Part 1:
I’ve been stealing tiny bits of time to hurriedly record a little EP (out APRIL 24TH!!).
Something I love about music, particularly live music, is the ‘momentary magic’ – the sense that what happens in any moment is unique and special to that moment.
It’s the main reason (perhaps alongside a lack of discipline…) why most of the music I make is rarely ‘settled’ – there’s space for improvisation and for new unexpected ‘magic’ to emerge every time it’s played.
This has a little bit of tension with recording music – capturing some official ‘version’ of music that is then set forever. Trying to record some of my music recently has made me realise how differently I play my pieces every time (and made it hard to choose which ‘take’ is the right one to end up on the record, with which perfect ‘imperfections’).
Anyway, here’s an old musical meditation of mine I’ve often played as a ‘bedtime’ song, to help settle and soothe me late at night. I gave it an impromptu try in front of the mics, and a version ended up on the new record….
Here’s an imperfect little sunny version for now, with accompanying birdsong.
Recorded on Gunaikurnai country, on a couch Beau Atkinson Music & I used to jam on quite a bit (stay tuned for a ‘live’ & improv-rich tune I played with Beau on the EP too).
Part 2
Here’s another old tune that, like all my tunes, I play a little differently every time.
I love leaving space for something new to pop up – especially during the shared magic of a live performance. But which version is the “right one” to lock down on a recording, forever?
This was a version of my tune ‘Tether’ captured almost a decade ago by the legends at Live at Spectrum (what a wonderful contribution to live music & Gippsland that great project has been!).
Since then, there’s now a whole new section to this piece! And I’ve been playing it with some different rhythmic focuses, and of course little alterations to melodic lines each time.
I’ve recorded a new version of Tether for the new EP, and ALSO felt inspired to have an impromptu late-night crack at recording an enchanted ‘music-box’ string section on tinkly electric guitar to accompany it (wait to see if it stays in the final mix or not….).
I’m really excited to share this one, and all the others, on the new EP (out APRIL 24TH!!)
And here’s to whatever new direction this tune takes into the future, despite some small part of it now being ‘trapped’ in recorded form….
Dan Musil 