Invisible
Posted by calum_shaw | Filed under Uncategorized
So I’m kinda liking trying to find a picture to accompany each post although I’m liking this one a lot. There was one similar to this but it was “invisible measuring tape”.
I’ve been listening to some songs on spotify over the last wee while today and when “Awake My Soul” came on my Mumford and Sons (GREAT song and band) for some reason it got me thinking about the effects of music. Don’t worry this isn’t a deep throughful one.
To start off, sound is invisible! I don’t know about you, but i find it pretty cool. Through this invisible thing it’s come from being recorded by the artist in the studio. So, the guitar track was played by the artist and (after choosing which take), that’s it invisible. Its captured in digital domain. It goes through mixing and mastering, pressing and distribution. Stored up for the moment of listening. With digital now, it’s not like jam where it will rot over a long time, the 1s and 0s of digital music will technically last for a lot longer and whats amazing is that the sound that we hear just now from a new track, will be the same sound 40, 50, 60 years down the line (don’t hold me to this btw!). I jsut find it really cool how in recording its just the one take that makes it onto the track. So on the average pop track, you have about 30 different audio takes. Each one played just once yet can be played over and over. The performance is that one take is so important. I’m turning to geek mode so i’ll stop on this point.
I’m not going into all the effects of music cause quite frankly I don’t want to talk about brown noise so my last point is how a piece of music can take you back to a situation so quickly that a couple of seconds of a track to the ear will send you back to that point of reference. I can no longer listen to Coldplay’s XandY album, David Grey’s “Life in slow motion”, Damien Rice’s O or 9, Ryan Adam’s was a struggle generally, but not quite so much anymore. On a good note, I can listen to Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst Album with Polyphony (a choir) and it will take me back to flying to and from Lithuania with my high school choir. Some of the songs reminds me of traveling in the car, other on the plane others a place. Keane’s “Hopes and Fears” reminds me of my family holiday to Lake Garda in 2004. I don’t really know why cause I don’t really like Keane that much. I might have done more then. But I can recall so many memories from that holiday just from listening to the album. This invisible spark bringing to life old flames. It’s not just the memory of being in that place but sometimes you get the EXACT feeling returning to haunt you. I could name a good few that would take me back to some situations and before it would get to the chorus it would crush me to tears. It’s sad because these songs aren’t bad songs, by any means yet they have been banished from our ears, probably for life although I can imagine my son or daughter listening to music of my teens (like we seem to me doing with our parent’s music sometimes) and he or she will start playing one of these songs. Not looking forward to the surprise listening I must say.
Check out Mumford and Songs, Swell Season and Foy Vance. Foy is better live than his recorded stuff. After I went to see him I appreciated his recorded stuff more so if you find that he is playing near you, go see him, its a great gig! “Never let the spirit die”
Happy listening.
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