This is a Piece of music that was performed by me marcus cotten. For this piece I played the remote controlled radio transmitter, the piano, and the viola( for one microphone). The idea for this piece was to blend these sounds together live for one microphone. So I was pretty busy with my hands on this track. I don't have that many hands though, I only have two. So I pre-recorded the piano arrangement on a digital piano, and let it autoplay so I could play with it; and then I controlled the radio transmitter and played the viola at the same time. This track is part of my forthcoming album titled "Presumably, Of Course".

So I guess one question would be why didn't I bring other musicians in to help, instead of trying to play all those at once? My answer would be: I was after a certain sound, and I have been experimenting with blending radios and natural instruments for a few years now trying to achieve that certain sound; and it was easier for me to probably communicate these specific set of ideas to myself. Metaphorically it became kind of like having a converstion with myself performing the piece in this way. Theoretically and personally, it became a way for me to cogitate about theories while performing these instruments. It also became a way for me to express and explore my ideas in a different kind of a fun way.  Ha, but that is potentially a really long conversation :). Converstaion, and cogitation ended up becoming themes for this record. The new album has a couple other pieces that aim to achieve the blending of radio sounds, and natural instruments as well.

I also collect radios. I have several of them, I enjoy manipulating them and invisioning them as musical instruments. I am always interested in sending signals out into the world, and receiving them back into my mind, and sending them back out again :).  I am currently building up to do another piece featuring several of my radios and more natural instruments, we will see what happens, I am still collecting up radios at the moment.

Lastly, I created a painting around the same time that was influenced by this music, and it shares the same title. Here it is below.

- Marcus

ch-in ch-out

   {The Shape Of Time, Life, And The Patterns That Form Probability}

A Dive For Intergral Circulars (for clarinet, cello, and various winds)

This Piece is composed by Marcus Cotten. This piece features Ashley Peck on cello and Marcus on Clarinet and various winds. Ashley is a bright Portland area solo performing Cellist. Ashley also is a Cellist for 2 Portland area orchestras "Vancouver Symphony Orchestra & Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra". This piece was influenced by Marcus's studies on existence, and the studies above are from notes Marcus has kept over time. This music is what Marcus calls chaotic melodic , and the piece is a clash & blend of classical music composition and electronic composition.

This track is also a part of the forthcoming album from Marcus Cotten titled "Presumably, Of Course". You can hear other tracks from the album right here : "Presumably, Of course" album

When Marcus was nominated for 2 Qwartz Music Awards, at the time of the nominations Qwartz asked him to write about his artistic journey thus far. Qwartz asked Marcus to write about his life a little, some thoughts on his album "The Author And The Narrator" with lyrics, and his journey thus far as an artist. You can read what Marcus wrote for the Qwartz Award Nominations below.

Thoughts, Life, and The Author And The Narrator:

In the way that electricity flows in and out through power sources in our everyday lives, in the way that the oceans tide flows in and out with consistency, in the way we are all like channels receiving information and passing information to one another in and out, that is the flow of life as I see it. As I see it there is a flow to life and when you are able to get in tune with that flow, it is a radiantly beautiful thing. Channel in Channel out the flow of life, the flow of life I call Channel in Channel out. I guess if there is a definition without using words or any human language, I would say maybe stare at the ocean for awhile and collect your thoughts and that would more than suffice for a definition.

After 4 years of being with my old band playing lots of key shows in the area and touring, in about 2006 I began to come up with ideas on what kind of musical adventure and experience I would like to have next. So I began writing and experimenting with lots of different kinds of music, and then I realized that is just it! I want to be able to try and create a musical world where I could be diverse, and create whatever is on my heart. In this music world I had in mind, I would be able to change as a musician/artist, just as things in life change (with the flow of life) .To me this meant creating different styles of music with different moods for different days. It also meant making a commitment to create things honestly from the heart . That was the lifetime venture in music I wanted to take. To me this also meant sometimes visiting familiar fond places where you like to go in your music, and it also meant being open to explore new places as well. So that is when I came up with the idea for my project channel in channel out. Since then I have also added more of visual side to my project. The visual side begun when I started to elaborate on what the music and songs I create are trying to convey, and now music and visuals are starting to play off of each other and at times influence one another.

