Notes from the artist incoming;

Bird of Passage began in January of 2023. The loose idea was to compose a full album of piano pieces with an overarching atmosphere, not a concept, that tied them all together. By April I had composed and recorded one piece per month leaving me with a total of four piano pieces.

At this point in time I felt slightly burned out and uninspired, and so rather than forcing myself to compose more (which I had already unsuccessfully attempted numerous times); instead I approached a number of artists and invited them to contribute to the four tracks that were completed.

Iker Garmendia, who releases music as Sugaar Pan, was the first artist that I reached out to and he generously contributed improvised flute parts to the first three tracks. The flutes are beautifully minimalistic and he overdubbed different flute tracks to create a sort of a woodwind cushion.

Simon McCorry, who releases music under his own name and under many other guises, contributed cello to track one and three. On the first track, Simon made a dry recording with the mic at some distance from the cello (1m to 1.5m) to fit in with the rest of the recording. He kept quite a lot of rosin on the bow to keep it gritty to fit in with the pianos distortion and played closish to the bridge for the same reason. He didn’t use any overdrive or anything, leaving it to the bow, cello & pre amp to do this. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

Jez Thelwell, who operates the Moolakii Club Audio Interface label and performs and releases music under the name Loopatronica, contributed an amazing rhythmic part for track two that complements the opening piano refrain before building into an epic climax.

Around this time I had begun noticing that several artists were releasing entire albums consisting of nothing but remixes. The concept of remixing really started to fascinate me and I started becoming genuinely curious to hear what these tracks I had been working on might sound
like in the hands of another. It would also have the added benefit of (probably) doubling the length of my rather short album.

Simon McCorry, The New Emphatic, hyacinth, and autumna each remixed one of the original four tracks. Their versions are a welcome complement and intriguing contrast to the original four tracks. They all had complete creative freedom to approach the remix in whatever way they desired and I’m so grateful for their generosity and for what they made.

The solo piano versions of the first three tracks are the same as the original tracks, with the exception of track one which, on the solo version, is extended by almost two minutes.

The only other thing I’ll mention is that the trumpet that comes in well into track one was recorded using an akai mini. And also on track four there is a field recording of the ocean taken on Bowen Island in May of 2023, and everything else on that track was played on a Yamaha CP88 or akai mini.

“THEN THERE WILL BE NO MUSIC BUT THE SOUND OF RUSHING WATER THAT BREAKS ON POINTED ROCKS FAR BELOW, AND THE SIGHING OF THE WIND IN THE PINYONS
A WARM WIND THAT GENTLY CARESSES MY CHEEKS, RUFFLES
MY HAIR TENDERLY, AND WANDERS DOWNWARDS. ALONE I WILL FOLLOW THE DARK TRAIL, BLACK VOID ON ONE SIDE AND UNATTAINABLE HEIGHTS ON THE OTHER, DARKNESS BEFORE AND BEHIND ME, DARKNESS THAT PULSES AND FLOWS AND IS FELT. THEN SUDDENLY, AN UNREAL BREATH OF WIND COMING
FROM INFINITE DEPTHS WILL BRING TO MY EARS AGAIN THE STRANGE, DIMLY REMEMBERED SOUND OF THE RUSHING WATER. WHEN THAT SOUND DIES, ALL DIES.”

Everett Ruess

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