Part 2 – Song & didgeridoo instrument choice for Kosmopterix
I planned to record an album just before Storytellingstories in the end of 2007. Good thing I didn’t. First I did not know any time hole in Space to get 6 months in two days, second I still knew very very little about didgeridoo recording. And third – I did not have the songs even if I didn’t know it.
Storytellingstories was done as a theater show. Some of the songs were strong as individual pieces, and some had to be in the incorporated in the whole to gain sense and strength. On the album I wanted to have the first kind of beings.
It took me some time to realize this, and it is so etherical that it is hard to explain. But it was after one concert of Alexander Balanescu in May 2008 when things changed. I always admired Mr. Balanescu’s ability to reach with his violin far in Space to grab beauty and bring it to the present moment. After that concert I was in strong non-mind realization that it is ability of every human being. The ability to reach out and get an idea – beauty – life. I can’t really explain why all of a sudden that made so much sense. And if it is a believe or knowledge, is not really important, what is important that it was a guideline for me.
Since Balanescu’s father was writing an Unfinished Book, I’ve put Unfinished Songs the working title of this album. It made a lot of sense because I finally treated songs as living beings which have life independent of me, able to evolve and change, so they are unfinished always. Like me. It also made a relief of the perfectionism approach. Because if it is „unfinished“ it does not have to be „perfect“ in one captured condition. It already contains all of its states and already is perfect if there is sense in such a term…
What followed is one of the most important processes for me. I listened again all of my songs, and I tried to be separated from them, trying to feel what I hear. I wanted to distinguish which songs are based on technique, and which have some idea that created life in it. I obviously wanted the later of the two. Of course each song has both worlds, but somehow the process went very easily. I guess what was most important was separation and awareness, but these are connected anyway. It was deep realization process. Unfinished.
I had about the half of album. The rest followed quite naturally. No special stress, only constant work on it.
The sound of the album is much affected by my instruments choice for the songs. I followed my choice of instruments from before, when the songs were made. Now when I come to think of it, I’m not sure what to think.
There are many questions that arise here. Do I really know how my didgeridoo sounds? Do I really know how my song sounds? Do I really know how it will sound when properly recorded? How much do I want to change sound after I recorded it? So it is complex overview of the whole process which gives you an answer, and it seems it only comes with experience. But to give some guidelines, I will list the points I found usefull.
- Composition of the song done both with acoustical playing, and playing to microphone. The first is what I guess every didgerdioo player does, but It was useful for me to follow the process of creation with microphone. Not only to record and listen afterwards, but to play and listen to the headphones – that way I can alter the things in real time. I don’t have to listen, remember, try to change, listen again to find out if I was successful. Also another point here is that I play most of the time through amplification, so it gives me beter insight of what it sounds like, and how I can adapt the sound to the microphone- dynamics, changing microphone distance, reverbs, etc…
- EQ-ing can make instrument sound like another instrument. So if you have a „problem“ in your didgeridoo sound- this could be a solution, but it can also be a problem if you didn’t have it before. So I did not go that far to say – ok this didge has something I really like and also something I really don’t like but I will record it anyway and I will surgically remove what I don’t like later. I can’t say that it is a bad approach, but I just don’t have enough knowledge to anticipate how it will sound in the end. I went with the philosophy that recording must sound as close to final sound as possible. Generally I would say that didge volume does not matter. But the „fullness“ factor matters. It is a combination of colour (spectrum) and dynamics – in the sense of reacting to player’s intentions. Articulation was very important to me – so that didgeridoo does not get messy when speed rises. I think that in technical terms it is a matter of sufficient amount of mids and presence (5K) in spectrum of didge. But take this with reserve, I never actually checked this.
- The opposite approach -switching between didgeridoos of very different sound quality and pitch. That was a nice thing to find out something about a song and its sound. Often it is hard to choose between the small differences, and it gives you less insight of what really is what you’re dealing with. It assumes that you can change between didges easily. I use the kind of technique that does not care much about pitch or length of didg, so I can easily switch between didges separated by half an octave or more. It gives me some precious information. If you can do it, I recommend. If you can’t…then maybe it is not important anyway.
There are still many open questions here, and they fit in the category of fine art of making and recording didgeridoo songs. I guess many will be answered by experience gained from high awareness in the process. And many will be only Unfinished Answers.
I am aware that this text can be written a bit more systematically, and I will rearrange every text once the story is over and put it to a new place.
Next time we deal with strange interior decorations or how to make your room sound good.