As many creative people know, limitations can actually enhance creativity, and with that in mind I gave myself a rule for this record: all sounds had to be acoustic in origin. If it didn’t get bowed, plucked, hit, blown on or through, or otherwise vibrate the air before being recorded, it wouldn’t go on the record. Modern production tools still gave me a lot of options for processing the sounds, and the result is this somewhat weird, difficult and moody collection recorded over a gloomy southern Ontario winter. It came out more like a soundtrack, with plenty of recurring motifs and themes.

Thanks for listening.

1. The Rain
Music completely inspired by the poem I found on freesound.org. Thank you freesound user annseb wherever you are.

2. River of Feelings
A simple piano chord I played one morning and couldn’t shake provides the basis for this cinematic piece. The title comes from a chapter of the book Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh, which discusses how our feelings direct all our thoughts and actions.

3. O Spring
O Spring will waken the heart of me
With the rapture of blown violets!
When the green bud quickens on every tree,
The Spring will waken the heart of me,
And dews of honey will rain on the lea,
Tangling the grasses in silver nets.
Yes, Spring will waken the heart of me
With the rapture of blown violets!
Alice Furlong

4. Two Chicks Walk Into a Bar
A two piano piece that someone said reminded them of Chick Corea. I’ll take it.

5. Weirdo
An autobiography.

6. Janice Ah Uhm
Can write a pop song? Yes, sort of. Will it be weird? Yes.

7. Elevensies
I often have a double espresso before starting my day in the studio…

8. 300 Tang Poems
Playing with my fascination at the diversity of human languages.

9. Sailing Not Drifting
An experiment using noise and found sounds as melodies.

10. Forest Park
An attempt to capture the overlapping rhythms found in nature, with field sounds recorded near a lovely babbling brook near my home. The water and wildlife sounds are played back at half speed, which I think gives them a completely different character.

11. Breakfast
Attentive listeners can hear motifs from this ditty in many other songs on the record.