Normally I blog after working on the music. Not tonight. Tonight dear invisible (and probably non-existant readers) I blog after some reflection last night on where I am musically with the Purple project.
I appreciate being in a place where not only can I think that a triangle quintet is a cool idea, but I have an appropriate forum to go ahead with one. I appreciate having 5 triangles in the first place, and having the equipment to go ahead with the recording. I appreciate the artistic freedom to follow whims like this and not have to be thinking "will it sell?" After an evening of Eurovision, I appreciate not being tied to formulae, to a three-minute window, to an expected key change, or to the pressure of national expectations. I appreciate the fact that right now my living is not dependant on my music.
But maybe most of all I appreciate having gone through the creative process of two albums, and being on my third feeling like I have permission (from myself) to try almost anything musically - to have the confidence to step out into something as "out there" as a triangle quintet, to be comfortable enough with my musicality to (hopefully) judge whether it works or not. on "binary tree" I experimented with brass bands in the rain and church organs, and now I feel like just about anything is musically permissable - except maybe rap.
I guess the challenge now is to take on board "everything is permissable, but not everything is beneficial". Just because I want a flugelhorn/musical saw duet it doesn't make it "right". Where is the boundary between experimentation and indulgance, between art and pretension? Or is this question itself the dangerous ground where I stop having fun and start taking it all too seriously?
Bwwwwaaaah - shake off the second-guessing, embrace the musical place I'm in and see if I can't just make some truly satisfying music.
The woodblocky thing is called "claves"
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