"7 Fragments from the Haunted Mirrors of the Afternoon"

Release available from 6 on the dot.

A few years ago, while perusing some books in the local public library, I came across a book (whose title I can’t presently recall), which was about different manors and castles in the British Isles. For each of these edifices listed in the book there were associated legends, histories of previous and present tenants, and beautiful high-definition black and white photographs. I was mostly impressed with the presentation of the photographs, of which most seemed to have been taken around high noon or early afternoon. This only added to my curiosity as I’ve read many articles on photography which stated that this part of the day is the most difficult to take “interesting” pictures in because of the light which is directly above, leaving fewer shadows and less contrast to work with. Ironically, at the apex of the daylight hours, these gothic structures seemed only heightened in their mystery, even more so than the few others photographed in the early evening or night hours. I was struck by the certain melancholy, hazy yet almost glowing quality each of them possessed. I have often since wondered and thought about trying to evoke some musical equivalent (or at least some close relative) to the emotions I felt while scrutinizing those photos. “7 Fragments…” is my attempted musical equivalent.

Sound sources used in this recording:
For each of the tracks entitled “Fragment x” (where x = a number) I used excerpts from an old Victrola recording of a piece called “Lover.” For all other tracks I used prepared piano almost exclusively and only occasionally a few excerpts from some recordings of antique music boxes. (So all pops, clicks and hisses that you hear are not from some old dusty 78rpm record but, in fact, from the prepared, contact-mic’d piano.) In addition, one track (entitled “BlackrainSiren”) contains a few heavily processed vocal snippets from another recording and the slightly more obvious yet still subtle background sounds of a siren and rainfall.

.. go to 6 on the dot website for some mp3 samples..

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