What’s In A Name?

I have been lamenting the whole process of making an album for a while now. Interspersed with my philosophical ramblings regarding music, where it comes from and why it does not obey my will. In the meantime some actual, concrete things have come to pass.

Most notably I have finally settled on the title for the work. And that is no small matter. The title, while just a small phrase has the imposing job of expressing in just a few words what will amount to just shy of an hour of sound. That title will either capture the imagination of a would be listener or send them scurrying back to old favorites. And if it does win the attention of a prospective customer and the title does not match the content, there will not be any repeat performances. So the title is something you gotta get right!

And here it is. It is going to be called “Emptiness Dances”. I promised myself I would not go off in this blog about anything metaphysical so I won’t go into a discussion of what Emptiness is and how it can Dance (being empty and all). Of course, if you ask I will be compelled to elaborate. Its up to you.

So leaving the whole non-dual thing out of it (I was going to call it “The Shunyata Shuffle”), the title gives the picture of what I intend to convey with my music. Music is such a strange thing really. Simple vibrations in the air have such power to move us, bypassing the brain and going straight to the heart and body. It does seem to come from nowhere and spin its magic so effortlessly. “Emptiness Dances” seems to fit both the solo piano pieces that will make up the majority of the record and also the more ambient pieces that will hopefully punctuate the solitary journey.

I reached another milestone as well. I finally achieving a sound on the mix of the title track that captured the energy I was after. As you have all heard me complain about before (uh… and often), I am not an engineer and certain aspects of the whole recording and engineering process I regard as black art, bordering on evil. But somehow by chance and stupid persistence I have finally managed to come up with a sound that I really like. No, more than that. Its a sound that fits me. And its a sound that seems to do that magnificent instrument, the piano justice. It is staggering to me just how much life and subtlety there is in a piano. You have 10 square feet of vibrating surface producing a bewilderingly complex sound. And every square inch of it sounds different from every other. Finally capturing that makes this project possible.

So now the album has a title, a theme, a characteristic sound and a title track. I do find it interesting and a bit perplexing how these things work. For a over month I have been stumbling around in the dark looking for a light (praying for guidance) and then suddenly there it is. The whole thing begins to come into focus and the path starts to become clear.

Please check out the new mix http://emptinessdances.com. Click on the solo piano section then on Emptiness Dances. I hope you hear what I heard.

G

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~ by GP Walsh on May 15, 2009.