New recording update

Well, I’m going into the studio to start recording the tracks for the upcoming solo violin “meditation” recording. I say “recording” and not CD because I’m not sure whether or not I’ll distribute it as a CD at all, or just put it out for digital distribution on the internet.  I’ll be recording Tuesday and Thursday night.

A friend and colleague and fellow violinist, Rob, has a home studio with a marvelous recording room, which was designed with stringed instruments in mind. Rob will be doing the recording. All my previous CD’s were recorded in a standard recording studio room which is usually totally “dry” and non reverberant, which makes it hard to get a good violin sound. In fact in such rooms, the violin itself responds negatively to the surrounding dead space. The recording room at Rob’s house has all non parallel walls, hard thick reverberant plaster surfaces, and a nice relaxed “feel” to it. (The rest of the house has the friendly chaos of a family household with 4 small children!)

Well, we set up my “ribbon” microphone, an old fashioned type of microphone which was used predominately in the 30’s and 40’s for singers and for announcers.  This microphone is a modern remake of the old RCA ribbon recording mike.  In Rob’s recording room, the violin sounded just glorious. We didn’t have to do the usual adjustmens and machinations to the sound to get the violin to sound right. It sounded great right out of the gate.  I look forward to recording. Rob, being a violinist himself, knows how to get a great recorded violin sound.

Unlike my previous productions, I am not planning, preparing, or writing down the musical “arrangements”. It will be entirely improvisatory and free wheeling, playing in the style of a “chant” used for meditating, or for altering one’s state of consciousness. Much of my inspiration for this recording comes from the recordings of Carlos Nakaii, an American Indian flute player. And a masterful one at that.

I will go into the studio on a series of nights and improvise. Without the usual extensive preparation and hyper planning I’ve done on previous recordings, I am hoping the result will be a freer improvisatory sound with a wider range of colors, expression, and sense of “space”. Freed from my usual “perfectionism”, I hope to open up new possibilities. The best of these recording sessions will be taken and edited together as a cohesive full recording. I’m not sure what title to give this recording yet, and yes, I’m open to suggestions!