a quiet end

April 2, 2011 @ 3:23pm • Text Post • Tweet this • Share on Facebook

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(…)

Following ‘all things always’ as the second instrumental track on the EP (click the link to read that entry), ‘…’ was written shortly after and both came together arrangement-wise within a couple days of each other. I’d hoped to create a stark difference between the two, while rooting them in a similar style and aesthetic that kept them separate from the more song-oriented tracks on the EP. While sharing the same dna, in terms of what they evoke, one is filled up with possibility, the threads of time winding together, while the other is at a loss in a sort of downtrodden acceptance of not knowing anything. In this way they end up representing the different ends of the darkness/light dichotomy to some degree, a theme I’ve found to often be unconsciously reoccurring. It’s in this way as well, that the instrumentals flesh out the overall contextual arc of the EP while maintaining a relationship with each other, one that has a dynamic of its own but also sees them stand independently as their own unique pieces.

In wanting to fill the EP out more, it would have been easy to pull another already written song from somewhere and add it in. In expanding it though, I wanted to add something totally new, something written just for this purpose and not added haphazardly just for the sake of having more. At first, I didn’t know if the instrumentals would be included it all, it was a kind of experiment in that way, and there was even a moment in the last month of finishing where I considered taking them out completely.

For whatever reason ‘…’ was far easier than ‘all things always’ to mix and master. There was still a little bit of trouble with the piano sound, thought not nearly as much, and then it took some time to balance out all of the elements texturally to get the proper amount of space while maintaining a full sounding mix. There is also a lot of dynamic range between the first minute, and the end of the song where it fills out more, and maintaining clarity so that it could have a sense of sweeping upward, and not crunch when it all really starts to swirl around at the end took some extra effort as well. There was also a bit of an issue in trying to get the violin to sound ‘natural’ for some reason, or at least when it was placed against everything else.

When I’d decided not to refer to the instrumentals as ‘Segues’ any longer, I had so much trouble trying to think of what to call this one. Everything I’d come up with seemed to try too hard to capture the tone of the music and sounded forced and silly. What I found though, is that I’d sit around asking myself what the music made me think of, and where it had come from for me, and what it meant. The answer I always seemed to get was always ‘dot dot dot’, something that seemed wholly appropriate for what the song represented, or at least where it sat in my mind. 

A Quiet End - (…) by aquietend

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March 23, 2011 @ 6:15pm • Text Post • Tweet this • Share on Facebook

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(all things always)

A Quiet End - (all things always) by aquietend

The first of two smaller instrumentals pieces on the EP that were initially referred to only as Segue I & II — preliminary namesakes that make reference to what the original intent was behind them. At first the EP was only going to be three songs, less material meant it would take less time to make, and also that in being more concise it would lend an immediacy to people hearing something for the first time from what was essentially a new project. Easily digestible and simple to share, centering the focus on a small number of songs might draw listeners in more easily than something with some sprawl. It seemed like a good idea, but, and this is the point where my friends laugh, I’ve always been more inclined towards more widescreen notions, grand narratives, and overarching flow or purpose that falls on the more detailed side of things. Also, to me three songs felt more like a single than an EP, and in launching a project more widely for the first time, and calling it such, it felt like it needed to be slightly more extensive. Even a six song EP, which at the time was only five, is limited in how far it can extend itself as far as vastness goes.

It’s not that the instrumentals were included as filler; they seemed like an appropriate way of both fleshing out the music as a set of songs, and extending the scope of the whole. Acting as a counterpoint to more traditionally song-oriented bits of work, and trying to find the large in the smaller moments; they sprung more directly out of my own background with classical and contemporary music. Over the last few years as well I’d done some small film score work, and even a series of semi-improvised minimal piano works – things that remain largely unreleased – which probably influenced the urge to add something somewhat different to the group of songs, and also to represent another mode of interest. I thought that working up something in that vein could help add cohesion, and also draw out more dimension over the entirety of the EP. So I began with a vague notion of a couple of interludes of some kind (hence the parentheses), and working with the piano as a starting point, and even having them modulate keys from the preceding song to the one that would follow.

The piano part to ‘all things always’ came rather quickly, and the once that part was written, the arrangement did too. I thought recording would be a fairly simple affair, and happen faster because it was less dense arrangement-wise than the other songs. It did record quickly, but would become somewhat problematic upon reaching the mixing and mastering stage. Something about the piano was always difficult, it never wanted to sound right somehow, and even re-recording it didn’t seem to help. Then the whole thing together didn’t quite blend as well as I’d hoped, or quite how I had in mind anyway, and seemed to trip over itself often when it was all threaded together. In the end, it was probably the song I really had to settle the most with at a certain point, and I was tweaking the mix and master right up until the end.

I’m not sure at what point I’d decided on proper titles instead of just calling calling them ‘Segues’, but ‘all things always’ was fairly easy to name. When the piano part was first written, it came along with a kind of mental picture; one of looking at memories through a haze of saturated light, like that emitted from a setting sun seen through a wide window. It made me think of that feeling of being on a train, or riding in car for some extended period of time, and watching the horizon as the sun dips while you’re carried away by your thoughts. And the sense that occurs in such moments that the present, future, and what came before, all exist at once. 

As always, the whole EP can be found here.

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March 17, 2011 @ 6:34pm • Text Post • Tweet this • Share on Facebook

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an intimate history

Not only the last song on the EP, it was also the last one written, and its inclusion was a bit of a tack-on to what was already largely settled on. Recording was well underway, and the songs had long been decided upon, even if some of them were only in their preliminary stages; even the running order was firmly in place. Indirectly though, it felt like there was something missing. Not that I was pushing for another song or anything like that, there were plenty sitting in the cupboard ready to be brought out should the need arise, more that the idea of concluding the EP with ‘Allies’ didn’t feel quite right for some reason, and no obvious, suitable alternatives had sprung to mind. Then seemingly from nowhere, and with that lurking in my mind, ‘An Intimate History’ appeared as the obvious solution to this problem.

The song emerged in one of those strange and rare moments where an idea comes, and then immediately takes complete shape, almost as if it’s dictating itself. In the case of ‘An Intimate History’, I was actually on my way to the shower when the lazy bass part floated its way to the front of my mind. By the time I was out, the whole song had played its way around my head, fully formed, and I immediately set to work on putting down a rough demo to see if it would hold together as well in reality, and to try and capture the idea before it disappeared. In the end, the final recording matched up almost exactly with the original impression of the song, which is I think, also a fairly rare occurrence.

Lyrically, it’s probably the song I’m the most pleased with. Lyrics are something I would have liked to have developed more with some of the songs, and writing generally is something I take very seriously, but those of ‘An Intimate History’ were written in one go, and didn’t change much after that. In fact, I don’t think there was much in the way of editing at all, aside from a few scratch-outs and re-words immediately as they were put down. It has less words than any of the other songs, but also contains what I think is my favourite line on the whole EP; one that perfectly captures a core truth, and something that has been slowly shifting in the time around the writing and recording of these songs.

The title is a bit of a wink at my partner on the administrative side of things – it was something he came up with as a potential name for a record label we dreamt of starting eventually. It sounded good, but more than that, the name suggested the truth of our often shared personal history, one with ties and webs that extend beyond anything that could be understood outside of the people within them. Themes that were also found in many of the life events of the last two years plus. Originally, the song was called ‘Atom Bomb’ as a placeholder, but the more I thought about what it was about, the more it became obvious that it was a re-telling, or more, and examination of an actual intimate history. One that bookends the subject matter of the songs that precede it, and is a kind of final survey of a broad set of whys before moving on.

A Quiet End - An Intimate History by aquietend

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