Twilight Meditations Sessions - CD Complete

The Night is Over, The Day Begins

Its fitting that the final track, which I guess technically falls outside the meditation part of the CD, is called The Day Begins.

I've never liked mornings.  If you really know what I'm like, then you'll know how much of a night owl I am.  I work better, play better, read more, etc. while the moon is in the sky.  There is a feeling that I can't describe knowing that I'm one of the few up in my part of the world.  Elsewhere, on other continents, people carry out their days, much like we do, while we sleep.  When twilight comes for us, they begin their day.

When the alarm clock beeps to wake me up, at 8am, I used to despise it.  I hated alarm clocks.  I am a grouchy morning person most days.  But then someone dear to me explained something that I will never forget.

The day comes, and with it comes the thankfulness that i've made it through another night, and can awaken, my life continuing for another day.  Its exciting, empowering and extremely profound.

So even if I still flip off the alarm clock and growl at it, I remember the important fact that hadn't occurred to me until it was explained to me in my mid thirties.

We've awoken, we're alive, and its a brand new day.  What will happen to us today is unlike anything we've ever been though before.  Isn't that worth a smile for the morning?

see you soon

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Final Mix Day Two

Well, the mixes are literally being torn through.  Besides some aesthetic  instrumentation changes, volume redraws and some minor reverb tweaking, I think the disc is really gonna work.

At least I hope so  O_O

There is a major thunderstorm going on outside, and I usually unplug the whole studio and run for the living room, but I'm on a roll, and it feels like I can't stop now.  All thats left to mix is twilight dawning and then its a move to the recapitulation tracks.  I think two will do it.  I'm going to estimate the disc will time out to right around an hour or so.

Thanks so much for staying with me you few, it really means a lot when I get comments on this stuff, otherwise i'd feel so alone.

See you late tonite,

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 7

The meditation section of the CD is complete.  The last track, Dawn Breaks...er..Daybreak.  Hmmm.   Which sounds better to you?  Anyway, it renews us with the promise of the new day, and all of the wonderful things that come with it.

The empowerment I have felt these last seven days has been truly remarkable.  It has, technical issues notwithstanding, been an effortless process.  Gone are pretty much all of the ideas in the sunrise cd folder, which was my rough ideas session to draw from, but this is the way the disc needed to come out.  I didn't fight it (much).  Heheh.

I plan to write 2 more pieces tomorrow, to sort of Sum up all of the themes that have been explored in these pieces.  I stayed away from repeating themes in each of the songs, because I really wanted time to explore as many "hooks" as possible.  Some of the pieces start very upbeat, and slowly wind to a pastoral end.  Some stay at an even keel.

I listen to these seven tracks and realize that there is nothing left to say musically.  Oh I could go on and on here, but my yammering is just verbal comments on something that must be heard.  Its kind of like the Matrix, only the real Matrix is better than anything I could ever come up with.

I hope to, in the future, work with a certain editor I know, to set some of these pieces to video.  Deep Blue and Star Trails especially could make good fodder for this creative editor who has mastered animation, stop motion, live action, etc...

Tomorrow I mix four more pieces and the CD will be complete.  Critical listening will take place Wednesday, and with any luck, it will be FTP'd to Discmakers shortly there after for replication.

I've seen some of the preliminary artwork that Jenn has done, and it is both incredible and inspiring.  Deep Blue was written because of one of her ideas she showed me.  She has some alternate covers as well, I asked for the other ones to be possible other albums.  But we shall see.

I think I may have said everything I need to with this one project.

See you tomorrow

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Final Mixes Started

Wooo!  Mixing track one "Twilight Falls".  It was a lot less work than I thought it was going to be.  Just 3 clicks that needed removing, some eq, compression on the strings (damn Cello players) and some note replacement.

I once told a friend that mixing this stuff was pretty straightforward because all of the instrumentation was recorded really well.  Thats just the volume though.  Reverb time (trails) are really important in this type of music.  Generally, I find the busiest section of music and make sure that the trail of the previous note doesn't interfere with the next note on.  It prevents soup...which is sometimes desirable.  But right now I'm in the mood for a steak and eggs.  We'll get into that sometime, if we talk in person.  Steak and eggs music instead of soup.  Dear Lord where has he gone now?

I'll mix three today, three tomorrow and finish 3 tonite and tomorrow.  infinitequest.com goes live friday, which means that my 16th release date needs to be adheared to (eep!)

We shall see.

:)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 6

Have you ever look up at the sky, regardless of the the darkness, and see those dark clouds? They're almost painted on the sky, the high ones, that hardly move.  I can gauge their movement in relation to their position with the moon (if there is one).  A slow beat accompanies this movement, a glacial, almost planetary movement captured, moving imperceptibly.

