since quite a few people have asked about the recording techniques, details, and etc. on "one thousand fathoms", i thought i'd post a more complete description of how i recorded certain tracks.
drifting slow in one thousand fathoms of water
i sang and played acoustic guitar live into my centaur acoustic p.a, with the sound as muddled as possible on purpose (bass up, tone down, reverb up to 10). this was miced by my four track recorder, and i recorded the same thing over and over again for the next three tracks. this was to create a spectral, disengaged mood between the vocal and instruments.
the final note struck on the song was sampled, looped, and cut up (on audacity), and panned from speaker to speaker to make the intro and outro.
lulls
i recorded this song at different speeds and styles for a very long time, seemingly sounding more terrible each time. i finally deleted the entire mess and rerecorded in maybe twenty minutes, singing and playing my cheap steel string acoustic guitar live into my condenser mic with reverb. the electric slide guitar was altered for the aforementioned "muddled" effect as to make it as dronelike and indistiguishable as possible
asunder
same setup as "drifting slow", except with electric guitar. the sound was muddled as sonically possible to create a reverb-drenched drone. i played and sang the song live through two microphones, and added as much reverb as possible.
i hope that makes sense, clears things up, la la la la
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
One thousand fathoms of water (lyrics)
Drifting slow in one thousand fathoms of water
where do you go, when i'm left overthrown
in broken beds, my winter homes
to lay down alone while you turn back to smoke and you fall.
you float down like ghosts.
your leaves and your skin, and your songs
asunder and below.
to leave me with glows, with cold thrashing bones
to float through your rooms
(when i could know you)
Appalachia
dangling, of gentle stars,
your pages fell in fevers far
i’d shake you off like a vapor ghost
like all your storms.
don’t let me falter, fall
my swollen sides collapse as one
to be bashed down on walls and coasts.
you’re composed white, of a stolen sky,
in faded ways and sworn to dying.
it’s not mine.
it’s not mine to own, just a sigh to show
so retire to your canopies of snow.
in tidal waves and ghosts of things,
you appear and steal away.
to fracture fast in all my traps,
my well worn sins to hold unread.
where are you now? in winds and falls,
cast away and rained upon?
to sleep so soft in stony dreams
to hide from me
to hide alone
it’s not mine to own, just a sigh to show
so retire your body and bones to your canopies of snow
Of Foxes
lover, i'm an empty sea, a waking dream
that can't be kept too far
a mouth of tangled branches caught
me cold and caught me knowing nothing more
it's not a sigh drifting by
dreams like winter foxes hiding fast
in hearts and chests, your favorite words
were bested once again, so you said.
everything will change
in clocks and hands, our twisted spines
left crying and untied
i know everything is kept alive
in warmer words
dispersing all the time.
and how will i know you while
you disappear, you disappear, you disappear
i wanted you to float away like petals
torn, a whisper disarrayed,
to drift about, in corners, doors
of greyest rooms that all would lay before
open, unadorned
everything will change
our twisted spines, all burning bright,
left crying and untied
i know everything is kept alive
in warmer words
dispersing all the time, but how would i?
you disappear
Lulls
i hear your songs in restless homes
to lay me to rest with lulls and poems
at the foot of ancient stairs
wrapped in rags of ancient beds
we separate in dreams
to float between twin seas
with sparrow’s spans and wings
swallowed by a wave
and cradled back to sleep
i fade from these simple rooms
to haunt all the streets
to sing of
simpler things
Magpies
it’s a cold morning my dear, and you linger everywhere,
in winter's blush all weathered fair,
to float around my bed, like a demon wrapped in red
with my stories all engraved down your spine
i don’t want to be left unknown,
to crumble with the slightest of snows,
and we return like all the birds
to homes that we would know.
i’m unstitched, threaded, still, by your will,
by your will,
but i will.
i will, i will. i will.
we collect by every stream, all plain and white as me,
keep your wars from me, your feathers to keep,
i will be a suitor unto thee, in broken blackened wings,
unfit for courts or kings.
in feathers faded black of a magpie just like me,
trapped in currents deep
with no warning songs to sing.
i don’t want to be left alone,
a single cell in a silent storm.
and we return like all the birds
to homes that we would know.
i’m unstitched, threaded, still, by your will,
by your will, but i will.
i will, i will. i will.
Asunder
a child like me
white as
a sheet
in blackest forests
howling
pure and cold, in every
gentle dream
(in frozen days i return fall to silent ways i have known)
Stables
you come to me as a dancer or thief,
in the gentlest of scenes,
in whitest of dresses all torn at shoulder and seam
and i'm crouched down and worn
a crow or child like me
without branches or boughs to lay down asleep
i won't pose a fight, or smother a light
that trembles and sighs
behind gentle eyes, without a demise,
a locked door, or "goodbye"
and i fall through the roof
and a morning pours in
around stables or beds of
the weariest names
so familiar to me
i arrive like blistering winds
through opening doors
and sounds of your skin,
warm blushes of springs all unpunctured and thin,
unremembered and hid,
all marked like a map
for oceans i’ve known and things left unkept.
i disable my traps
and my body drifts down and forsakes all the land
till i return and i sing of things all unseen
and forgotten by, by me.
