The Count of The Head

This one started as a bass improvisation, onto which I grafted a rhythm guitar part that I had already created. The background keyboards were done as single pass improvs, and then it sat for a long time. Finally the very composed melody lines were added. The title derives from an odd series of hominyms and synonyms.

(1.2 M)

(985 K)

Dusk

Again an improv bass track, but this time the rhythm guitar was also done as an improv. Again those tracks sat for a long time before anything else was added. The rest was composed carefully, except for the sax, which David Henry did in one improvised take. An amazing sax player! On this one there was a lot of chopping done on the raw tracks to create breaks and space. The lyrics predate the music by a few years, although they got heavily rearranged to fit.

When You Walk In

One of the first things I did when I got my very own 4 track. I already had the lyrics , and I composed the basic song in about two hours. Then a few years later I redid the vocals and lead guitar and added keyboard parts. This has the oldest tracks on the CD.

(985 K)

(1.1 M)

The Spider Takes a Mate

Another bass improv. The interesting thing here is that the bass part was played to a completely different drum pattern and tempo. It was quite fast and high energy. Then one day a year or so later I was toying with different drum patterns for it and I tried the present one. It clicked for me, and I had a finished piece very soon thereafter. At the time I was finishing it I was watching Olympic downhill racing, and I liked the cowbells that were rung by the crowd as the skiers went past, so I tried to put that into the piece. The title comes from an AD&D game.

Madge

This one was a series of compositions that I created in the process of first learning how to sequence on a computer. Each section was done with a different method of entering the notes into the program. Madge is a custodial engineer (wombat) with a rich inner life (Walter Mitty). She is the one on the cover of the CD (Ciam's idea).

(922 K)

(0.9 M)

Gauge

A composed rhythm guitar part that I would play from time to time. I had it around for a year or so before I decided to do something with it. The song took a few days to put together, especially the bass part. As usual I already had some lyrics, which fit with a bit of cutting. This was the first song on which I actually enjoyed the singing!

Oceanscape

I spent a day at the ocean, after having been away from it for a long time. When I got back I felt a need to play/compose, even though all my equipment was packed away. I dug out a minimal setup and did the basic tracks for this. Started with an improvised guitar part, added another semi-composed guitar part, then a composed bass part (it doesn't sound like it though, because the bass never does anything patterned until the end). I finished it off a couple of years later.

(1.1 M)

May You Shine

Improvised bass track, semi-composed rhythm guitar part, semi-composed piano. Sit for a couple of years.. sound familiar yet? Lyrics that my friend Peggy wrote a long time ago fit perfectly. The vocal and drum parts on this song definitely took the most time and effort. The MIDI flute and synth leads took a lot of time as well.

Brief Affair

This is another instance of changing the drum part out from under. The keyboard part was semi-composed to a completely different pattern. The present pattern was put together later. One interesting result is that the keyboard is 4/4-ish, while the drums are in 3/4. Another interesting thing is that there is only keyboard part, played by both piano and organ. It is the dynamics which make one or the other predominate in different places.

(938 K)

Legends

The usual story. Improv bass part, composed rhythm guitar part, sit for at least a year. Then one day Hanna was playing around with a mic and we recorded all the squeaky bird sounds and such. This inspired me to do something with it. The sampled vocal patterns came next, at which point the atmosphere of the piece was established. The rest came about over several weeks. The first and last verses are Jenny's. She was just playing around on a typewriter a long time ago, and typed some "nonsense" that I found very profound. I kept those two verses for a long time until they finally found their place here. The rest of the lyrics were rescued out of a previous song that was a failure. This is the most composed piece on the CD.