Music From The Depths

These last two weeks have bounced between Spring-like and "kinda not Spring" here in Florida. Some of my family in the north report that flowers are blooming, and the snow is gone. Regardless of how non-committing Spring may be this year, we always anticipate it with hope. It's our sign that life has survived the frost and snow and that summer is coming.

While the last episode was brought to you by the sounds of an air scrubber I wanted to toss out of the house, this week I could really use that air scrubber.

There's dust everywhere. Everywhere!

And that's just part of the fun of drywalling things. But though my arms and legs are sore, there were moments of peace in applying the sixth layer of drywall mud. It's "satisfying" was my kids would say. Well, satisfying, wedged between times of wanting to take a hammer to the very same wall because the thing just won't level out.

Ah well, back to it!

Not long ago, we found water damage in the kitchen of our house. In Florida, that means you get a mold test done. As a result of that test, a nice group of men wheeled an air scrubber into our house and began to tear our kitchen apart.

Then, they brought a second air scrubber because the first was lonely.

Our house has been filled with the sound of moving air. You can't hear anything in the kitchen and living room. Instead of canceling the mix, or recording elsewhere, I had an idea.

What if the entire mix was made from samples of the air scrubbers?

So I got out the microphones and started recording. I sampled both machines, one recorded up close with the SM-57 and Shure KSM mics. The second was recorded through the exit chamber of the containment tunnel from the kitchen by jamming a SM-57 into it. The result was different types of "air moving past microphones" samples.

With a lot of finagling, I finalized 9 samples that I used to make this. And it's made entirely from those 9 samples. (Plus a whole lot of sound manipulation.)

If you're new here, this isn't a typical mix.

But I hope you enjoy it!

I don't know about you, but this year has started with an exaggerated pace of getting things done. And after the lull of 2020, I'm somewhat good with that. But at the same time, it's easy to compare a break-neck pace to an open flame.

If left unchecked, flames burn whatever they can without an ounce of mercy.

And, yet, there's still something peaceful and life-giving about a fire. Flames can be wild and frantic, full of energy, but they can also be smooth and subtle while they move across the surface of wood, turning it to ash. With oranges, reds, and blues, there's a lot of beauty to them as well. But that same beauty is consuming. Not unlike trying to do too much in too short a time.

When I was a kid, my dad offered the advice that we shouldn't wish to speed life along. I was probably six or seven years old, but I couldn't wait to be ten.

As it turns out, my dad was right.

Since then I've realized how much time we spend saying things like "I can't wait for Friday" or "my birthday is in 21 days!" There's nothing wrong with those kinds of hopeful anticipations, but they can quietly steal from the here-and-now.

For me, these last two weeks have been a lot of fast-paced droning. The days are speeding by, but they hold one rapid motion while they go. I catch myself saying "I can't wait for this project to be over" or "I'll sleep on Friday." But then I remember my dad's advice and that our days are short, numbered, and sacred.

When you really stop and think about it, isn't life a series of chances to start again?

That's especially obvious in the first moments of a new year, or in spring. But each and every minute of our lives holds dozens of tiny opportunities to make new changes, or take alternate paths.

We can choose to see those as either positive or negative things. Which will it be for you?

As 2020 comes to a close, I wanted to walk back through the material I've released on the podcast this year. There was a lot of motion in theme and style during the last 16 episodes, and I combined them all into one big track. Some of the episodes are fairly close to their original sound while others have been heavily modified for this mix.

I've had so much fun working on this for you, and I hope that you've enjoyed the mix. The next original releases for this podcast will arrive in January 2021. Have a safe and fantastic New Year!

Sometimes life is so crazy that you don't have time to sit down and ponder the meaning of things. In my case, this track. What I can tell you is that I wrote four or five editions of EP-016 before this one showed up. I hope you enjoy it!

There's this saying that people use sometimes, when they can't take much more. It varies a bit in how it's stated, but it's often something like "Jesus, come quickly!" Bono (of U2) worded it slightly different with, "Wake Up Dead Man." No year in my own life has this sentiment been more accurate (or often heard) than this year. I'm sure you don't really need another person commenting on what 2020 was like though.

There's an interesting history lesson: In 1744, Charles Wesley wrote the song "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus." You can paraphrase at least the second verse as, "Jesus, come quickly." But why he wrote that is the interesting part.

The song came as a direct response from seeing the lives of orphans around him, and also how Great Britain was heavily divided by class. That sounds a bit too close to home for me, personally.

When I started looking at the idea of working with a Christmas song this year, I knew this one was the one. I know that it sounds pleasant (like almost every other Christmas song), because a lot of the hymns from way back when were... (They often reused and borrowed music from other stuff, but never-mind that for now.) But there's a lot of unseen depth to this one. Here are the lyrics:

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone; by thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.

The context of this episode felt worthy of a voice note. The full transcript is available in the description of EP-015.