Music Magnum

The collections of Al Steffens' musical works in several genres.

Neo-classical, orchestral-space music
Ambience-space, electronic music
Experimentation in symphonic-rock, electronic rock.

Al Steffens' Music - The Music Magnum Site

I create music on a computer. I make ambient, classical and experimental music. The terms computer music and electronic music imply a style as well as the means of performance. On the one hand, I am amenable to the experimental approach that is the classic form of electronic music, but the computer is for me just a means to an end. I will attempt, at times, to create music that sounds like it could be from a chamber orchestra. At other times I might like to produce a ring modulator drown. Somewhere in the mix between music as enjoyment and music as science is where my expression lies.

My interest in music began with my elementry school concert band, in which I learned to play the trombone, clarinette and saxophone. This early exposure to classical music and the progressive rock style of the 70's formed my musical background. After playing in a few garage bands in the 70's, one of which exhibited some degree of progressive rock talent, I abandoned my musical illusions. I came again to making music thirty years later as an indolent passtime.

Tales of Sarnoth

I wish to travel down passageways of time and mind and witness the stories of myth. My background in classical music and my appreciation for space-ambience music has mixed to produce my own expression of fantasy music, which I call here Tales of Sarnoth after the story The Doom That Came To Sarnoth by H. P. Lovecraft.

The musical timbres I can generate come fairly close to real musical instruments. Alas, I cannot take credit for this because the sounds are played on a Yamaha Motif ES6 synthesizer. I hope those electronic music researchers experimenting with Csound will forgive this blatant hankering after musical beauty, as I have written a few pure Csound compositions that may be heard by following the link below.

I like mixing electric sounds, like electric guitar and organ, with more traditional orchestra instruments. I find myself returning again and again to the pipe organ for its dark, unforgiving judgement feeling. Use of acoustic instruments lends a nature feel, to my mind, and I have had recourse to them in several compositions.

If there could be a barometer of musical genre, my music in Tales of Sarnoth would lag sometimes toward space music and point sometimes more toward classical music.

I revisit the technical, signal processing studies in electronic music, by and by. But I hope we can all appreciate that your equipment gives you a head start.

You may investigate the Tales of Sarnoth style of electronic music by clicking here.

My first exposure to space music came in the early 1970's when I heard Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's groundbreaking work, No Pussyfooting. Fripp and Eno were then already well-known musicians who were breaking new ground in music. There was no other form of distribution, twenty years before the internet, than the recording industry, which accounts for the slow development of space-ambient music. In the mid 1980's, a weekly radio show on the NPR radio network, called Music from the Hearts of Space helped to enlarge the audience of space music. Some of the artists featured on The Hearts of Space, such as Steve Roach, Michael Stearns, John Serrie, and Robert Rich have become the leading space music artists.

During this period I had abandoned my musical interests to work on a degree in physics. Space ambient music gradually became the only music I listened to. I found that space ambient music was a nice mood setter for concentrating on mathematics.

Since those early days I had an ongoing interest in the analog electronics of music synthesizers. With the coming of digital music recording and synthesis I found more utility in computer programming, signal processing mathematics and the physics of sound. It should be emphasized that personal computers have become so fast and powerful that we all have the power of a music lab on our desktop computers, and that the internet is the free man's distribution network. I have been tinkering and experimenting with digital music composition since about 2004, as I realized that the tools I needed were at hand at last.

Galactic Waves

Galactic Waves is a deep space music series. My computer music technology has evolved to the capability to orchestrate digital looping modules. If you have ever seen Robert Fripp performing with his "frippertronics" audio processing and synthesis equipment you will get the idea of what I am working toward.

Lake of Thoughts

The Lake of Thoughts is a deep-space music concept for the listener willing to try an experimental genre. On the other hand, there is nothing ground-breaking here. In some ways, this experimentation has not gone beyond No Pussyfooting by Fripp and Eno (although that would be hard to do).

This work reveals my ulterior interests in music--sound as a psychocentric focusing tool. It can be said that all music exerts a psychological power on the listener, but I am searching for a particular world. My interest lies in focusing the mind into the crystal sea of analytical thought. The concept that your consciousness can exist on several levels should not be confused with mystical aspirations but rather with the simple cognitive capabilities of the philospher. Those few of you that understand computers may contemplate the idea of multitasking. The sea of analytical thought, the Lake of Thoughts, appears like a distant, recurring drum beat that eventually grows into a deafening fixture of your consciousness.

Enter the Lake of Thoughts gallery.

In the early 70's I was playing in garage bands, into the progressive rock that was then a new, unknown genre: Yes, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Van der Graaf Generator. At that time, it seemed like this style of music was completely on the strange edge of popular music. Today, after reading some of the history on the internet I know that there were a few places--London, Europe, New York City, where this music had an audience. Los Angeles in 1978 was not one of those places. It became my view that a career in music could not include the style of expression that interested me--70's progressive rock. In fact, it appeared that those originators of the genre were leaving it behind. There were others who emerged and carried the banner in the 1980's, but this music was evolving into a different genre.

The Onyx City

The Onyx City is an attempt at experimental, symphonic rock. The term "symphonic rock" is used here because the term "progressive rock" is now virtually meaningless. I have always liked the bold, virtuosity of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman on the Hammond B3, the ugly, crunchy bass guitar work of Chris Squire on his Rickenbacher. Some compositional complexity, line on Yes' Relayer is always interesting. It would be nice to get some improvisation that would take the influence of King Crimson's Providence (hear the album Red). I have no interest in hearing a simple rock beat over which a guitarist plays lead for five minutes.

The Onyx City is written, performed and recorded on computer. This happens from the circumstance of one person performing all the music. Music is scored on the computer, performed by computer-midi control of synthesizer modules, and recorded with the computer. The synthesizer I use is the Yamaha Motif ES6.

Visit The Onyx City and hear some symphonic, electronic rock.