Dorongo: how it started
by June 28, 2023it was April 2020. New York was in lockdown. together with my close cohort of creative collaborators, we all started throwing down in our studios: tracking ideas, chopping beats; sending these round to each other to see what inspired one another to record next. somewhere deep in Dave Levy’s HD archives were some already recorded beats by Doron Lev. He took these stems, chopped, spliced and mashed them. He then sent them my way and asked me to throw down “your own trippy ass chords”. so one night, I improvised a progression. Not gonna lie, i was pretty excited, i felt there was a real vibe/synergy from the start. i sent stems back to Dave. (side note: these are the changes that eventually became the opening and main sections for Dorongo.)
the ‘trippy-ass’ chords
I sent Dave the stems (audio files) of my chords. his response?
he wasn’t that into it (!)
these weren’t quite the ‘trippy ass chords’ he was after.
I decided I couldn’t keep leaving these ideas that were strongly resonating with me in an embryonic form, stranded deep in the bowels of a hard drive. it was time to make a change. and so for the first time, I did something new: I followed through on a commitment to do something with this chord progression, and began fleshing out the beginnings of a demo.
A small river named Duden
invest in your ideas
having come up with an idea I really dug, I couldn’t wait for others to agree to collaborate together before moving forward. If this track was going to be made, the only approval needed was from myself: to commit my time, ideas and invest my own belief in it, wherever it goes.
I took it upon myself to take the idea further. And further. I built out a structure. I added driving synth bass lines, a horn section, more synths, a Rhodes, then full string section. My imagination got bigger and bigger
The track took a direction that reminded me of a lot of my favourite artists/genres all melding into one: the large through-composed structure, the cinematic ‘gravitas’ sound, the sonic production, the jazz/deep-house/groove feel, vibe changes that felt cohesive (to me), a unique set of harmonic progressions, improvised solos* with both analogue instruments and synths, and the large ensemble. (Shout outs to Andrew Gould (alto sax) and Sarpay Özçagatay (flute) for their epic solos + playing on this track.)
The initial mashed up gameboy drum beats that Dave had created out of Doron’s original drum tracks were still in the demo. Dave had forgotten about the stems, then said he wasn’t using them or going to. He gave me his blessing to have and use them. All credit to his genius producer chops, those beats alone are a vibe, and definitely inspired my ‘trippy ass chords’.
eventually when it came time to record, Doron tracked his new drum part playing over the chopped beat of his own playing. kind of absurd, but it made for a big vibe that underpinned the whole track, IMHO.
often times, you have to be the one to show the initial belief and vision for your own idea, so others can then see it too.
I continued to follow my inspiration and let the track kind of go where it wanted to. In 2020, I was fortunate to get to work on two feature film scores. so Dorongo, together with a bunch of other tracks, were mostly worked on when I had down time. most of it was finished by the end of 2020, but wasn’t until August 2021 that I was able to get into the studio.
If you have a creative idea that you vibe with – a motif, chord progression, rhythm, sound, whatever – trust your instincts, follow where it wants to go. you don’t need to wait for someone else’s permission to make it.
I was committed to getting it done.
and after several sessions, by May 2022, it was recorded, mixed, mastered and in the can.
Collaboration is a special thing. this track is nothing without the squad who performed it.
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