A good night and a full day of work on the Salome music. I started by editing the vocals for The Planet's Oracle, Give Me Your Pain, and Empathy With Daisies. I then added the Give Me Your Pain vocals, and remain unsure about them. They sound fine, but plain vocals almost seem too easy... I'll think about this.
Then I added the vocals to The Planet's Oracle. I decided to try filtering and distorting them using my favourite Band Distortion effect and I liked the results. The sound fitted, and it matches the deranged and angry mood of this track. I added a second layer of deeper (Zeitraum'd) vocals for the 'voice of Nietzsche' that rapidly dart from left to right ear; Kate Bush used this in Waking the Witch, and so did Tony Visconti for a Bowie track... I think on the Scary Monsters album (it might have been the Scary Monsters chorus come to think of it); still, it's the memory of Bowie that came to mind as I layered these vocals.
Then some work on Shelved, which is a simple piano track. I had the idea of layering the vocals with a backwards version of the same vocals at the same time. This vocal also darts in extreme ears, and is heavily filtered in the lovely 'grey' 'telephone' range, so gives the sound a breathy, ghostly feeling. I had the idea that these words are the books, the written words being burned and destroyed in the piece. The line 'ash' is one word, clearly audible as the same word backwards, which gives the listener a clue. Even if the audio effect is strange, the symbolic effect works, so I'd like to keep it.
Then, a guitar solo or four for Empathy With Daisies but I'm not sure what I need there yet.
I need to do Cosmic Solitude, and add the vocals to and complete Empathy, as well as work on Sit With Your Ghost, which has no work done on it apart from the basic piano track. This album is truly Sisyphean.
Stefano asked for some stills from our videos so I put some together and sent them off.
The philosophy of the physalis plant keeps inspiring me, the goals and purposes of life as survival. One lesson is the importance of diversity, so that what can thrive and survive can be discovered.
