I've had a listen to the full album and made a few tweaks. I decided to extend the short tracks and merge them into each previous track. The many short tracks does affect the pace or feeling a little too, and it feels better with only 16 rather than 20 tracks. In sound terms, the album is nearly identical. The tiny bit of segue at the start of these short tracks has improved things though.
The art is also complete. I had a few iterations between dark or light for the rear art. The background could have been a strong red with light writing. A plain white one, mirroring some of the internal art, looked nice too, but I eventually settled on this:
I've burned a full test CD and will set it aside for a week or more, then listen again with fresher ears. This end stage can often make me feel like there's no point to any of it, the time to ask why I've bothered, but this self-critique will be forgotten when the next idea comes along.
I'm broadly happy with it but I can see a lot of scope for more, to build upon it, to push further in this new type of art, an album symphony. In structural terms this album reminds me of The Wall or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a collection of songs and instrumental music with an overall idea, and some cross links between them. I've divided Burn of God into four separate sections, but these also cross-link so each part isn't like a symphonic movement. There are lots of options for future work. I want this to be one of many, each building on the last. Now, at this stage, it is the flaws I can see most clearly. This powers the energy to move on.
I've had a bit of a fraught night due to a throat problem, an annoying blood blister. One dream involved a tiny bird, about 5cm tall with a long neck like a peacock (although it was brown like a peahen), who flew down from a light above a dinner table to sing to me. It was then pounced on and eaten by a predator (I think it was a squirrel or pine marten or something like that). Thinking now, perhaps there were visual links with Jan Weenix's art here.
Another dream involved a shoot-out with five green-clad Germans (exactly the green of green wellingtons). I had an arsenal of weapons available (also made from green wellington rubber) but I needed a sniper rifle, which I lacked. I merely waited for the attack, rather than firing with one of the inadequate weapons (some machine guns, grenades, a knife).
On with the day. I will begin on the War is Over album for Fall in Green.
