Notes

I don't go out of my way to document my personal life, but it ends up in the music that I make just the same. That's all the more evident in this album, particularly on the heels of the last bit of meek sobriety that describes the last album. This time around I was in a new and exciting relationship. I was feeling vital and attractive and loved and loving. It was summer in the city. There was new possibility in the air.

However, I'm writing this now in August, at the end of the summer, and after much change within that relationship. It didn't exactly turn out to be everything I could have been happy with and I learned quite a bit about myself and what I need. But I did give it a shot. I really did. And I think that effort of trying and trying for exuberance is here. There is a supple quality to this work that I enjoy in retrospect and fully attribute to my emotional state at the time.

A stand-out find for me was the clip from the classic 80's song, "Love Is A House".
And there is significant nostalgia at work in all of these track as well. So it's not terribly progressive, but more of a return to form. I felt myself again for a while and I think it shows.

There is some self-doubt as well, that can't be helped. I wasn't entirely comfortable with what I felt I was compromising of myself. But there's no sadness. I think the spirit to make a go of things was willing. The album describes the full arc of this relationship.

Meditative servile imagery, but finding a divinity and colorful elevation in that role. I realized during the course of all this of my need for approval and to please.

The actual track "Quasiel" is in parallel to the album and is a second disc. It was made as a loving gift during the height of this time. And so it was meant more of an outward expression for another person to hear, as opposed to entiries in a personal musical diary. There is a lot of intent and purposeful construction to it.

Along with my own sound wrangling, here are the significant samples used in the track "Quasiel":

rowers during the local Head of The Charles crew boat races

the "Voiceprint Identification" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Michael Sembello, “Maniac”

Sarah McLachlan, ”Possession”

The Cure, ”Close To Me”

Scissor Sisters, ”Laura”

Sade, ”Love Is Stronger Than Pride”

Joy Division, ”Love Will Tear Us Apart”

the Mormon Tabernacle Choir