Awake from 4am to 6am or so due to noise disturbances. I used the time constructively. These hours are unique, when the brain is open, like relaxed sponge; I think this is one of the purposes of sleep, to open the brain like a flower, to allow tiny spider-like creatures to clean and order it, the librarians of the brain. In this state we can access deeper parts of the brain not normally accessible (try it! You will be able to recall memories and knowledge at this time far more easily than in the day!), so what we think and how we feel is very important at this time, far more important than our thoughts and attitudes in our waking life. This time is perfect for meditation, self-guidance, and learning.
As a consequence of this, I sometimes use this time to work, and did so last night. I played a singing training recording and so practised singing for 30 minutes or so, in silence of course. I sometimes mentally practice piano or guitar in this way too, this night-focused rehearsal is very effective, and the training and thoughts we have at this time are easy to shape yet stick well.
I've spent most of the day finalising the production on Riding Pi. It's a fast, race along only a few notes, with a sort of mock-fugue in there too. There are lots of slow fades and a gradual glow of instruments in and out; this type of music is very feeling based and so takes a lot of listens from the start to get the mood right, there are no compositional shortcuts. In the end, I shortened the song by one minute, but I've retained the longer edit in case I need it. There are some vocoded lyrics that are hard to discern. There are a few unspoken rules in music, one is that words should be centre panned and be clear to hear (and have no bass), but sometimes we can break these (I jokingly think the Def Leppard producer agrees, based on Hysteria, but I feel in that case the singer was not confident in his vocals and wanted to blur them out). Kate Bush and Queen use vocals in fabulously inventive ways.
In Riding Pi, the voice barely matters, it's literally part of the flow of space.
I now have about half of the main vocals to record, and the final track, Garden of Love, to compose. I've also worked a lot on the art. Here is the latest cover:
The jarring between the clean, digital elements and the painterly background caused me problems because the upper and lower halves of the artwork are too different stylistically and made a fake division, so I've added the constraining lines on the left and right to add focus. These are the exact angle of an equilateral triangle centred at the top, so can (and will) be used for other design elements. I associate this triangle with god; pointing up for masculine, confidence, power, and pointing down for submission, and prayer, like arms wide.
Onwards! I'm really proud of this album, but there is so much more I can and want to make. Every piece of work I do here is stealing time from a future work of art.
