Have flute and hat, will travel.
I decided to go ahead and put the evolution of Chasing The Sun on Soundcloud. The thing is, I’ll be in Boracay for a month writing, jogging, swimming, jamming flute, and canvassing fabric for the first (or second) section of EVEN, tentatively titled Habagat.*
Considering my track record with devices, there is a good chance that my laptop will explode and my backups get washed off in a tsunami. Meanwhile John Dumagod at Alchemy does not seem any more secure with his files than me. At least this way there is something up, a recorded legacy of all this inspiration and half-assed progress.**
What I present here is the first four studio tracks, in the order I see them flowing well (barring some later sounds that nestle in-between with plentitude).
There are plenty of “extras” in the recordings that will disappear in the final edits and master Here, a little cataloging, as much for master-mixer John’s benefit as for the reader-cum-listener:
1. Lost Upward - all is good.
2. UFOs and Labyrinths - Nix background chatter. Take out the vocal section between 5:13 and 5:34. Make the ending scat vocals a little less powerful on the ears. Maybe increase volume slightly on beginning and ending “Pork Pie Hat” sections.
3. UFOs (Fragile Bones) - Altheia’s vocals lower just a bit. Chatter wiped. Thinking of taking out Altheia’s vocals from (? to ?). Need to hear both versions to compare.
4. Fly Away Home - Transition between intro instrumental and vocal starting has obvious continuity issues… maybe a little light cymbals or guitar to segue them? First two vocal verses need to be redone… the low speaking voice does not do it for me.
About the section where the climactic guitar was excised (20:30 to 20:43)––there is a missing rhythmic flute flourish that we already recorded. Another issue is that we need to get some bongos circling around that absence of guitar, early-1970s Santana style. Some of the flutes after that are wrong, need to make sure the right tracks are in place. This will take some sit-down editing.
Considering my track record with devices, there is a good chance that my laptop will explode and my backups get washed off in a tsunami. Meanwhile John Dumagod at Alchemy does not seem any more secure with his files than me. At least this way there is something up, a recorded legacy of all this inspiration and half-assed progress.**
What I present here is the first four studio tracks, in the order I see them flowing well (barring some later sounds that nestle in-between with plentitude).
There are plenty of “extras” in the recordings that will disappear in the final edits and master Here, a little cataloging, as much for master-mixer John’s benefit as for the reader-cum-listener:
1. Lost Upward - all is good.
2. UFOs and Labyrinths - Nix background chatter. Take out the vocal section between 5:13 and 5:34. Make the ending scat vocals a little less powerful on the ears. Maybe increase volume slightly on beginning and ending “Pork Pie Hat” sections.
3. UFOs (Fragile Bones) - Altheia’s vocals lower just a bit. Chatter wiped. Thinking of taking out Altheia’s vocals from (? to ?). Need to hear both versions to compare.
4. Fly Away Home - Transition between intro instrumental and vocal starting has obvious continuity issues… maybe a little light cymbals or guitar to segue them? First two vocal verses need to be redone… the low speaking voice does not do it for me.
About the section where the climactic guitar was excised (20:30 to 20:43)––there is a missing rhythmic flute flourish that we already recorded. Another issue is that we need to get some bongos circling around that absence of guitar, early-1970s Santana style. Some of the flutes after that are wrong, need to make sure the right tracks are in place. This will take some sit-down editing.
Enlightenment in a beer bottle.
The next 3-4 tracks (depending on what you consider a “song”) are rough field recordings,*** of the same type that generated the Fly Away and UFO songs. They give a sense of how the album might proceed.
5. Anna’s Theme - A rough recording taken at El Amigo in Dumaguete with a talented singer I met shortly before we first performed. I’ll have to find her again, then create a bed of sound in the studio. But what a haunting refrain…
6. Good Job In the City (Leave Me Alone) - Capturing that elusive transcendent sound is challenging, but we got it here at Lokal Bar, around New Year's. This will make a nice, relatively straightforward track that picks up the pace again.
7. Local Spirits (Paris Exorcism) - A jam that Louie and I “co-composed” on the spot in Boracay. First time I ever played with a mic, ditto with Oliver's superlative tala-anding flute. Nice possibilities for moving into a more tribal flow again.
I have about five more tracks that I am not sure what to do with yet (if anything). “I Did Not See You,” etc. Full disclosure: Zuma Time jam started annoying me, which is why it is no longer included in the concept. I do have an expanded version of that in mind, will have to run through it in the studio. Also have all the Ramke & co. tracks to listen to still.
On the literary side, someone asked me for the elevator pitch of a complex novelistic concept. Okay, as promised: “EVEN is like a recipe toward some kind of future that is not underwater or lived in oxygen-fed bunkers.”
#endwriter
5. Anna’s Theme - A rough recording taken at El Amigo in Dumaguete with a talented singer I met shortly before we first performed. I’ll have to find her again, then create a bed of sound in the studio. But what a haunting refrain…
6. Good Job In the City (Leave Me Alone) - Capturing that elusive transcendent sound is challenging, but we got it here at Lokal Bar, around New Year's. This will make a nice, relatively straightforward track that picks up the pace again.
7. Local Spirits (Paris Exorcism) - A jam that Louie and I “co-composed” on the spot in Boracay. First time I ever played with a mic, ditto with Oliver's superlative tala-anding flute. Nice possibilities for moving into a more tribal flow again.
I have about five more tracks that I am not sure what to do with yet (if anything). “I Did Not See You,” etc. Full disclosure: Zuma Time jam started annoying me, which is why it is no longer included in the concept. I do have an expanded version of that in mind, will have to run through it in the studio. Also have all the Ramke & co. tracks to listen to still.
On the literary side, someone asked me for the elevator pitch of a complex novelistic concept. Okay, as promised: “EVEN is like a recipe toward some kind of future that is not underwater or lived in oxygen-fed bunkers.”
#endwriter
If the kids on the beach call it 'astig', it is cool.
*Habagat is the often grey season between “summer” and typhoon season. Acoustic guitarist Paolo went so far as to suggest, considering my preferred musical dynamics (or simply the recent weather?) that we call the project Chasing Habagat.
**That is until $70-million-in-debt Soundcloud goes under and takes their massive archives with them. hehe.
***It is interesting that the flute sounds comparatively so shitty on these field recordings… has to do with the very subtle, quick tone variations and the number of bits available, or so I’ve heard (similar issue experienced with the trumpet).
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