Sean Ongley

Author: Sean Ongley

  • Solar Eclipse 2024 Video and Photo Set

    Solar Eclipse 2024 Video and Photo Set

    My trip to Conneaut Township Beach for the solar eclipse.

    Pardon me for being late, but here we are one week after the total solar eclipse of 2024, as seen from Conneaut Township Park, aka Conneaut Beach, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie.

    I ended up in Ohio to mitigate the risk of cloud cover. I brought my main camera and one old GoPro. I should have brought my proper tripod, but I guess I was feeling casual about it at the time that I packed the car. It was a rough shoot, mostly for posterity.

    I was hitched to the wagon of a fine lady that I have been seeing for a couple of months. Her name is Phaedra. She was fine companionship.

    The evening prior was cold with clear skies. We crashed in the Allegheny National Forest with a quick camp set up, just in and out. My sleep suffered from it, but the breakfast in Missy’s Arcade Restaurant in Titusville, PA, was good.

    We carried on toward Erie, but we started to worry about the sky, as it was very cloudy. We rerouted on the fly based on the cloud radar forecasts, and shifted toward Ohio.

    I joked to her (in all seriousness) that the geo-engineers would be in the skies today to make sure it was a good experience for all the tourists and cameras.

    We got as far as we could before it was transit time for the moon, and Conneaut Township seemed like the best option.

    Parking was easy. There was a parking lot designated to host all the visitors, but they were empty. We got our spot at the beach and found ourselves quite by accident immediately next to some kind of short term monument to the sun. I don’t know who the artist was.

    People have a way of milling about and acting blasé in the face of rare life moments, especially children. We posted up next to a big family. I believed that we’d find scores of branded eclipse glasses or even hawkers, but there were none, and when Phaedra lost her glasses right there on the beach, the family had surplus and shared two with us.

    Sure enough, tell-tale geo-engineering airplanes were criss-crossing in the sky, producing those long straight cloud lines. When you watch those evolve, they typically thin out into a haze that I always believed was meant to reduce solar radiation. It’s weird to me how infrequently average people are willing to acknowledge that these airplanes are differentiated at all from the typical exhaust you’ll see that evaporates momentarily, not leaving a flight path.

    I witnessed several jets box in the sun during the lunar transit phase, and given how clear the sky looks through my camera, it sure seems like they had an effect of clearing the skies rather than seeding cloud cover.

    We watched patiently through the process. I mostly watched over the camera. As the clouds dispersed, I realized that the photo exposure would always be saturated with any clear shot. I could not close the aperture and speed the shutter enough to cut out all of the natural light.

    The tools in my camera kit were barely sufficient — a solar eclipse-rated lens filter is quite niche and I don’t have one. I had a lightly tinted lens plus a purple filter, so I slapped them both on. It looked kind of rad.

    At the same time, I was in a race against the moon as the GoPro camera charged on a backup battery, even though I had believed it to be charged. I wanted to capture the whole sunset effect against the sands of the beach.

    The beach scene, taken by the GoPro, represents approximately 11 minutes of time, as it plays at 300% of normal speed through the majority of the sequence. With exception to the fadeout split screen, all solar video is played at normal speed. The correlation between what is happening in the sky rapidly tightens and then loosens again.

    The music does the same. This piece is called “Remediated,” and it is available on my BandCamp in its entirety. It is also an overlay of different points in time within the same audio file, and it comes into synchronicity only briefly, which I matched to the eclipse.

    The traffic returning was out of hand, largely due to a construction project on I-80. Google Maps didn’t sufficiently warn of it, and as we waded through the interstate for a full hour, spanning maybe 3 miles, the map kept saying we were only 18 minutes delayed.

    We got home around 2am, myself jacked on coffee and adrenaline, and I was quite exhausted the next day. Travel for me is rarely a vacation. In this case, it was worth it.

    I couldn’t help but think about The Watchmaker Analogy while observing the eclipse, even leading up to the observation, ruminating on the idea of a total solar eclipse as something we take for granted. We have a very unique moon, in reality.

    I truly cannot believe that we have a moon that was — as taught in my college Astronomy class — likely created by a chaotic meteor impact that resulted in the moon taking its shape in a perfect angular diameter compared to the observable sun from Earth. Nope. Not a coincidence. I don’t care if it’s God, a simulation, or aliens. It’s intelligent design, and it’s awesome.

  • Peridot EP

    Peridot EP

    Presenting my newest single “Peridot,” released to all streaming services under the pseudonym SYMMTR. Actually it’s an EP. And really it’s a double EP. Here’s what happened.

