Category: 3 – Experimental

My passion for creative expression has led me to dabble in a wide variety of music styles. These solo projects utilized acoustic loops, field recordings, and sound collage to create abstract, experimental music. Like my visual art, these pieces were produced spontaneously and open to a wide range of interpretation. They were inspired by avant-garde styles including musique concrete, acousmatic and electroacoustic music, and minimalism.

Providence (2014)

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These five pieces were composed with a process I call interlooping. Each piece starts out as a single loop of spontaneously-played piano, which is played back while I play and record a second “live” loop. This continual layering of live playing over accumulated loops results in a combination of interesting interruptions, harmonies, and echos that make each piece increasingly more dynamic from start to finish.

Added to the catalog of Japanese netlabel Bump Foot in January 2015. 


The titles refer to specific moments from my life that have been instrumental in shaping my present and my future:

– Tanglewood: The dissolution of my first long-term relationship.
– Long Distance: The passing of my grandmother.
– Questions: The process of shedding the faith of my childhood.
– First Glance: The precise moment I met my wife, the love of my life.
– Providence: The street in Lawrence, KS, on which my wife and I now live, and where we’ve decided to make our home.

In all, these pieces remind me of where I’ve been, and how those experiences have helped me recognize where I’m meant to be.

All music composed, performed, and recorded by Christian Williams. Recorded with a Zoom H2N through the Looptastic HD app for iPad; mixed and mastered with Audacity.

Creative Commons License
Providence by Christian Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Lawrence, Kansas (2014)

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Six sound compositions made from field recordings that I collected near my home in Lawrence, Kansas. This is the first volume of my Sound Profiles series – an ongoing project where I document the soundscapes of the places I live and visit with a combination of unadulterated and digitally manipulated field recordings.

The concept of this album was to illustrate a spring day in my adopted hometown, and build a narrative around the sounds that compete for one’s attention in this small, but vibrant city in the American Midwest.

Selected as one of 50 highlights of Creative Commons music from 2014 by Pilot Eleven, a UK-based netlabel.


– Prelude: Early morning thunderstorm (unadulterated field recording that ends with the fade-in of the next track, “Rope”).
– Rope: Dying tornado siren (layered loops of varied pitch).
– All Clear, Wake Up: Ambient backyard noise in afternoon (unadulterated field recording layered behind loops and half-speed recording).
– Iron Horse: Idle locomotive at Lawrence Amtrak station (layered loops of varied speed).
– Hydro: Bowersock Dam on the Kansas River (sound collage of three different locations near the dam).
– Conversations: Backyard at night (unadulterated field recording).

All sounds recorded with a Zoom H2N and/or Edirol R-09; mixed and manipulated with Audacity by Christian Williams in Lawrence, KS.

Creative Commons License
Lawrence, Kansas by Christian Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Dog-Day Suite / Spaces (2014)

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Two separate solo works for piano each spontaneously composed, performed, and recorded at my home studio in Lawrence, Kansas.

The first four tracks comprise Dog-Day Suite, which was performed and recorded on the afternoon of September 7, 2013. With the windows open and the sound of cicadas providing the ambient sound, the individual pieces in the suite represent different characteristics of the annual cicada hatch that marks late summer in Kansas.

The last nine tracks comprise Spaces, a collection of abstract pieces that were my favorite results from experimentation with piano reverberation in a confined space.

Released February 16, 2014. All music composed, performed, and recorded by Christian Williams in Lawrence, KS.

Creative Commons License
Dog-Day Suite / Spaces by Christian Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Color Fields (2014)

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Each of these three compositions feature a single acoustic piano loop digitally manipulated three different ways, which develop gradually over the course of each track’s 12-minute duration.

The way the loops interact with each other made me think of vast areas of layered, transparent colors. While each track conjures specific colors and compositions in my mind, I left them ambiguously titled so as to provide a blank canvas for each listener to paint on.

Released January 5, 2014. All music composed, performed, and recorded by Christian Williams in Lawrence, KS.  

Creative Commons License
Color Fields by Christian Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Commutication (2013)

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This 20-minute experimental composition consists of five layered field recordings from my morning commute to work. The start and stop time of each recording was marked by when I entered and exited the Kansas Turnpike. Each recording features a combination of road noise and whatever else I was listening to that day:

– Day 1: String Quartet No. 2 – Morton Feldman
– Day 2: String Quartet (1950) – John Cage
– Day 3: Diamond Daze – Pantha du Prince
– Day 4: Rain and windshield wipers
– Day 5: “Morning Edition” (12/9/13) – National Public Radio

Released December 29, 2013. Composed and recorded by Christian Williams in Lawrence, KS. 

Disruptor (2013)

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Three works of layered acoustic loops and field recordings that interrupt, distort, buckle, and warp.

Released in November 2013 and available for free download, this is my first album of improvised, abstract sound art. The pieces are inspired and influenced by my fascination with musique concrete, acousmatic sound, and electroacoustic music.

Released November 1, 2013. All music composed, performed, and recorded by Christian Williams in Lawrence, KS.