June! It is really early in the month still, but already it promises renewal...i have started a detoxification/cleansing that i hope will last for the rest of the month. This is simply a dietary cleanse...no meat, no wheat, no sweets, no caffeine, no anything...ha...fruits, veggies, nuts, certain grains, fish...all of this supplemented by weekly trips to the sauna and morning bike rides (getting it this week!) this is day seven and right now i just feel a little trippy...apparently this is a phase to push through on the way to more energy, shinier skin, and a clear frame of mind...i'll let you cats know!
so this song is an impromptu...one instrument, one take, no overdubs, a simple exercise in free form melody and texture. it's a rather cheesy cheap trumpet sound with some delays and distortion thrown in hither and tither...this improvised tune serves as a metaphor for the transformations that i'm experiencing right now...i am not certain where they will take me, how it will end, but im improvising my way through it and determined to see what happens...this little song is kinda like that, i guess. a lot different from the other songs i've posted in the almanac, but i think it fits nicely in the canon so far, looking back...
this month's randomly ordered top ten:
1. tree of life - it was a difficult film, but reflecting, i think it was quite brilliant... 2. eyedrum retreats - scheming and dreaming..fresh stuff ahead 3. these bands/artists: amon tobin, anbb, the caretaker, francois de roubaix, igor wakhevitch, swans, sightings, bjork, etc etc etc 4. eating fire. 5. making smoothies 6. new musical collaborations just getting underway (deets pending) 7. body scrubs at the spa 8. boiled eggs 9. this diet thing, really...i am still in the first week of it...am in that mildly hallucinatory, quick-to-grumpiness frame of mind...weird, but it's making me pay more attention to my body and it's needs. 10. retro-futurism
anyway, enjoy the tune and stay in touch. love, nathan
May was my birthday month. i just turned a whopping 37 years old....i remember being a kid and thinking that 35 meant "adult". now a shade beyond that and a couple of years older than my dad was when i was born back in 1974...i am reminded of birthdays past...from the sesame street themed party when i was maybe four (and i got my first projectile launching toy), to my 14th or so when i cut my toe on the side of an above-ground swimming pool and saw my first freshly drowned cadaver while getting stitches at the emergency room...to just having some friends over and going skinny dipping in the creek, going fishing with my dad and matthew and his dad...countless little parties and gatherings...birthdays can be fun, can be weird.
this month was a sprawl...played a few shows, met a bunch of new folks, fooled myself into thinking i was making more life changes, and came out of it spent..having indulged and self-destructed just a little too much. had a lot of fun. the birthday itself was a pleasant affair...my parents came to visit for the first time and that was really great and needed. then a few close homies came over and we kept good company together. got a couple of nice presents, including tickets to see the swans later this year (!) and a photo of robots!
this song is something i cooked up in early may on piano. i decided to do a more minimal synth version and post that here. there's not much to tell, really...two synthesizers, some drums, and a bit of vocals...a return to song structure as of late probably speaks to my need for more order in my life, something i'm currently working hard toward...june's entry should be more revealing to this end...
this month's randomly ordered top ten:
1. chipmunks 2. eyedrum satellite shows 3. korean spa time 4. planning a september tour 5. center for puppetry arts 6. birthday time with friends 7. these bands/artists: chancha via circuito, kwjaz, modern english, gurdjieff gi, emil richards, fastest, the sea and cake etc etc etc 8. faulkner 9. living alone 10. new kitchen table
anyway, enjoy the tune, be well, and stay in touch.
love, nathan
p.s. i decided to simply post the soundcloud link in the blog this time instead of directing you to mediafire. the song can be downloaded there as well, if you, dear listener, are so inclined.
