We exist at a unique place in history. For the first time ever, we can look at old photographs and motion pictures of crowds or listen to early recordings of music and know that every person in the crowd, every child in a street scene, every musician in the orchestra, every home-recorded baby is now long since dead.

Exclusively using source materials found at the Cylinder Preservation And Digitization Project's website (University Of California, Santa Barbara), I manipulated samples of the departed into a long-form dronescape. Every sound heard on Song Of The Dead was made by a person who is, most certainly, no longer among the living.

In inspirational terms, I again tip my hat to Steven Wilson and his ongoing Bass Communion project. If I'd never been exposed to Loss or Ghosts On Magnetic Tape I'd never have found anything emotive in Edison cylinders or the forgotten sounds of those who are gone.

~//~

Theme From The Dream, on the other hand, is a soundtrack scored on synthesizers and organ inspired by a short story written by a friend. It's the tale, based on the author's nightmare, of a young woman who has lost track of reality and dreams. She finds herself trapped in a purgatory of rape, therapy, drugs, and terrifying comfort.

Musically, it was assembled in one short session of improvisations, and mixed without edits or effects.

Vangelis' Beaubourg, which I listened to when I did school homework as a child, is remembered here.

--Terry
October 2006