As the album winds down with this and another piece, I feel a full circle completing.  An emptiness inside me has been filled, and meditation will take on a new significance for me, and I hope you as well.  While not a meditation CD by even the loosest definition, I still feel it can serve multiple purposes.  The final piano line, complimented by Flute (alto), Oboe and Clarinet sums this piece up nicely.

I appreciate you few who take this journey with me.  I appreciate you just nodding your heads and smiling when I get...over metaphorical and stray into the ethers of weird.  Heh.

The final two pieces will complete tomorrow and wednesday.  The album is mixing Wednesday and Thursday.  After that, it is out of my hands and into yours.

My very best,

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 5

Sometimes, when I am up extremely early, the sky loses it's dark starry aspect and becomes the deepest blue imaginable.  The night is coming to the end, as the sun will inevitably make its way to the horizon...but not yet.

Deep Blue is set in Eb, a very expressive key that I don't often write instrumental music in.  The strings and winds especially shine in this piece, providing a warm bed for the acoustic guitar to lie in.

Toward the end of the piece, I am finally able to unveil my  secret weapon.  Gigaviolin.  Short of having a virtuoso violinist sitting in my studio with a Stradivarius and 20k in Mikes, this sample set for Gigastudio is so expressive it makes me wish I were a string player.

After speaking with Jenn a bit today,  we realized that the tempo map for this CD needed a bit of thinking through.  I originally wanted a solid hour, with a gentle rise of tempo right up until minute 59 of the disc.  Picture a Long gentle sloping U that doesn't quite get to where it started at the end.  This is when I was convinced that this would be a meditation cd.  There is a difference between meditation and meditative, and I am falling solidly into the latter category.  So, after quite a bit of thought, and some bribes to my brain of coffee and donuts (yum), I was able to ratchet this piece up at the end to almost the same tempo as I started in the CD.  We're not gonna go all the way up, because I wanted people to be a bit more relaxed since starting the listening.  It will make sense though, so you don't have to go past minute 45 to get a full Meditation in, if thats what you are using it for.  So consequently, the last track (or two) will be at original tempo, and just keep us at a nice even pace.

What happened to the original sessions I should be working with, already sketched out and good to go?  I have no idea.  I think Jenn and my 8 core conspired on some unconscious level to make those sessions disappear.  Its okay with me though, this journey is so enjoyable, I feel like it could be therapy.

Also, and I don't know why, the end reminds me of my children.  I think the hopeful, child like theme repeated by guitar, violin and oboe is theirs somehow...

Track : Deep Blue

Runtime : 7:30

Tomorrow and tomorrow...

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 4

At night, when its a clear night, I like to look up at the sky, and try to see the dimmest stars I can manage.  These stars are, generally, farther away than the brighter ones.  The light reaching me from them is old, sometimes ancient.

Its a profound experience looking into the past this way, and many emotions occur.  One that is most significant is sadness.  I am sad because I am seeing something that will never be seen at that moment, in that way again.  I am sad that I will never be able to reach those stars in my lifetime, and wish I could look upon them from distances not impeded by my earthbound self.

To me, sadness is not a bad emotion to have, at least in this sense.  This is because it is not only sadness I am feeling, but happiness, joy and humble emotions I can't put into words.  These things all remind me of my life, and those around me, and the simple beauty that can be observed up there and here and on earth.

If you can see this, you are alive, and the stars are looking down at you. Why not have a glance up at them?

Track four : Star Light

Runtime : 8:17

See ya tomorrow :)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 3

Morning Gang :)

Night Three!  After taking two very much needed weekend evenings off, its back to work here on the album.  This evening, I found myself looking up at the metaphorical stars.  I remember as a kid looking into the night sky and see shooting stars going as far as horizon to horizon.  I remember they were some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

I felt it fitting to name this slow piece Star Trails because it evokes a small measure of the feeling those shooting stars gave to me.

I started with some heavily edited reverse piano and bell sounds, and progressed to more traditional elements for the middle of the piece.  I've noticed that I've been following a pattern without realizing it.  I favored the artificial and synthy elements in the beginning of the piece, and then moved to the traditional elements.  This piece was no exception.  Though a really pretty voice patch picks up the second theme at the end, simplifies it, and then piano takes us out.

The most enjoyable part of this is right around a minute.  I layered this little piano pattern with a staccato piccolo, playing the same notes in the same octave.  Its a little playful and sets up the first of the stars playing across the sky, those childhood moments when you realize there are amazing things in front of you, and the golden tickle of the excitement you feel.

It clocks in at a respectable 6:33.  I was going to lengthen it by repeating the first section but with different instrumentation, but if you feel like you said something right the first time, why say it again?

Know what I mean?

See you tomorrow night, and thanks for reading.

jack