Saturday, February 09, 2008
Just the other day... Some new recordings
I've been too busy experiencing things in Nicaragua, New Zealand and now, Australia, to write much down, and I'm a lousy photographer. People have been after me to put up some photos (hi, mom!) of my trip, but what I have is almost universally blurry.All the best pictures were only taken in my head. Words have been failing to come out for them, too.
I have been sampling the sounds of the world around, and sometimes it comes back out of me as music. I've found a piano almost everywhere I've stayed, some good, some marvellous... and despite the lack of practice some of my older pieces have taken on new life, I suppose focused somewhat more for the exposure to the forests, deserts and beaches I've been going through.
I've had a few days to sit and reflect and sort through the recordings and pull out some stuff. (I'll put links in on this blog entry as I mix them down and upload them)
On my Mom's piano back in florida I recorded a nice version of "Dolphinia" (ogg, mp3).
In a hotel in San Francisco I did an even better version - on this beautiful cherry red piano - happier - (ogg, mp3), as well as a version of "Estonia"(mp3,ogg) that channels Bach to the best of my ability... as well as (to my surprise - because I don't remember playing anything like it) a new piece tenatively called "Just the other day"... (mp3). I have some tentative lyrics for it too, which perhaps I'll publish soon. I had no memory of making this recording at all, but memories came flooding back - the Buddhist Christmas play, the smell of french fries....
I still have days and weeks of recordings left to go through. So, for now, after camping out with David Rowe and working on Astfin for a while in Adelaide, and then helping film a linux conference in Melbourne, I came up to Rick and Mary's, who in addition to being Ardour hackers, have a studio in Coogee. They do really intense, trippy stuff as part of the cybergroup Deprogram, as well, with a live drummer and all electronic instruments. And... best of all... They have a freshly tuned piano....
We visited the home (Stanwell Park) of Lawrence Hargrave, who would be an open source icon if more people had heard of him. (he's also on the 20 dollar bill here). He wrote:
- "Workers must root out the idea that by keeping the results of their labors to themselves a fortune will be assured to them. Patent fees are so much wasted money. The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1000 miles or so. Like everything else it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others. Excellence of design and workmanship will always defy competition."
Stanwell Park is gorgeous - next to the beach - the greenery and parrots - and I haven't taken a picture yet, except with my zoom h2.
Off for some more mixing... ¶ 5:13 PM