I am a Pacific Northwest native proudly :) I have lived in other places but the majority of my life I have lived in the Pacific Northwest and right now I call Portland Oregon home. I moved deep into the city of Portland about 6 years ago, before then I lived in a town really close about 15 minutes away across the river called Vancouver in the state of Washington (not to be confused with Vancouver BC in Canada). I love living close to the heart of the city, sometimes all you have to do for inspiration is just crack open the window because there are so many different sounds in everyday city life, that is one of my favorite things. It is also a town that is hovered and covered with nice big trees and plenty of calm cloudy rainy days that I like to perceive as being cozy days. You can also get a great cup of coffee from about 5 different cafes near my block I live on alone, it is kind of a laid back atmosphere I suppose.

 My usual day consists of a disciplined work schedule through out the week working on musical and visual ideas from the morning time until about early evening. Depending on what phase I am at in the creating process, I may spend my time writing and recording mainly and also working on various visual ideas as well. I usually carry a small mini tape recorder, or a digital recorder, and a camera when I am out and about gathering ideas. I also try to allow time for more brainstorming patches when you just gather new ideas and try not to work on the ideas that already exist, and are currently under surgery. I really truly mostly enjoy Portland as a nice place to live. There are a lot of things I enjoy about living here. Portland is a nice place to be a musician/artist in, to me it is a nice place to feel creatively inspired in. Portland is my place where I live and call home, and love it. I like being a human here :). The music and art scene is great here, but my reasons for loving this city are for the reasons of Portland being just a nice cozy and calm living place. The Fall and Winter here are my favorites, thats when the Portland vibes are most prominent.

Please tell me I'm not locked out,

Please tell me I have the key,

I'll even say the magic word even if it doesn't exist

Please tell me I'm entering,

Please tell me I found the key.

While making "The Author And The Narrator" album I became interested in the relationship between an author and a narrator in story telling and literature. The author and the narrator can be one in the same person,the author and the narrator can be two different people and sometimes no one really knows who is the author or who is the narrator. For me when i began to tell the story of the world and the times we live in, those stories also resembled things in my own personal life. When I began to tell personal stories about my personal life, it also resembled the story of the world and times we live in. So the world was telling my story and I was telling the worlds story, and so I began to explore those themes. The lyrics from above are from a song from the author and the narrator album called

"Invalid Entry And The Enchanting Word". In life we are continuously in a search for answers. We are in a search for answers to our own personal problems and also as a society we are in a search for answers to things we have yet to explain in the human language, like why does anything exist? With this song I created a short handmade film/visual to elaborate on the story of the song and what the music was trying to convey. In the short film, I built a small colorful city and that city was suppose to portray the mind metaphorically speaking. I try not to give too much away when discussing my work, because part of the fun in my work is to take the proper time with things and discover things as you engage in thought with album.  New things may open up to you as you continue to diving further into the music. I tried to create the author and the narrator album with many of doors containing meanings and thoughts. So in the record when you open up one door it leads you to another place in thought, and when you open a new door it may lead you to another place in thought.

 I am constantly intrigued by things ascending from one thing to another, and I am also constantly intrigued by connections. Although there is sometimes a childlike quality to some of the things I create, none of the meanings or thoughts to my songs are about my childhood really or dreams so much. I guess when I create those things I am trying to achieve maybe more of a different take on perception & reality, by putting items/things on a simpler or smaller scale. For instance, when you take something from the world(our adult world we live in) and you hand draw it, or put it on a smaller scale, you began to see your world in a different light or from a different perspective. The simplicty is sometimes the thing that can keep us grounded in a complicated world. Speaking of the sometimes complicated world we live in  I guess I will finish this with lyrics from the song "Them Embedded Company Claws" from the author and the narrator album.

marcus

ch-in

ch-out   for Qwartz.

Them Embedded Company Claws

Falling from the top of the stairs,

now I'm afraid of heights,

they gave me a parachute,

for my security,

it was a even trade for my purity,

communications are kindred to commitments,

the persistence was relentless