A Journey from Strings to Synths
Joel Moir: Emerging Electronic Composer
Discover the transformative soundscapes of Joel Moir, where classical roots meet electronic innovation.
Joel Moir
Joel Moir’s journey as a professional performer began as a cellist with The String Family. After an acquired brain injury (ABI, also called a Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI) changed his life in 2019, a lifelong process of rehab began, led by the incredible team at the Illawarra Brain Injury Service (IBIS) in Port Kembla. By 2024 Joel was ready to graduate from TBI preschool. In 2024 Joel embraced composition by completing a Cert III in Music (Composition and Creation) at TAFE NSW, channeling his passion into creating evocative electronic music. Currently studying a diploma of Music (Composition and Creation) at Tafe NSW, Joel is exploring new horizons and redefining his musical identity.
“Music is the language of the soul, and I am its humble translator.”
Did anyone actually say this? I don’t know, but it wasn’t me.
I’m not sure why I chose to start writing in third person, maybe it sounds more professional. Anyway I’m really just hoping to graduate from TBI primary school (not literally ! I don’t want someone with a Traumatic Brain Injury spending hours on the internet trying to find some magical physical TBI primary school, it’s not a physical thing) and hopefully have a positive effect on others with the sounds I create, and eventually break into film and games. After making quite a lot of money from my music making it into feature tracks on GTA X or C&C Generals V, we might buy our dream motorhome – Avida Longreach – and then spend the next three decades on our metamorphosis from Grey Nomad Entertainers* to Grey Nomads*. By which time we will still have the same Longreach and the same excellent mileage of 7.2L/100KM.
*Grey Nomad Entertainers: As an entertainer(s) you follow around the Grey Nomads, who you know to be incredibly supportive in so many ways, and who are always happy to pay for quality whether it be music or food.
*Grey Nomads: The Grey Nomads are an interesting sub-species of an Australian native human who perform an annual migration from south to north, gathering around campfires and dump points as they go, carefully avoiding under 65’s and expensive fuel as they move north towards nicer weather. They escape grandchildren and bad weather; gleefully message pictures of them splurging their ever dwindling inheritance to their offspring, and watch new arrivals reverse into their spots as entertainment over a glass of wine.
Click to listen on your favourite streaming service:
This track was inspired by the sound of an alarm that doesn’t quite wake you up but instead melts into your dream.
The alarm sound is created from high hat samples, and the rest of it created using Roland synths. I had a lot of fun in the process, and it’s best listened to with a nice set of cans and when you want to just chill.
The picture is of an invertebrate that I found on the window of our car, taken with an iPhone in macro mode. It suitably shows an implausible creature of the kind that is conjured in our dreams.
OK, so this is a weird one, patience is required. Picture a high tension situation room where a computer system is being hacked, and there is a sense of urgency but you know it’s going to work out.
Prior to taking up performing professionally, I was an IT consultant and constantly around computer equipment, in particular hard drives, and listening to them with your ear jammed up against it when spinning up was a quick way of listening for the telltale sounds of a hardware fault.
Anyway, I always enjoy listening to everyday sounds and finding the music and rhythm in them, and in this work I included close up mic recordings of an old 1TB Apple hard drive, as well as a spinning “Challenge Coin” from a podcast I follow, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons.
Joining it all together are the tones of the wine glass sounding at various pitches. Listen carefully at the end to the hard drives, and a beautiful harmonic progression emerges!
Enjoyment of this track will only be gained through a nice set of cans, a lot of patience, and possibly a glass of wine.
I’ve always loved the classic Roland synths, and grew up on a Juno 106, and so the bassline is a Juno 106 which holds it all together.
All the other sounds in the track are from samples of the optical drive.
Again, patience, chill and your relaxant of choice (for example hot chocolate or wine) should see you wanting to play it again, hopefully because you enjoyed it and want to explore it some more.
Explore More Music
To listen to some real music, head over to The String Family. This is me and my family (Sarah, Heath and Ashleigh) playing in our family band. We recorded five albums while we were on our three year full time tour of Australia from 2016-2019.
Soundscapes in Visuals
Musical Gallery
Watch this space for my favourite macro photos and images that help inspire my work. All these ones are AI created, just as placeholders.
