End of the beginning

For some reason i have forgotten to blog the work I did a couple of days ago, so here goes.

I finished the first pass of 1.1.1. It was going pretty much to plan, a series of introductory noises: cymbals, deep rumble, tinkly electronics, whalesong and rainsticks, then it broke into african rythmns, combined with guitars and mellotron and a tune on a chinese ehru. However when i listened to it, the tuneful section seemed too short, or was the introduction too long, or was the whole thing too short? Anyway it didn't gel quite right. What if I introduced the tune earlier - so I did an acoustic guitar version as the rainstick came in, and then somehow again when the african rythmns came in. Better, much more rounded, makes the nnoises section feel a bit less random and self-indulgent (hah! as if the whole thing isn't enormously self-indulgent anyway).

Now it feels right - I'm asking myself whether the cymbals at the beginning are right, but they are growing on me which is a good sign. I'm a great believer in elapsed time as a creative tool. If you litsen to something you have created enough over time, you firstly start to loose the "closeness" you have to it - it was created by a past you not really you, and it helps you be less precious about changing it. Also I have found that if there are things you are unsure about they either "bed in", feeling more and more right over time, or stand out feeling more and more wrong over time. I have a feeling the cymbals will do the former - but the other question is, is the opening strong enough? One thing about an album like this is that I am unlikely to be able to change the order of things around. For a conventional album, you create a load of songs, and then you can pick the order when they are done. All albums need a flow to work right, and especially they need a strong beginning and ending. Anyway, time will tell.

So back to section 1.1.2 - the gaseous airy section. I'm stuck, it really isn't going right at the moment, the change in the middle is wrong, it feels like two ideas bunged back to back (which is what it is) - but does not transition well at the moment, not that I've really done anything of the second idea, but I have a tune. So this is the next thing to tackle - rethinking 1.1.2.