Catskills impromptus

You can download your own copy of the MP3s here.

As you might have read in an earlier post, Mike Bartlett and I were in the Catskill Mountains for 10 days, writing a play-with-music together.  I’d taken a guitar with me, and thought it might be nice to record some impromptu instrumentals; in my earlier, more technical, guitar-playing days I’d written a lot of solo guitar instrumentals, using extended techniques culled from the work of Michael Hedges (among others), and I’ve recently started thinking about writing more.  These four recordings, though, are certainly ‘impromptu’ and unpolished, being the result of a few minutes’ fiddling around late at night, and you’ll certainly hear a lot of extraneous noise in the background.

1. Red barn
This is in open D tuning (DADF#AD), and uses the same right-hand pattern throughout. The Red Barn, if you’re interested, is the building in the photo above, and the site of numerous rehearsals and viewings throughout our time at the Orchard Project.
[audio:01.mp3]

2. The parted couple
This uses the same tuning as one of the most perfect pieces of music I know, The Happy Couple by Michael Hedges (GBEF#AD), and is loosely based on some of the themes in it. Very loosely.
[audio:02.mp3]

3. Mafia party
While recording this, the rest of the artists at the retreat were downstairs, playing one of the best group games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Near the beginning of the recording, you can hear Sarah (I think) giggling during her phone conversation on the stairs outside my room. It’s in standard tuning.
[audio:03.mp3]

4. Structure of water
While staying in the town of Hunter, NY we had several days of the hardest rain I’ve ever seen, a few hours a hail, and a roaring mountain creek at the end of the garden, so water was clearly on my mind. This is a simple recording of an altered tuning chord (BBEF#AD), electronically stretched out and treated, so the notes of the chord and the harmonics come out as the chord decays.
[audio:04.mp3]