I thought last night on how to tie up the album, ideas to unify it and pull it together thematically. This is always a priority for me, but this is difficult to do for a 'standard' 12-track album (and bah to the eternal popularity of vinyl! We may be forever trapped with the restrictive structure of two 22-minute-movements!). With Nightfood (the two halves) and Cycles & Shadows, (the two halves), and the EP works, thematic unity seems easier. I came up with plans to use the Lace Maker theme as some sort of linking theme, making the whole album about fate, but many of the extant tracks end quite naturally and well on their own. I recorded a few Lace Maker-themed sections in different instruments, but they aren't yet useful...
Today I revisited Autumn's Shadow. It was a simple song of harp and vocals and not much else. It needed more, some image, location, so I've added a turned page at the start, and some rain, rain beyond the window, and a storm later, plus more strings and backing generally. The fake-sounding flute lead has been switched for a harpsichord, which ties it to Girl Reading a Letter as well as fitting in the mix better.
I've made a few tiny changes to other tracks, a change to the synth sounds in The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and adding more bass drums.
Then some initial work on cover concepts. I always had in mind my The Art Of Painting (and Vermeer's!), so produced this initial idea:
The grey areas represent time before and time after, so the coloured zone is a visual 'golden age'. One of my goals must be, though, to be a little different. My covers can't be too samey. As with the tracks, I ask: What does it have? What does it lack? What is the best part? What is the worst part? How much contrast is there? What images does it conjure, what emotions, and how do they fit in with the whole? And I ask the same of the whole too. I want to touch all areas with maximum contrast, while recognising that that goal itself is a limitation.
As with atoms, we can't attain perfection, only dance around it, which is why quantity and variety is important.
After that, I worked on The Myth of Zurbaran track. The album is about 28 minutes. I need a first track (an overture?), and perhaps interspatial material to pull it together. One key for creativity and progress is to very specifically know your aims, and if these are too vague, break them into steps, or ask alternative questions. "I want to learn to play the piano" is too vague. "I want to learn to play Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto" is instantly easier, the music is there waiting, the steps and vison of attainment clear.
