The Tower by Dr. B. (Durrell Bowman, Ph.D.)

"The Tower" – by Dr. B. (Durrell Bowman, Ph.D.), 2024, 47:05: a Progressive, Pop-Rock, Experimental-Electronic Concept Album about One Person's Path into and Exit from Higher Education.

All words and music are by Durrell Bowman, except for Song 4’s and Song 7’s brief audio samples, Song 8’s and Song 10’s variations of instrumental works found in the public domain, Song 5’s AI-generated song lyrics, and Song 9’s short excerpt of words found in the public domain. Song 9 is an homage to Laurie Anderson’s 1981 song “O Superman.” Most of the words added to Songs 7, 8, and 10; some of Song 9’s words; and Song 2’s lyrics appeared as preliminary versions in DB’s submission (“The Ivory Tower’s Crumbling: A Memoir and Song Lyric”) to the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

All eleven songs were recorded, edited, mixed, and mastered with Cakewalk by BandLab (a free Digital Audio Workstation / DAW) and a Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 (a Digital Audio Interface), running on Windows 10 Pro on a Dell Latitude E7270 notebook computer (Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD). Four songs (1, 2, 3, 9) were newly composed and arranged in Cakewalk, and three (4, 5, 6) were re-composed and arranged in it—with various VSTs: soft synths, drum machine sounds, sampled drum kit loop patterns, electric organ, grand piano, electric piano, a vocoder, Celemony Melodyne (for vocal pitch, volume, and timing adjustments), harmonizer, volume boost, delay, and/or reverb. Song 4’s ending includes a brief, audio sample. See also the individual song descriptions. Songs 1-6 and 9 used an M-Audio Keystation 88 semi-weighted controller keyboard, and Songs 1-10 used an Apex 950 dynamic vocal microphone.

Four songs (7, 8, 10, 11) were originally composed and recorded with other software and hardware and then imported into Cakewalk, with a VST stereoizer (to change their monophonic sources to stereo), spoken vocals (in Songs 7, 8, and 10), a VST harmonizer (for vocal pitch-shifting effects, in Songs 7, 8, and 10), a VST delay (for vocal effects, in Songs 7 and 8), a brief instrumental passage (in Song 10, borrowed and transposed from Song 2), and brief audio samples (in Song 7). See also the individual song descriptions. Songs 2-10 each include at least one instrumental or vocal excerpt of the “Spread too thin; I’m spread too thin” motif of the album’s first song (Song 1).

The album cover was generated with AI, using Microsoft Copilot, and edited to add text with Microsoft Designer. The original prompt was: “Make me an image of a crumbling university tower.” The eventual phrase, after its suggestions, was: “Gothic-style tower with vines growing on it and ravens perched on it and overgrown ivy and mysterious figure standing at the base of the tower.” The lyrics-based videos—all of which include the album cover, plus complete lyrics and additional images—were made with Wondershare Filmora. The album's videos are available at: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNvoywzmKAZZ26dQpKpR_zAoSexaRS7jx&si=-LCy8oB5vjE-TUAM

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Tracklist

1.	Spread Too Thin	2:52

2.	The Ivory Tower's Crumbling	4:53

3.	Essential Workers	4:11

4.	Battlezone	5:03

5.	In the Halls of Academia	4:08

6.	Recede	4:13

7.	Tempus Fugit	2:47

8.	Labyrinth	6:43

9.	Drive	4:27

10.	J.S.B. der ist tot	4:15

11.	My Pal in (d)Rome (bonus song)	3:35

Credits

released November 14, 2024

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