I listened to the Radio 3 improvisation programme 'Freeness' on Saturday which inspired me to look back at some of my Tree of Keys music. 'I, Spider' in particular sounded very rough in parts, both the vocals and particularly the electronic guitars which didn't remotely bother or concern me at the time, but now of course, I use real guitars. So today I thought I'd re-record the vocals and guitars, and in an instant these sound much better than in the original version. But now, what to do with it?
The music isn't on CD so in technical terms pulling the digital album and replacing some tracks with new ones isn't difficult - aside from a certain amount of admin for publishing new work. I guess this sort of updating of old work, or the desire for it, is relatively common for an artist; perhaps expected as one improves. Many classical composers revised work. I never really feel the urge to paint 'corrections' to oil paintings; I much prefer to make a new version. I made nearly two identical versions of The God-King Albion painting for example, and have the first version here (it's almost identical but the Roman soldiers are much more simply painted, more like inky outlines).
I also re-recorded the vocals for Dream of the Tao. The rest of the album will do. I'm aware that new work might feel better but permanently destroying old work isn't something to be taken lightly, sometimes there are nuances and nice things in old work that aren't appreciated at the time.
Well, I'll consider what to do with these and do nothing for now. The timing of 'I, Spider' is very slightly different due to the important timing of the climax, so a slight change to the video would be needed too (fortunately the video is not lip-synced so it will still work).
This week I'll try to complete the Dreams of You song and a continue with a few painting plans, then perhaps more music. Tree of Keys has reminded me about some of the nice things in these experiments. Dream of the Tao is an interesting and unusual song.
