Much more work on Synaesthesia yesterday, focusing on Termination and Refuge. Refuge has an immense and multi-layered climax consisting of drums, bass, piano, string chords, high-pitched sweeping strings, brass fanfare and distorted guitar-style power-chords. Managing these forces wasn't easy, but it's a matter of balancing each instrument it its place. The new version sounds so very much better than the 1999 or 2001 or 2015 versions (they were identical - I've not reconstructed this before).
The more I work on this, the more I dislike the 2001 (and 2015) versions. It seemed that, in my rush to digitise, I've killed so much of the fragments of original feeling in the 1999 version. In this 2020 version I've restored a lot from the 1999 version which had been removed: The sweeping and sad lead in Space Infinity is back; the beeps in the 2015 version were certainly less evocative. The heart beats at the end of Islands of Memory are back, replacing the breaths.
Termination was radically worse in the 2001/2015 version. The monotone bass of the 1999 version was replaced with a more melodic lead, which repeated on loop forever throughout the song at steady pace and volume. Many of the tracks did. Dealing with this while keeping some spirit of the original was tricky; I don't want to completely re-write this album like Mike Oldfield did with Tubular Bells II, but this tune so lacks variation that I've had to add something. First I've stopped the excessive repeated loops. These have some importance though, because this is essentially a Trance track. I've made the main sweeping lead monotone again rather than melodic. The 1999 version of this track is relatively short at 2:36, this one is over 4 minutes. I've essentially tried to eject some drama into the four dramatic parts: The first fall to F Major (although this is more natural, it seemed odd to make this too dramatic, it's primarily a cue for its second appearance later). Then a crash to silence, where I've removed most of the instruments (the 2001/2015 version removed almost nothing). Finally the second fall to F Major, which is the true climax, and then the end.
In the afternoon I needed to go shopping. Mum insisted on coming too, which at first I was somewhat anxious about; as ideally we are supposed to act alone, yet, we are in the same household, and actually her help was most welcome because we had five big bags to carry back. I would have struggled on my own. I arrived at Tesco to find her sitting on the floor on the car-park, at her place in the extended queue. We didn't queue for long outside and were allowed in 5 or 6 at a time. There were few customers in the shop, less than the last time I went, ten or so days ago. More stock was on the shelves too, including chicken this time, although no pasta, which was about the only thing notably absent. Many checkouts were active with no customers or queues, to limit crowding around certain checkouts. Good work by Tesco all round, I think.
I raced back home; this is a primary exercise source these days, passing hardly any people. I only came within two metres of one person on the journey, taken by surprise at a corner. With advance warning I could have easily crossed the street and passed nobody for the whole two mile round trip. Got home, unpacked, then washed hands and arms with a rich lather of soap, then face, then decontaminated anything I might have touched with my mix of alcohol and hydrogen peroxide: bags, phones, money, etc. then washed hands again. Mission accomplished.
