(U of R #7 - Mar.28, 2011)

Interlude

I've been very busy over the past few months with one particular project and last week I decided it was time to take a break, do something a bit different and get a better perspective on it.  It was a good opportunity to do some things musically that I hadn't done for a while, like playing some acoustic guitar.  As I was strumming around one day I fell into playing this little instrumental that I wrote many years ago.  It has been one of those things I go for years without playing but when I do need a bit of a departure from everything that's going on around me it is one of the pieces I always turn to.  I have recorded it before but the demos were all pretty rough so I decided to make a new recording of it.  Still not perfect but better than what I had and still a very enjoyable version I think.
And here it is...Interlude.

(U of R #6 - Feb.16, 2011)

Fading Shadows
(On Winter Reflections)

This is kind of a "self portrait" work that came about when one day I noticed my shadow being cast over a rather clear reflection from the the balcony window. It took a second for me to figure out why I found it so strange but I realized that my shadow was framed by the image of the window in colour, a shadow on top of a reflection, none of it actually there but creating a picture that evoked a sense of presence and simultaneous absence. I took the shots over a period of about 5 mintues which is also interesting because it was a cloudless day and the fading effect was caused just by the movement of the sun and earth. I had stumbled on to something I could probably never recreate. The music came from the mood and feel of the photos, neither present nor absent but in some kind of limbo and slowly fading into nothingness...

(U of R #4 - Dec. 21, 2010)

Dark City

This one started off as an experiment with a soft synth I've had for a while and never bothered to use.  One day I got a bit curious about what it could do and started fooling around with it creating some spooky ambient sounds.  I found a sound I liked and hit record and the basis of this was that one spontaneous take.  As I listened back an idea for the guitar line took form and I started recording some ideas but some kind of backbone was missing.  I fired up the drum machine and created this very basic "click track" kind of thing and piled a bunch of reverb on it.  After that the guitar part was much easier and also ended up being done in one spontaneous, improvised take.  I had no idea what it could be until I listened to it a few times and it occured to me that it fit well with the environment right outside my door.  Berlin is not a very well-lit city and has a particularly dark ambience in the autumn and winter and that is where the video came from - it is simply me walking the streets around my place recording what I see (or don't see for that matter).  And there you have it, the final instalment of U of R for 2010.  But stay tuned, there's lots more on the way in 2011!

(U of R #3 - Dec.1, 2010)

Undercurrents
(Ode to an Ancient Glacial Puddle)

I started work on this one back in the spring of 2010 after receiving an email from an old friend who hadn't contacted me for a long time.  It was great to hear from him and part of the message was some lyrics that he cryptically described as "not mine" and that I could "have them".  We had wanted to do some kind of collaboration for some time so I was happy to finally have something from him to work with and started almost immediately to set the words to music.  But as I was working on it I couldn't help but feeling that the lyrics sounded a bit too familiar.  I had assumed that if the words were not from my friend that maybe they were from someone he knew and he had sent them with his blessing.  After a bit of investigation online I was finally able to establish that the words were a slightly re-worked version of a fairly famous song.  I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed and decided not to use them but the whole process of creating the music for these words combined with a trip to Canada in late summer led to some personal inspiration and it wasn't long before I had lyrics of my own to add to the music.  Combine that with a few decent photos I took of the "Ancient Puddle" and you have the next instalment of U of R.