Final work on Heart of Snow today, after a careful listen yesterday. These final tweaks can take a long time. Today I experimented with changing the chords from F-minor to F-Major as in the original plan but this sounded just awful now, so I switched them back, then added a little more drama to the solo part by increasing the ebb and flow of the strings there, and cutting them off completely before the next verse. I lowered the volume of the 'snow' tinkles in the intro and added more bass there, all very subtle, but really audible when it's not there.
I did many more changes to the part before Otesanek, now called Bleak Forest. This was a very simple guitar improvisation to strings, but needed more to it, so I've added a few bird cries from the end and the main 'snow wail' - a blast of an instrument called The Pain of Cello, and strings it is, though it sounds something like that famous 'blaaaam' brass sound that fills most film trailers.
I also worked on some of Burn of God and recorded new vocal parts for a song called Lullaby From Your Cells To Your Mind. These were originally sung an octave lower but sound better higher up and layered because these are tiny cells, tiny creatures. I also updated a few very simple Burn of God tracks that barely needed anything new. The main tracks that do are the 'big' layered vocals; 10 or 20 layers in each pitch to make a triad.
I've also released more sound effects on the new itch channel.
Generally I feel I'm struggling forwards, but making good progress artistically. So many artists scrape forwards, doing the best they can, hopeful of enough of a success somewhere to scrape a little more. Deb is reading Moby-Dick, and Herman Melville appears to be a case in point.
For me, the key is self-improvement, and art itself is like an yoga of the soul, a system of improving every aspect of ones-self, mental, physical, spiritual.
My next job will be completing the Burn of God re-recording, starting with new backing tracks and work on the guitars. This process, if I had space, could take a day, but it will probably take a week or more of snatched moments to record. After this, more music and a new EP, perhaps the bulb sonata, based on a series of three recent poems which are artistically linked. These are different from the Christmas songs, which is good. Of course, I need to work on the Heart of Snow artwork too.
I must push to be better. Life is short. Time is short. These fleeting fuses, embers, wicks of life-breath.
Onwards.
