Another week, another tricky homework assignment from Professor Brian Eno.
This time, we were encouraged to locate a ‘scape’ where we could sit for 15 minutes uninterrupted—5 minutes for listening and 10 minutes for writing down our observations of what we saw, heard, felt, and remembered. This proved harder than I thought it would be. My attention span has been whittled away by over 15 years of social media use.
As I mentioned last week, I have been in the northeast of Brazil for the festive period. It's summer, and the temperature is 32 degrees C (90 degrees F). I wrote this song in one session of about 45 minutes in my mother-in-law's apartment. I almost discarded the song because it wasn’t really working, but once I started writing the lyrics, the piece seemed to come to life.
When I came to record the song, which I did when we were staying away from the city up in the mountains for a few days, I captured the call of the cicadas from up in the trees in the background. These recordings are the first time I’ve properly experimented with ambient ‘field recordings,’ but it is something I will return to again. I like the atmosphere and the elements of randomness that this technique provides. Please feel free to send me any recommendations for effective (and affordable) microphones for field recordings.
The lyrics to this song reference the heat and my struggles to complete the exercise. The song was originally called ‘Alice In Shades’ because I thought the first chord sounded a little like the grunge band Alice In Chains, but I wanted it to be closer to Tom Wait’s song ‘In Shades’. Anyway, I changed the first line and the name of the song as it seemed too flippant. Maybe I’ll change it back again in the future. For now, it’s called ‘Hide In the Shade’. Here are the lyrics:
Hide behind shades
January heatwave
Hide from the sun
Hiding out from everyone
Icy cold breath
Air-conditioned timebomb
Cook a fried egg.
Right there on that car front
Or on the pavement.
I can't sit still for even five minutes
Everyone has
Attention deficit
A live wire device
in their pocket
Itchy trigger finger
For a dopamine hit.
Hide in the shade
Hide behind shades.
Thanks for listening to last week’s song, ‘Blue,’ and for your kind words. I was surprised and heartened by the response.
More music coming next week. The next homework assignment looks to be an even trickier one. Prof Eno is pushing some of us (me) well out of our comfort zones.
Until then, I’m sending best wishes to you all, especially those affected by the devastating wildfires in California. Please help out if you can.
Take care out there, everyone.
James xx.
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