    These songs were basically finished by winter 2022. I did further mixing and stuff, but it was complete enough that I made remix packs and distributed them to several producer-friends. The plan was to release a two-song EP with a remix for each.

    I received more affirmative responses than expected, so I was hedging my bets that multiple remixes would be turned in on time and from that I could release two EP’s spaced out by one month.

    I released “Topaz” with remixes by All The Stores Are Closed and Matchewey, because they turned theirs in promptly.

    Alex Hansen sent a compelling short remix for “Peridot,” but the others did not come through, so I decided to go ahead with just the one. All is well.

    “Peridot” was produced in Logic Pro, using a lot of vintage emulation instruments like the Mellotron and Roland 808, as well as real analog sounds from my ARP Odyssey. Alex tells me his remix was made with micro-samples entirely on his iPhone.

    SYMMTR is a thin mask. I don’t really hide behind a pseudonym to be anonymous, but invited the universe to give me a name for electronic, beat-driven music, and that’s what I got.

    I want this project to continue to be collaborative, even though it’s essentially a solo project. Working with these guys for remixes was cool. We didn’t go back and forth at all, I just accepted their outputs, which I think is how remixes usually work.

    I enjoyed all their tracks and truly appreciate their participation.

    One takeaway from this is that (like a band) giving your song over for others to interpret means they have the opportunity to see it totally differently, and that can be better, worse, or just different. I want to embark on direct collaboration, so that artists actually contribute to SYMMTR tracks, not just remix them.

    I don’t know if SYMMTR will ever form as a band, but I’m open to that too.

  • 2009: The Lost Album

    2009: The Lost Album

    Presenting the long lost album produced with Josh Hanson, in the year 2009, titled 2009. Truth be told, it was published once before, but I took it down, remastered it, and got in touch with Josh again to discuss having it up permanently. We needed to clear up a few things about its release.

    The music is different, something that only Josh could have initiated. Step 1: Josh transfers 4-track cassette recordings onto my Pro Tools 5 rig. Step 2: I remix those soundscapes and contribute additional tracks. I shared my progress but he didn’t interfere, and eventually we met for the third step of mastering.

    Josh used his own modular analog synthesis rack to record into the Tascam Portastudio. I used my ARP Odyssey Mk2 and Roland Vk1.

    Mastering took place in KBOO studios using Adobe Audition software, version 1. That software did pretty well, even though it was a destructive process, meaning you reshape the digital waveform over and over, rather than running it through real-time plugins, or better yet analog audio equipment. You are stuck with each step rather than tweaking settings on the fly.

    Once the album was mastered, Josh had ideas about how it should be released, there was a specific indie record label that he had in mind. And we didn’t have cover art. Originally I named our “band” Paradeux, and the album Animitta. It was pretentious honestly.

    Something about me back then was extremely impatient and would jump the gun, forcing others to respond, rather than patiently communicate and compromise until a final product is achieved.

    This impulse to just get things done be damned the quality of presentation led to a deep frustration between Josh and myself, because I took the music and made a quick and crappy header and posted it to Bandcamp.

    If we were trying to get it out through a label, we can’t have it available already. As a result, the release went nowhere. He didn’t promote it and we didn’t talk for years.

    So, one day I decided that I wanted this album on streaming services, so I emailed him. By this time, we were not in a feud, in fact, he was over it. But I like resolution, and closure.

    So I asked if he’d be cool if I released it, and this time, no band name, no solo tracks (we both had one solo composition on the original release), that we’d agree on all details in advance. He said yes. So I remastered it and sent the copy to Josh and there were no problems.

    The album artwork is very simple. It is an iPhone image taken of a glass sculpture by the artist who made it: Heidi Schwegler. This would be in Joshua Tree, California, at her materials lab.

    The music is an aesthetic journey that evokes surreality, and personally I see images of desert landscapes, ocean coasts, deep skies, dark caverns, machines, and stuff I usually relate to when I’m on mushrooms.

    This music might be heavily THC-induced (at least my contribution) but I wasn’t doing psychedelics at this time.

    Heidi’s glass sculpture blends into the ocean blue sky against a desert landscape, white puffy clouds, and this weird squirrel head on a rock, I felt like this photo (that to Heidi was just an instagram post) relates to most of the aesthetic of the album. And nobody had to lift a finger to make it into a cover.

    I tried putting text over the image and around the white border, but none of it looked right. So I left off the text, especially given that this is a streaming copy, and listeners see that information. If I print an album, I can do any number of things, including the use of alternative artwork.

