Working steadily away on the album today but I feel I've hardly done anything. There's a lot of correcting and refining, redrafting and refining that takes a lot of time, but is important. This time can be used to think over next steps. I've modified one old track called The Dark Night Watchman, slightly made the intro and ending less happy, to match a mood of being watched. The original title was inspired by the old narrative from a surrealist film, but now it magically matches a new idea of being watched by god; god as arbiter of morality, and guilt. Maybe guilt is worth exploring further. The rhythm of the Great Grandfather song, which has clock and bell elements reappears here with church bells and hammering at the door.
These old piano tracks are a little drifty and romantic, even when discordant or dark. I must keep things under enough control. I now have five tracks at the start (although the first is an intro of a few seconds), and seven in total, including the last 'epilogue' track. I'll try to find creative material in those to use earlier on to add more unity and structure to the entire album. Do I need movements and sections? Last night I decided that the album should be all set at night, in bed, with dawn at the end. It should create a Christmas Carol-type haunted feeling.
There is a lot I cam say about religion generally, I can ask and answer a million questions, as I did for The Modern Game, but I'd hope for something more unified and natural, authentic, somehow, rather than an arbitrary collection of ideas.
