Glowing In The Dark by Jacob Soucy
Inspired by: Fibre Optic/Radiant Light - 2 by Lizz Aston
Artist Statement:
Glowing In The Dark aims to capture the feeling of depth felt when looking at Fibre Optic/Radiant Light - 2 by Lizz Aston. The dark minor chords on piano and deep bass line allows for the percussion and synthesizer to stand out, shimmering on top of the track like the dichroic film reflects lights in the gallery. GITD is a hip-hop-inspired, synth-led, melodic minor-based piece created entirely with in-the-box sounds in Logic Pro, and a midi keyboard.
The piece begins with an electric piano which is highly compressed, and widened using a stereo spread plug-in. A one handed Cminor6/9 voicing repeats for three bars, followed by Dbminor6/9 for a bar. This sequence repeats. The slightly swung hi hat eighth notes entering on the third bar of the synth melody create a contrast between a quarter based boom bap drum feel changing to a classic Dilla feel. There is an eighth note stereo delay on the percussion layer that hits every beat four. The sub bass line is bouncy and leaves space for the other parts. It is later doubled with a left-panned synth bass. The lead synth has fast modulation and stereo tremolo. The melody was created through rhythmic-ly displacing groups of whole tones (all chord tones and extensions) that change with the chord progression. The slides between whole tones were achieved with the keyboard’s pitch wheel.
A common theme is movement through the stereo spectrum. This is related to seeing the light reflecting off Aston’s artwork at different angles as the eyes glance from left to right.
Artist: Jacob Soucy
Program: Bachelor of Music - Trumpet
Jacob Soucy is a Toronto-based trumpet player, composer, and arranger from Vancouver, currently studying music at Humber College. Jacob writes instrumental tunes that blend elements of jazz, funk, and hip hop.
Notable inspirations include Miles Davis, Christian Scott, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper, J Dilla, Anderson. Paak, Thundercat, Vulfpeck, KNOWER, Nate Smith, and Jacob Mann. Recent collaborators include Curtis Hamm, Emmett Hodgins, Ethan Zabarylo, Hiro Tanaka, Roshane Wright, Jonathan Nvita, Nirvana Sagar, Ben Matanowitsch, Harrison King, and Alex Raymond.
Jacob was fortunate to grow up with supportive parents who worked in the music industry and encouraged his creative pursuits; his mother being a radio host and his father a musician and producer. Soucy started playing trumpet in grade 5 in school band, and soon after picked up the drums. A turning point was joining jazz band in grade 8 and getting hip to Duke Ellington and Count Basie. From there, Soucy’s love of Black American music blossomed, which led him to apply to Humber College’s music program.
Soucy is set to begin recording his debut EP next year.
