colors

My last entry may sound like I’m completely pleased with my little project and that in 15 minutes I churned out a work of Art-with-a-capital-A. I have some delusions, sure, but that ain’t one of them. If this were 1970 I might have a chance of taking a tiny video like that along with its soundtrack and getting some serious attention due in no small part to the technology and techniques used. But this is 2010 and the bar is a little higher than that on most days. I did say most days.

The exercise revealed a new color for me. I don’t know that I have a really good analogy for it aside from the ham-handed “imagine that you’d never seen the color green before and then it magically appeared in your field of vision.” It’s exaggerated. It’s silly. It’s not the point.

Playing around with the video gave me a chance to see what I could do with very little time and knowledge. If I equate this to building a palette or tool box, I’d say I have crimson or a hammer. Having those things is essential. It’s a place to begin. The next time I sit down to work on something I will know that I can do what I did last time. Nail? No problem! But not every problem is a nail and unlike Picasso I don’t think that anyone is going to give me a period to experiment with only one color. Sad, but true. The thing to do now is take that tool and find more. The color analogy works better here. With crimson and white or black I can really start to do something. If I spend a little time and discover my yellow or blue, I’ll really be on a roll.

My goal for this week is to record some things and really abandon my expectations. Play a little bit with what I know won’t sound good and figure out if it’s my expectations or the actual outcomes that lack. By the end of the second quarter of the year I should have some good stuff to show for it. What a good idea! This can be my experimental quarter. I’ll keep some notes and post some sketches. I’m sure at least an EP will come of it.

With the first quarter of the year coming to a close, I’m hurrying to complete a five song EP for release. The working title is Thought Music and it’s the result of a one night recording session that lasted less than an hour. All of the material is improvised. It’s taking a chance with the way I have mixed the material for the collection. Simple solo guitar and heavily processed material co-exist. I think it works. It will certainly be complete by the end of March but I would expect it to show up sooner. I’ll do a big post about it when the time comes and pimp it heavily on facebook and twitter as is my custom. Watch this space and all that jazz!

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