bandcamp – funharm

New song on Bandcamp and YouTube – “downotocot”

Last month I finished working on something I started at Mono Lake in mid-January.

Back then, it was 10 degrees, with the wind chill often dropping below zero. Three feet of snow on the ground, and the long driveway half-plowed, with a stalled backhoe blocking the last 300 feet. The property’s solar panel arrays had 3 inches of iced snow stuck to them. To get power to the house, the ice had to be chipped — gently — off the panels. It was my first extended experience wearing snowshoes. Parts of it were painful, but, mostly, I enjoyed working to be independent off-grid.

Last month, when I returned to the space, it was the hottest weekend thus far this year in Mono County. The temperature on the veranda was 95F, and I heard the fans start up on my MacBookPro for the first time since I bought it.

After a few hours of sweat, and too many bug bites, I figured the track was ready.

This Friday, August 4, “downotocot” will be made available on Bandcamp. It’s available to be streamed now.

The accompanying video was recorded in January, during my approach to the Mono property from the east, since 395 was closed due to snow between Bridgeport and Conway Summit. You may notice there was only one other car on the road, most likely because it wasn’t that smart to be driving on roads that were, sometimes, less-than-half plowed.

As always, thanks for listening. And watching.

October 7, 2022December 20, 2022 paul archives|bandcamp|cats|poly-800

Bandcamp Friday, October 2022: “Thorns from Pause”

This is a previously-unreleased track from 1985.

The artwork features my cat, Timmy, with his claw caught in a curtain. After I shot the photo with my phone, I extricated him. He escaped [f]unharmed.

New Track: “Wilder So”

Today is Bandcamp Friday. This morning I recorded a new track, “Wilder So.” This afternoon and evening I worked on a video to accompany it. This is the result.

The track can be streamed and downloaded/purchased on Bandcamp.

Thanks for your support, and thank you for listening.

Special thanks to Kate Burkart and Ruth and Glenn Garland. And this track would not have been possible without the assistance of Dan Phillips.

April 2, 2021April 3, 2021 paul archives|bandcamp|mono lake|video|youtube

Video for “What Month Is It?

In March of 2021, I spent two days at Mono Lake. On my first afternoon there, lenticular clouds were forming to the east, over the Nevada line, spinning, moving, then evaporating. I shot this video as dusk descended, and sped it up 5x. I topped the video with a track from 1988 entitled “What Month Is It?”

You can buy the song from Bandcamp — and today, April 2, Bandcamp is waiving its portion of sales, meaning artists make more money from their music.

December 29, 2020 paul audio|bandcamp|mono lake|recording|youtube

New track: “Se Pivoti”

This is a new 19-minute track accompanied by a video I shot in December 2019.

There’s a shorter version of the track that’s currently a pay-what-you-want item on Bandcamp. Price will be raised to US$1 on or shortly after January 1, 2021.

Here’s hoping for a vastly improved 2021.

Thanks for listening.

October 13, 2020October 13, 2020 paul audio|bandcamp|korg|poly-800

What Month Is It?

Mono Lake, December 2018. Shot with an iPhone 7 by Paul.

Now for sale on Bandcamp — “What Month Is It?”, a track recorded on cassette in 1988 in a frumpy ground-floor townhouse rental in Davis, CA. I think this might’ve been one of the few things I worked on that didn’t cause the upstairs neighbors to bang on the floor.

Funharm track on Bedroom Cassette Masters 1980-89 Volume X

Today Bedroom Cassette Masters released a free (well, pay-what-you-like) compilation on Bandcamp entitled 1980-89 Volume X that has some very snazzy PDF liner notes.

It also has a contribution from Funharm — track 13, “Ideal Planes”, from 1985. A portion of said PDF snazziness is screengrabbed above.

Thank you to Bedroom Cassette Masters for including my song, tracking down highlights from 80s (and 80s-influenced) home-recorded electronics, and putting together an impressive package.

December 28, 2019October 21, 2021 paul bandcamp|discogs|news

you’re probably wondering why you’re here

Funharm?

Funharm was a low-fidelity home recording project that existed primarily from 1981 through 1988. Most of the tracks consisted of improvised synth, guitar, and cheap rhythm machine, recorded straight to cassette, then overdubbed on a modified cassette deck.

Funharm issued two 90-minute cassettes that covered the first three years. For now, the 8.81 – 1.83 and Segments cassettes can be gotten via Discogs, and cassettes, .mp3s, FLACs and other formats can be obtained on Bandcamp.

Other older material is currently being located, edited, and cleaned up (but not too much). New music is being fussed over, as well. News regarding subsequent tracks and releases will be posted here.

If you’d like to buy stuff, need more information, or just want to chat, you can reach me at paul [at] funharm [dot] com.

Thanks for checking in.