where do you go, when i'm left overthrown
in broken beds, my winter homes
to lay down alone while you turn back to smoke and you fall.
you float down like ghosts.
your leaves and your skin, and your songs
asunder and below.
to leave me with glows, with cold thrashing bones
to float through your rooms
(when i could know you)
Appalachia
dangling, of gentle stars,
your pages fell in fevers far
i’d shake you off like a vapor ghost
like all your storms.
don’t let me falter, fall
my swollen sides collapse as one
to be bashed down on walls and coasts.
you’re composed white, of a stolen sky,
in faded ways and sworn to dying.
it’s not mine.
it’s not mine to own, just a sigh to show
so retire to your canopies of snow.
in tidal waves and ghosts of things,
you appear and steal away.
to fracture fast in all my traps,
my well worn sins to hold unread.
where are you now? in winds and falls,
cast away and rained upon?
to sleep so soft in stony dreams
to hide from me
to hide alone
it’s not mine to own, just a sigh to show
so retire your body and bones to your canopies of snow
Of Foxes
lover, i'm an empty sea, a waking dream
that can't be kept too far
a mouth of tangled branches caught
me cold and caught me knowing nothing more
it's not a sigh drifting by
dreams like winter foxes hiding fast
in hearts and chests, your favorite words
were bested once again, so you said.
everything will change
in clocks and hands, our twisted spines
left crying and untied
i know everything is kept alive
in warmer words
dispersing all the time.
and how will i know you while
you disappear, you disappear, you disappear
i wanted you to float away like petals
torn, a whisper disarrayed,
to drift about, in corners, doors
of greyest rooms that all would lay before
open, unadorned
everything will change
our twisted spines, all burning bright,
left crying and untied
i know everything is kept alive
in warmer words
dispersing all the time, but how would i?
you disappear
Lulls
i hear your songs in restless homes
to lay me to rest with lulls and poems
at the foot of ancient stairs
wrapped in rags of ancient beds
we separate in dreams
to float between twin seas
with sparrow’s spans and wings
swallowed by a wave
and cradled back to sleep
i fade from these simple rooms
to haunt all the streets
to sing of
simpler things
Magpies
it’s a cold morning my dear, and you linger everywhere,
in winter's blush all weathered fair,
to float around my bed, like a demon wrapped in red
with my stories all engraved down your spine
i don’t want to be left unknown,
to crumble with the slightest of snows,
and we return like all the birds
to homes that we would know.
i’m unstitched, threaded, still, by your will,
by your will,
but i will.
i will, i will. i will.
we collect by every stream, all plain and white as me,
keep your wars from me, your feathers to keep,
i will be a suitor unto thee, in broken blackened wings,
unfit for courts or kings.
in feathers faded black of a magpie just like me,
trapped in currents deep
with no warning songs to sing.
i don’t want to be left alone,
a single cell in a silent storm.
and we return like all the birds
to homes that we would know.
i’m unstitched, threaded, still, by your will,
by your will, but i will.
i will, i will. i will.
Asunder
a child like me
white as
a sheet
in blackest forests
howling
pure and cold, in every
gentle dream
(in frozen days i return fall to silent ways i have known)
Stables
you come to me as a dancer or thief,
in the gentlest of scenes,
in whitest of dresses all torn at shoulder and seam
and i'm crouched down and worn
a crow or child like me
without branches or boughs to lay down asleep
i won't pose a fight, or smother a light
that trembles and sighs
behind gentle eyes, without a demise,
a locked door, or "goodbye"
and i fall through the roof
and a morning pours in
around stables or beds of
the weariest names
so familiar to me
i arrive like blistering winds
through opening doors
and sounds of your skin,
warm blushes of springs all unpunctured and thin,
unremembered and hid,
all marked like a map
for oceans i’ve known and things left unkept.
i disable my traps
and my body drifts down and forsakes all the land
till i return and i sing of things all unseen
and forgotten by, by me.
One thousand fathoms of water
2. Appalachia
3. Of Foxes
4. Lulls
5. Magpies
6. Asunder
7. Stables
_________________________
"One thousand fathoms of water" is a seven-song album I wrote and recorded from October 2009 to January 2010 in my Atascadero bedroom with a four-track recorder. It was intended as a direct departure; an attempt to blend more traditional folk/pop leanings into more ethereal, dreamy, and moody territory - a "winter" album, if you will. I kept the album as short as reasonably possible without becoming an extended play (27 minutes) in the name of creating something concise, listenable, and succinct.
Creative influences at this time included: Six Twilights, Leonard Cohen, Mark Kozelek, Tiny Vipers, Liz Isenberg, Joanna Newsom, and a number of others.
Instruments used:
1-acoustic guitar, vocals, ambient loops
2-acoustic guitar, vocals, mandolin
3-acoustic guitar, vocals, electric guitar, glockenspiel
4-acoustic guitar, vocals, electric slide guitar
5-acoustic guitar, vocals
6-electric guitar, vocals, banjo, glockenspiel
7-acoustic guitar, four-tracked vocals
Listen on headphones if possible for favorable results.
The album is downloadable here at CLLCT.com, free of charge.
Special thanks to Nicolette Marie Polek for the cover art.
Let me know what you think!
Morgan Enos
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