Orchid Track #1: The Gentle Art of Not Forgetting
New Blog is At www.comecloser.com/blog
The streaming songs work there.
1) Prelude: The Gentle Art of Not Forgetting 1:38
This song was available on the 2006 compilation `Abandoned In Situ.’ So you regulars out there, I am sorry that the first thing you are hearing is something you already own.
The Hot Attic of Despair
When I listen to this track, I remember being in my attic (I lived in the attic in my parent’s house) and playing the piano part. I remember the Green and Orange signal level lights on the Tascam 4 Track jumping up and down.
I remember the oppressive New Jersey heat and humidity, the sweat dripping off my nose onto the white keyboard keys. I had an air conditioner that only cooled 1 square foot of the room and I was 20 feet away. Average temperature in the summer was about 110 degrees in that attic.
Despite the heat, I loved that attic. It had dark brown faux wood beams and a cathedral-style ceiling. It kind of looked like an old rustic Swiss tavern. In better times, it was a great haven. I was fortunate to have spent my `tender years’ in such swanky digs.
It was mid-week and I was absorbed in my microcosm until the weekend job; which consisted of lugging musical gear up and down Interstate 95 for a tribute band. Where would I be this week? Poughkeepsie? Providence? Vermont? They were all the same to me. Except for West Virginia.
I really wanted to be on stage, interact with a crowd, not behind the scenes setting up drums and lights. I couldn’t free myself to be on stage, I couldn’t free myself to connect with others. After the hours of setting up gear, I spent the duration of the show watching the band, wishing I was playing. No one’s fault but my own. It was all there for the taking but I was too stupid and proud to go for it.
Same Day, Everyday.
I don’t need specific memories to know that I was miserable at that time. Every week day I felt I was sitting around with a steel box encasing my head. Too crippled to go out THERE and do anything or interact with anyone. So I stayed in my attic; recording this thing that I felt had profound power. I felt it had purpose.
It wasn’t heartbreak that was consuming me when I wasn’t recording. It was the lack of control I had over the situation; and the complete inability to govern my emotions in order to move on. Or perhaps I had too much control and was the one responsible for setting all the negative incidences in motion?
Or maybe, just maybe, New Jersey girls are simply insane. You’ve heard the stories…
It angered me knowing that the girls of Orchid (We will call them Flower #1 thru #3 respectively.) were having a better more fulfilling life than I. Especially that they helped facilitate this state, alongside my immaturity and inexperience.
To know that anyone with basic motor functions could sense the despair and desperation sweating out of me was disheartening. And somehow I maintained a personality that was a hybrid of rotten meat and narcissism.
Recollection
I do recall that this introduction was written a few weeks after the completion of `Orchid.’ For whatever reason, I thought `Orchid’ needed a proper introduction. And for the past few hours I was wondering what that reason was. While in my zeal of beating up my junior self, I thought I created the prelude to show off the theme of `Orchid’ and how clever I was to build the entire album around it. The more I think about it, the creation came about because I was simply playing the piano on that June day. I have faint recollections of `hey, that’s pretty nice.’
I know I somewhat improvised the introduction with no metronome/click track or MIDI. The synth Glockenspiel (which sounds NOTHING like a glockenspiel) is awkward with its interplay to the Korg Barely Sounds Like A Piano Piano sound.
The `soaring’ distortion sound at the end plays a big role on `Orchid.’ You will hear it quite a bit in other tracks. It’s a sonic motif that I think was meant to represent a sort of screaming soul. It was a subconscious move on my part to use this distortion as the main orator of my emotions.
Regardless if my intention was to be brilliant and clever, I still like this introduction. Personally, I believe this piece tells more of the story and emotional state than the remainder of the album.
In the background you can hear an almost buzzing pulse. If you turn it up loud, you’ll hear that it’s a distorted piano. This was not intentional. What you are hearing is tape bleed from the song `Where We Rest.’ The very end of `Where We Rest’ actually.
Either I was too lazy or couldn’t afford more cassettes to record on. So I just recorded over what I had.
That tape bleed makes the song. It’s something out of the Pink Floyd playbook.
The beginning meets the end. There we go again: Ouroboros. 
Bonus Track: The Gentle Art of Not Forgetting – 2009 Version (Unfinished)
I mentioned in my first post that re-recording `Orchid’ in 2009 was a rather miserable and pointless endeavor. Below is the unfinished version of `The Gentle Art of Not Forgetting’ which was done only a few weeks ago. As you will hear, all the `accoutrements’ are missing. It’s just a Piano, Celeste and Glockenspiel.
I was unable to re-create that Screaming Distortion sound because I no longer have a Korg 01/W (now back with its rightful owner.) Not being able to properly re-create or replace that sound was the definitive end. While I could have obtained this keyboard, I was not motivated to do so.
Korg 01/W: Workstation, Sequencer, Trusted Companion
Leave a Reply