Started the day with another coat of stain, yellow this time, to the wood for the alcove shelves. The result should match the target fireplace better. Then, adding the veneer to the bottom parts. I applied thin layers of PVA to both woods. The glue is certain to sink in, so doing this helps it stick. My normal wood glue is Titebond, an aliphatic resin, but that's yellow; the (nearly) transparent PVA is better for veneer.
When stuck, later in the day, I sanded then stained this darker too, but was reminded that even tiny amounts of PVA repel the stain, leaving slightly lighter marks. I used this to deliberate effect on a picture frame, for 'Romeo and Juliet'. I stamped PVA love-hearts over it before staining.
After the woodwork, I attacked the Tree Of Keys remaster. There are two reasons for it. Primarily to replace the small number of off-the-shelf sound effects with my own. This is because there's a flaw in the whole way streamed music is shared, such that anyone using a shared sample will effectively share the royalties, not due to ownership of the sample, but as though the sample was part of our original composition. It is laziness to use third party samples anyway. I very rarely ever use them, and aim to record everything myself (thought I like using ancient film and advertisement clips at times, for artistic effect). As I run my own hand-made sound effect library, and am an expert at making any sound, I may as well make all of my own anyway.
A second reason for the remaster is due to a general improvement in mixing and mastering since I first made the album, and to record new vocals as my singing is a lot better now too.
Sounds needed were a crying baby, barking dogs, a passing train, whale song. All were accommodated. Deb suggested I act as the crying baby, and I recalled a video where people imitated birdsong which had been dramatically slowed down. When sped up, it sounded like real bird song, so I applied this to a crying baby, and the result was good enough. For the train, I used two layered accordions and a specific chord sequence to imitate an American train horn, then a sound recording of a train leaving in Crewe station, which I made during our last trip to Chester. It was fine. Modern trains are not as chuggy or rattly than old ones as the rails are now welded for a smooth ride, but this sounds rather good.
New vocals for 'Dream of the Tao' were recorded. Other tracks completed in draft: Underground, Paradise Lost, Where is the Sun, War Song, Dream of the Tao, Napalm, and Haiku.
The album is avant-garde, with a generally calm feeling. I often find myself reminded of these visual tracks at particular moments.
