Treetrunk Records

Having hosted a terrestrial radio version of Synthetic Sounds for several years here in Saint Louis, I began to experience a lot of fatigue. I left the show to save my career and well-being– and made a post on social media lamenting that I had to do this. My associate Don Campau, a great helper to the independent music scene, kindly offered me a gig as a remote dj on KOWS-FM, in Santa Rosa, CA, where he was the programming director.

And so began a nice run of radio shows that tended towards the eccentric, mystical, and even magical– as I used Python code and a kind of self-invented “dream logic”, to pull and assemble songs and sounds from my extensive catalog of music over 2 decades deep.

Here are some audio examples of Thomas Park’s Synthetic Sounds at KOWS. 

https://archive.org/details/SyntheticSoundsKOWSSantaRosa

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For several years I was fortunate enough to be a remote dj for San Francisco’s great Community Radio Station, BFF. I curated a Generative Electronic Music show, giving it my traditional moniker, “Synthetic Sounds”. I wanted to share on this page some of my shows from the 2022 season.

Here is the text from my profile page at BFF:

‘Thomas is a dj who is a musician who is a coder who dj’s, writes music, and codes, and often does all three at the same time (if not 2 of the three at the same time frequently). Expect generative electronic music, generative mixes of off-beat cc-licensed music, and downright unusual dream-logic inspired phenomena. Tracks are chosen by processor, but according to code applied to release date. Track are chosen because they were created algorithmically, be that in a Generative sense or a Generative-Iterative sense. Thomas believes that technology is here to take music to the next level, to improve it, rather than destroy it. At it’s worst, generative is yet another option on the dial. At its best, it can be jaw-droppingly cool.’– Thomas Park, 2022

https://archive.org/details/SyntheticSoundsBFF2022

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On 10/23/2022, Thomas Park recorded a session of solo improvisation recorded on his Uncle Tucker’s piano in Baytown, TX. These are recordings made during that session, mastered but otherwise unaltered.

https://archive.org/details/ThomasParkPlaysHisUnclesPiano

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Here is a nice, home-recorded piece using Zoom Recorder tracks I created with 2 tuned drums, a collection of gongs, bells and chimes, a plastic recorder, a small ocean-environment-simulation device, and an archived recording of water dripping from the turn of the millenium. All sounds and recordings by Thomas Park except for the ocean-environment simulation device.

https://archive.org/details/dissolvinginastreamoftime

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Short Poetic Dream 20220919043454359753

or, “Truth and Shadow: We Seek Justice”

By Thomas Park

outskirts of gotham city

by acting the part of

the murder of

the image of bruce wayne 

our actions define

a superficial playboy

all of the time bruce

supports philanthropic causes

ultimately led him to

prevent future harm and

social issues encouraging crime

bruce wayne believes that our

interpretations vary depending on

activities as batman 

but is more widely known benefits

and for all that our actions define

we seek justice 

https://archive.org/details/BruceWainTruthAndShadow

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Chesterfield Mall, like many 1980’s shopping malls, was once a center for culture and commerce. As a teenager I remember going there both to grab a quick bite to eat and to rent a tux for high school prom. I also worked regular hours at the cinema in the mall’s parking lot.

In 2022, I returned to Chesterfield Mall after a 30-year absence, hoping to buy lunch and an espresso machine for my office. What I found was mostly a large, abandoned space. Only a handful of businesses remained, and most people were there either hiking the periphery for excercise or hitting the birdie at the badminton courts now located at the grand center opening.

For reasons both sentimental and acoustic, I asked the Mall manager if a few friends and I could record some live music in the Mall space. They agreed, and on 8/25/2022, Gabe Raines, Rylee Short and I performed a set just shy of 50 minutes of live music in its vast, resonant emptiness.

I found the performance to be spiritual, rendering well the end of the shopping mall and so many other people and phenomenae from the 1980’s– and fortelling the economic and various forms of hardship to follow.

