0509021910

02005-09-03 | Uncategorized | 11 comments

At 8:28 AM, Matt Callahan said…
I listened to 0509021910 a few times this morning while the house was still quiet. Simply amazing. An entire album of recordings like this would be more than anyone could ask for. When’s the release date again :)

At 12:10 PM, Curt said…
I’m with Matt. A solo guitar album with material like this would be a treasure.

Thanks guys! I do enjoy the contrast between carefully layering a production for a CD release, which takes months and months, and working quickly, improvising – “flying by the seat of one’s pants”. Both are very different ways of working and both reveal different aspects of music and of creativity. I imagine the full production is more like a big oil painting: paint the gesso on the canvas, start with the under-painting, the overall shapes, and then layer then paint until, well, until it’s done… In contrast to that an improvisation, like the one I recorded yesterday, is more like a charcoal or pencil drawing. It is firmly placed in the moment and there is no time to consider different options because your fingers keep moving… Thinking would ruin the flow. I think an improv like that is more about trust than conscious and well-considered decisions.

I certainly plan to record more pieces like this, but don’t think I will release them on CD at all. This is the beauty of the LL! I will release these improvisations as I record them and will create a PDF booklet (maybe with a number of pencil drawings) to accompany this first LL-only album of recordings.

PS: right now (I change my mind all of the time) I think Tears in the Rain will be available as downloads from the LL only. No CD will be distributed, but of course you can make your own. I started working on pencil drawings done in the same spirit as the music, and will create a PDF file that will accompany the music. The PDF will be designed with as few words as possible, leaving the interpretation of the work entirely up to your imagination. I make fun of Purity all of the time and indeed there is no such thing as Purity, but Tears in the Rain will be pure in the sense that I want it to be a simple creative expression, unexplained, and unchained by the marketing and distribution system. The pieces will be sequenced in the order that they were recorded, which means that the track already available in the LL will be track number one and so on. However, it would be interesting if you created your own sequence of songs, and shared that sequence with everyone.

Maybe I will banish all logos, including our own from the PDF. I would love if the listener were to design their own CD package for Tears in the Rain using the music and PDF purchased and downloaded from the LL. Maybe we can have a contest and the most creative CD container wins something. Think of the possibilities! Fabric or a sheet of paper folded to contain a CD, a cannister, a wooden container… each person could send in a photo of their CD container, which I would add to a set in Flickr and everyone could view. We could all vote on the best container. The winner will receive two tickets to one of our shows.

11 Comments

  1. Adam Solomon

    Ooh. So is Tears in the Rain to be an LL-only album, or are these recordings not meant for that album?

    Reply
  2. Matt Callahan

    You blaze the musical path and my ears will follow. Long live the Lounge!!

    Reply
  3. Borya

    As Adam I now start wondering about your Tears in Rain project. LL-only? Or a being between the two states you described?

    Reply
  4. Adam Solomon

    Hmmm…perhaps this is still coming from that place in me that is used to the traditional CD format, but I personally would rather see Tears in the Rain, if it is an LL-only album, released all at once, instead of a track at a time, and for two reasons, little things which are important to me and, maybe, to other people. The first is that having the album at once…I can’t explain it, honestly :) It’s like with any other album, you look forward to it, then, on day of release, you pick it up and delve into it. A tough feeling to beat. The second, more importantly, is to have the tracks ordered the right way, as opposed to ordered by when they were recorded, so the album flows right and sounds like a complete unit. They both deal with giving the album a sense of wholeness, of completeness, making it one full album, not just a miscellaneous collection of tracks recorded in the same vein. Just my thoughts…

    Reply
  5. Carol

    I have that same feeling, Adam. It’s like getting a Christmas present every day, which isn’t the same as the anticipation and that thrill of it all at once.. But, oh my that music is so wonderful…I’m happy to “open a gift” as they come and rewrap them in my mind and assemble them the way Ottmar would have them flow…Wish we could have it both ways…a CD too, but I realize that in that time and energy and $$ Ottmar will have that much more music.

    Reply
  6. Matt Callahan

    Adam and Carol – How about testing your will? Download the songs as they are released but don’t listen until the “offical release date” Ottmar sets. Then listen to the whole project. Hmmm. Could I make it?

    I do agree that the CD itself has some special meaning. Handling the finished project with artwork and labeling; but I think we need to be ready for change. I also like the idea of making your own packaging. This concept keeps getting more interesting as the days progress.

    Reply
  7. Borya

    This post has been removed by the author.

    Reply
  8. Borya

    I second Adam and Carol here, especially what they say about expectations and present. The LL is fantastic and I’m looking forward to every new item posted. But when I look at ITAOL which is standing on a cupboard right of me at the moment, I know what I’d prefer. Not me burning CDs in an unorganized way or designing whatever.
    Nonetheless I’m curious, devoted and open enough to follow.

    Reply
  9. Adam Solomon

    Matt–I know I would have the willpower, I’ve had some of my favorite albums on my computer weeks before official release and I only listened to a couple of songs (though I can’t say I wasn’t tempted!), but….I don’t know, I just think that if you’re going to make an album it could be one of two things, gradually added tracks that are not meant to work together in a certain order and flow (i.e., a group of individual tracks under a common banner), or a group of tracks released at once and ordered just right (i.e., a complete, whole album, one unit). And personally I think that something of new material, like (and especially) Tears in the Rain, should be treated as the latter.

    Even if it isn’t released as a CD…releasing it online only is obviously something many of us aren’t quite thrilled about, it seems, but we’re all willing to try new things and it’s certainly easier for Ottmar…I personally don’t buy CDs anymore anyway, except for those of a few select artists/groups, such as Ottmar…

    Reply
  10. Ottmar

    Sometimes I wonder why I turned the comments back on : ) You do have choices, you know? You can not buy the music at all, or you can buy it when the album is complete – might even save some money buying the album instead of the individual tracks. The way you guys go on about the good old days of the CD – you sound worse than my grandfather! Cheer up!

    Reply
  11. keats79

    The LL ROCKS in a nouveau kind of way. Everyone on the site broke from tradition by embracing NF why balk at one more great step? Break free the shackles of convention! Think about the Apple breakthrough “1984” commercial here.
    After listening to the 320 kbps tracks I am not stooping to anything else. The podcast thing is super also. As a frequent traveler it is a great thing to discover things in the podcast.

    La Semana is the official reading music for my wife’s 6th grade reading classes. Productivity and focus have risen appreciably. Makes sense that reading class is held weekly, eh?

    Reply

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