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Folks,
I am pleased to present, FreeWheeling 0.5.3! A lot has gone into this new version. There are exciting new features. I've also built support for Mac OS X. FreeWheeling now runs under Intel and PPC Macs, as well as PC Linux, all with the same fluid interface.
But more significant, I feel, are the changes that have gone on under the surface. I have been developing FreeWheeling for almost 7 years now. And I am coming to a major turning point.
When I began in 1999, I was happy to have a way to accompany myself. I was happy to have an alternative to music production where I did not have to focus on creating content. I could play. I found a way to give voice to some of the music in my head.
Through many hundreds of hours of playing with FreeWheeling, things progressed. Better tools appeared in my musical toolbox. More expressive instruments at my fingertips. More intuitive ways to give form to the music I hear in me. But, naggingly, something was still missing.
It is community. It is the sense of creating together in a small group of people. Creating without agenda. Creating without judgement.
And Nature. To be inspired directly by the voice of the land. To merge. To loose our human arrogance and distinction.
Without nature, there is no community. And without community, what's the point of music? ? ?
Going back to the very beginnings of music, I traveled. Music as ritual. Trance. Merging with the elements, and merging into family. Not just entertainment. Music has a greater function. Music is more than just album consumption. As musicians, then, we have a responsibility to create musical communities.
My exploration in this vein led me to a vocal teacher named Rhiannon. Rhiannon studied and worked with Bobby McFerrin. She teaches improvisation in groups of singers. She uses a form called 'Voicestra', where she improvises, hearing parts in her head and giving these parts to singers. Her singing circle becomes her orchestra.
In a similar way, I'd been using FreeWheeling to give voice to the music in my head. But the real difference is that Rhiannon leads singers and I lead loops. It has taken me several years, but I now understand that my work needs to move into community.
So my development of FreeWheeling is taking a turn as I focus my energy on building creative community. This is good for me and good for FreeWheeling. While it means that code development will likely continue to be slow, new ideas will be solid and features will be appropriate.
To keep FreeWheeling going, I would like to ask for your help. There are many fantastic directions this technology could be taken in. I am asking inspired developers to consider stepping up, to help design and code FreeWheeling. I would like to move gradually-- core functionality over bells and whistles. Already, several users have contributed code for useful features.
I am especially interested in collaborating with people for whom music is a community-based process. What tools can we create to teach and encourage improvisation? How can we work with technology appropriately in a group setting? The tools that would come out of these questions would be fresh, because they turn the music production paradigm on its head.
So please consider what FreeWheeling is for you.
If you feel called to contribute, let's be in touch.
And Happy FreeWheeling!
--Mercury
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