    The album is now available on all streaming services. It can also be downloaded from Bandcamp. Please add it to your collection or pay for a download.

    This music is also available for free streaming without an account at thru.media/2009-album. This is a value-for-value music album.

  • Band of Strangers

    Band of Strangers

    A Night at the Grape Room Jam

    In April, 2022, the world was opening back up. Although The Grape Room was a music venue that I was able to go to in late 2021 without covid restrictions, I only made it there once, I think. And their weekly open jam was not back in effect.

    Eventually though, in March they reopened the jam. I learned about it in April, attended, and was extremely grateful that this thing existed. I needed to play with other musicians and didn’t find my scene yet. I was rough on the drums, but I’ve gotten substantially better since then.

    One year later, almost to the week on April 12, 2023, I was producing the stage recordings for this documentary. The interviews all took place from that day though August. The sound check intro was recorded April 19. I did a little bit of editing trickery there.

    Ethan Cain and Ryan Daugherty are the current co-hosts of the jam, alternating from week to week. I make it look more like they co-host together every week, because they often attend each other’s nights.

    This is about the jam and the experience of being in that room and on that stage. I wanted to capture the experience of the jam and overlay it with the thoughts of musicians and audience members.

    At first, the idea was to be a chronicling, perhaps with multiple nights of stage recordings, and a focus on the history of the jam, the hosts, and the venue. But that seemed too obvious, and frankly, laborious.

    My music scene is varied (because I like creating and listening to a wide variety of music) so there isn’t really a single place for me anywhere. The closest I can get to is this jam. Admittedly, the players who come here aren’t very experimental. My identity formed around that notion of always pushing boundaries. Thankfully, that artistic ego is more fluid now.

    Usually someone brings a riff, but I’m much more into it when someone just messes around until I can provide enough beat to build on, and it goes somewhere. Whenever someone brings some progression, it gets stuck there. Very hard to break out of a box when you start with one, easier to remain fluid when you start that way.

    This idea is streamlined, it’s one night of stage recordings, in fact, just 90 minutes of what is usually three hours, all condensed into a mashup of less than 10 minutes.

    I asked everyone a few simple but open ended questions, to allow them to riff on ideas. What is improvisation? What is the difference between an open mic and an open jam? How has the jam impacted you as a musician? Then some follow ups like why it’s important to them, when did they start coming or hosting? I improvised my questioning after the first two.

    The result, I admit, is fluffy. This is a zero drama story. What works though is the tension and release within the music. There is a tiny bit of tension in the narrative, but it basically just remains positive. I knew this could become an infomercial.

    This is not objective in that sense. It’s a place and a community that I care about, so I did my best to convey that while remembering this is a film for the public to enjoy. It has to be good for everyone.

    It’s also G-rated material. Super family friendly content.

    I’m proud of Band of Strangers. And THRU Media is my baby. I’m using that brand to publish content again, and I’m brazenly moving forward on a value-for-value basis. It’s an experiment. If people join the crew, it will be successful, but if it remains myself, it’s not going to work.

    I can always keep publishing under the brand, but I really want to make it a unique, artist-driven company, as it was always envisioned.

  • To Be a Troubadour in a Pathless Land

    To Be a Troubadour in a Pathless Land

    Last week, I had the pleasure to sit down with Chico California-based artist, Jake Nolen. He is a music producer and singer-songwriter. His newest full-length album is called Too Late to Party, available just about wherever you stream music.

    This episode title is named from the concept that he is a man without a country. Raised religiously Christian, he busted from those norms only to return from his own path.

    Modern music and art scenes are overwhelmingly progressive, and the social pressure is strong, so that it almost seems like there is a cause-of-the-month, every month. Each cause can contradict the other, but in the realm of psychological conditioning, this is fine.

    Before diving into these issues, we focus on the creative and technical process of making a record. Jake performs every instrument on his new record.

    Today’s production tools are so prevalent that it’s not just the Stevie Wonders and Princes of the world who can go into a studio and perform every instrument. Still not an easy thing to do, it requires great talent, and patience.

    For me, it’s always a natural direction to go deep into the artist’s life, to help see what is driving them today.

    Raised conservative, he rebelled only to run up against those contradictions, and now explores the space between, because the values of progressivism are good, and true. But the strategy doesn’t work, and we go back and forth pretty much in agreement about that in the final segment of the show.

    Enjoyable talk, good man. I hope he blows up.

    Check out his various stuff here.