A generally sleepless night due to my regular stomach pain, by body at times treats food like an enemy. As a result I awoke with a headache which grew as the day wore on.
Despite this I continued work on the Otesanek production. The verses were causing me problems. The simple guitar riff did add melody, but it seemed to simple or not quite right. I recorded a dub track with the vocal melody in place, to play along with that, and improvised some new guitar parts along to this and these worked much better, perhaps because there were more notes so more room for actual expression. I also added some strums which add some depth to the sound. The song is mostly complete now, the vocals are the main thing left but I'll start the final track, Heart of Snow, first. Vocal recording time must be snatched when the opportunities arrive.
I also split the intro to Otesanek into a new song, as I expected I would. The strings from 'Away in Her Manger' march on into this, and I added an element of a storm, the woods. I decided to use entirely synth instruments for the weather this time, despite having lots of real storm recordings, just for the sake of variety. I then improvised a moody guitar lead over the top in the style of Pink Floyd, aiming for a feeling of loss, emptiness, like the woman in the song. I'll add some vocals too, but this is an intro, not a song in itself.
One new element was a sound using some of my newly designed modulators. Nothing special in it, a filtered string/saw wave, but it slows down slowly then reverses. The recent Rick Wakeman concert inspired this too.
I'll try to get this music complete quickly, then the Burn of God remaster. I've also ordered a few new books for my stock; some copies of Deep Dark Light (this has never sold one copy, yet it's a good book, a truly Blake-like artwork) and some of The Burning Circus. They probably won't arrive in time for Neorenaissance, but I do have one or two to be put on sale at the museum.