Gabe Raines: Keyboards

Rylee Short: French Horn

Thomas Park: Ambient Loops, Trombone, Valveless Bugle, Acoustic Chimes

Microphone Recordings by Gabe Raines

Zoom Recorder Recordings by Thomas Park

Mastering and Release Logistics By Thomas Park

https://archive.org/details/TwilightShoppingMalILive

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Short Poetic Dream 20220820163917363223

or, “A Flame Was Behind The Mountain”

by Thomas Park

everything is all we have

and everywhere seems sand by view

a party descended with her

the eunuch departed

is it not enough

after passing though it all

these awful phenomenae

with an air of

a hundred arbours

placed between these barren yet glittering nights

my wits were not idle

complaining for the want of

red and yellow banners to satiate

to result in early accession

in spite of their love of their sovereign

o commander of our

overthrows

I set forth from such duties

behind the mountain

a volume of flame

danced with burning delight

and was seized by the impious

inflamed with their infernal liquor

https://archive.org/details/AFlameWasBehindTheMountain

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Short Poetic Dream 20220815033830074606

or “Dream Lands Partitioned By Barbed Wire”

by Thomas Park

wars in which the Nordics

stopped in Nebraska

tributary of the others

each generation the names applied

seeking farms in the States

English settlers on their arrival

independently from a considerable

importation could be found

the fifth century by Attila

that the Ulster Scots were

their union

the French had established a trading

that by a later date had been made 

by the long farmers

the nations they were known

England and Northern France

in this period the discovery

how vast were the great plains

Americans were almost unanimously now

finding the city ordinances strict

the United States, flags

the old white stock in

the American Union 

while in Dakota was

sending on settlers

according to their large numbers

In 2022, the artist behind the band Sci Fi Industries gave me permission to create some iterations of his tracks from the Thisco Album, “The Stones Of Chickasaw”. This release presents these unique remixes to the public. We hope that you enjoy them.

https://archive.org/details/TheStonesOfChikasawRemixes

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Short Poetic Dream 20220814213751790360

or “Code Club Wear” by Thomas Park

be challenged

joints to dance to music

longest running is still going

circulating of all involvement and

disco after she pioneered the floor

a series of acts

in the first discotheque opened

this was the whisky

dance in peace

became popular and is the

performance by artists 

a night of famous discotheques included

place in the nether regions

the regular usage of the

gogo set

group of bouncers to screen cocaine

aspects of the disco club

broadway prostitutes served

early in New York disco

on turntables during the 

united glam and

aesthetics of the bands included

mercury settling in 

patronized by youth called there

a nightclub disco or simply

also the early punk scene

certain type of clientele is

out of the earlier mandrake

sinful offered in addition to

flashing such as amyl nitrite

and nightclubs since the early

locals opened the first large

strange new phenomenon of public

discotheque in on east street

electric 

on turntables during 

the early venues with a

code club wear for glowing

a recently renovated 

and the rose they are

of many celebrities favor these

https://archive.org/details/PioneeringVenueInflux

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Short Poetic Dream 20220814195749128180

or “A Given Mixed State” by Thomas Park

called pure quantum 

a given mixed state of the electron 

a statistical mixture is not wide spread

its momentum the result of

the quantum number and the spin

pure states are also known

as a mixture 

associated with a mathematical,

the observable quantity as the energy

measurements exhibit tradeoffs 

a multitude of ways to write

and the spin of

states are a different type

applying particularly when they are possible to observe

the spin of the first

that act on Hilbert pure

a wide spread of possibility

that implies a narrow spread

the angular momentum quantum numbers

are represented by density which

is observed both possibilities occurring

the mathematical formulation

constituting a pure state

NOTES:

‘I was browsing social media when I came across a link to Bart Hawkins’ new release, “Bell’s Theorem”. Identifying Bart as a label-mate, I stopped by, and really enjoyed the work. It was great and beautiful ambient music, and the ideas behind it were cool, too. I liked the idea of these particles that retain a quality of proximity and relatedness in some hard-to-define way, even after leaving one another’s presence. That parts of the universe can become associated with one another, never forgetting ithat. I created a nice set of dub-trancy remixes, using Bart’s songs as samples with other sounds. Bart then worked these into this very nice mix work, combining many of the subworks into one.’ –Thomas Park, 2022

This release contains both Thomas’ remixes of Bart’s originals, and a larger combined remix of Thomas’ remixes composed by Bart. This remix, “Caught Inside The Detection Loophole”, can be found, along with more of his great music, at his Bandcamp page.

Here are Bart’s links:

https://www.instagram.com/barthawkinsmusic

https://barthawkins.bandcamp.com

https://archive.org/details/BellsTheoremTheDubRemixes

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