pokethe lead: a 1982 chip playing her

How it was made

Each module runs its own engine, the same code its page plays. A score plays them the way hands would: notes and gates into their jacks, a knob turned, a cable put in or pulled out. Nothing else touches the sound.

THUMP’s kick is the bass, its long 808 gliding into each chord’s root. BORROW’s chip chord goes through THUMP, so every kick pumps it, and its hits steal the chord’s top note; a second BORROW plays SPIRAL’s arpeggios. The lead is one THRENODY player heard by POKE, a 1982 console’s chip doing its best to play her. Three more THRENODYs are the strings. MONOLITH’s choir comes back through the break, swells while NEAR is held and cuts to nothing on the drop. FIREFLIES’s chimes find the beat. ANGUISH’s lambs open it, cry through the bridge, and at the end are carried off one by one until it’s quiet.

Two PECKING ORDERs mix it. The back holds the strings, the choir, the chimes and the lambs, and goes through ELSEWHEN’s cave into the front’s return. The front has the lead on top, then the kick, the clap, the chord, the arps, the hats and the lamb in your arms. Each part was put on a rung and the mixer found its level; TOP lifts the lambs, then the choir, to the top of the back when they lead.

132 BPM · F sharp minor · 3:01 · −14.4 LUFS · thump, two borrows, spiral, four threnodys, poke, fireflies, monolith, anguish, elsewhen, two pecking orders