background music

if you’d like to know more about the background music you hear on this site,  read on...

this improvisation was recorded in the beautiful handmade studio of marco verdugo,  a true renaissance man.  he generously offered his time and talent to try my experiment.

i brought many instruments and noisemakers with me to supplement marco’s exotic collection, and set about to play.  i had no theme,  no chord changes,  no melodies or sonic pictures in mind… my ‘plan’ was just to pick up an instrument and go.

first i wanted some glue,  some kind of resonance to form a bed,  so marco’s tibetan singing ringing bowl came first.  we recorded a few minutes of me making attempts at producing various sounds on this miraculous instrument.

i‘m not sure in what order the various instruments went on.  we just started the ‘tape’ again and i played another instrument through the track then chose another and did the same.

each sound that was added somewhat determined what the following sound would do,  and one thing led to another as things settled into areas of differing atmosphere.

i was playing for sonic continuity rather than melodic,  for emotional flow rather than a regulated format,  so that the overall soundscape would be not a song but a movie soundtrack…

...the soundtrack for this website,  this little movie of mine.

instruments used include –  tibetan singing bowl,  wooden pod shakers,  12-string guitar,  drum machine,  carved wooden xylo-drum ( i made that name up ),  fake piano,  soprano saxophone,  some drony keyboard i can’t name,  rainmaker,  shakuhachi ( japanese flute ),  jingle bells and voice.

some unexpected guests contributed, too.  we left the microphone on for quite some time and ended up opening the studio door out onto the back yard.  the cicadas and lorikeets joined the improv… and bhodi the cat timed his perfect one-note solo.

and the beach is just across the street.