Solo piano piece released in 1994 on émigré music .
This sampler titled "Dreaming Out Loud" also appeared as a limited edition CD that came with a box that contained a small pillow.
Music to become friends with...
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
"This salt heals all my wounds"
Solo piano piece released in 1994 on émigré music .
This sampler titled "Dreaming Out Loud" also appeared as a limited edition CD that came with a box that contained a small pillow.
Music to become friends with...
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21 comments:
I like this piano piece so much
that I often leave it on repeat.
How did it come to be released?
Why did you choose that beautiful title?
Piano certainly comes through as the dominant cindytalk instrument. I recall David Clancy played piano on Crossover in 1980 (pre cindytalk) but at that time it was more melodic, certainly less bleak. Is the piano favoured because it is the instrument most adept at creating immediate contrast - perhaps associated with the hammer and feather theme which too is ongoing and prevalent? Also are cindytalk piano pieces pre conceived, developed \ redeveloped and perfected or are they spontaneous and spurious, creating a snapshot in a time, place and mood?
this salt heals all my wounds
we were finishing up the recording of "wappinschaw" in berry street in 1992... midnight music was in a state of collapse and the studio which belonged to them was about to be closed down.a call came through from rudy vanderlans of emigre magazine,saying that he was a fan of our music and would we contribute to one of the emigre sampler cd's.i had been hankering to do another piano track,this time a longer piece with gaping holes in it (moments of decay) and whilst we still had use of the studio i went ahead and recorded it.i'm not sure exactly why i came up with that title,it just came into mind and it seemed to fit perfectly. maybe it speaks of the inherent awkwardness of cindytalk...
"the inherent awkwardness of cindytalk...":
"the comfort of loneliness"
"a real voice in a quiet low tone,still shouting"
"hammer and feather"
"the gift of a knife"
IN THE MEANTIME,
"a piano plays quietly
lullaby-like in the background..."
"bleak"... coming from anglo saxon bleikr/blac meaning pale.relating to bleach [ed out]... bright,white,desolate in the sense of a stark beauty. barren, deserted,alone... but not forsaken,not cold and never unwelcoming...
after two years of highly unsuccessful piano lessons when i was a nipper - my brother managed to learn how to play,i was more interested in the mars bars mrs mack offered us as incentive - i never really imagined i'd "play" a piano again but one night,post freeze gig in fort william,i sat down at a piano in the corner and just felt my way around the keys.i was astonished by the simplistic resonances of the sounds i was making.it only lasted a few minutes and we were gone from the venue, back in a van on the journey home to edinburgh,but i knew that one day i would find my way back to that feeling,to follow that sound again.
a few years later in gateway studios,during the recording of "camouflage heart" i took my chance to try again,to find an opening...i had not "played" a piano since that day in fort william but that was the idea... to not know what i was doing but to follow the notes,see where they would lead.to try to find melody,knowing that my lack of ability on the instrument would let it slip away too soon,fizzle out and into the searching again... drift... then another moment of cohesion.it seemed a perfect metaphor for the way i saw the world... tiny islands of joy,oceans of desire and longing.all of the piano pieces have been entirely improvised and most pieces have been released as they were recorded with minimal or no effects used .a couple of tracks on "in this world" were slowed down slightly if i recall."disintegrate" from "camouflage heart" was my first attempt at "playing" and recording piano and i started it by caressing the strings inside the piano as if i was saying "trust me,i'll find my way"... later when we came to record "in this world",i was looking for an alternative "voice" to communicate with,my experience with this mortal coil had left me distrustful of my voice.the ease with which i had allowed myself to become a tool for someone elses ideas and then hearing the praise i got for doing it,made me feel very uneasy,so i turned to the piano again and went seeking those elusive moments of comfort.
both david clancy and john byrne played piano on "camouflage heart" as well.david played proper piano on "the spirit behind the circus dream" which included an outro reprise of the melody to "crossover" from the freeze's second single.john tinkled them ivories at the beginning of "it's luxury".
hammer and feather... yup,distorted drum assault into desolate piano mood.works for me.
All I say is: more Cindytalk piano,please!
It has also certainly influenced quite a few artists since time after time I read references about "Cindytalk piano improvisations" or "reminiscent of Cindytalk's piano".
I feel the voice is hiding behind every note in a very fragile and intimate way but still full of strength from that core position and as I sit here typing this I recall an interview from 1988 saying:
"After 'Camouflage Heart' though, I knew there was a definite need to find another way of communicating. I really thought I'd taken my voice to the end. But I still had the urge to touch. I couldn't just stop doing that. Some of the time, I tried to use the piano like a voice. I thought it would be interesting trying to communicate through something I had no knowledge of. Tapping out those little messages. By the time I was halfway through thinking about this LP, I was desperate to sing. I couldn't wait to get back in. Now, I want to sing even more and I actually like the idea of singing. I've about-turned."
Long-time Cindytalk fan Cheggers speaks of a "strummed piano" and Spoilt Victorian Child mentions "near silent piano pieces".
We recently looked after a house for someone lucky enough to have a dirty great big music room with a baby grand in it. So I tinkled. Guess what it sounded like.
what are you trying to say exactly!?that it's dead easy,that faux-naive childlike piano style,eh? ;-)
still waiting to know what was played at Otoya
apologies... i'm shite at remembering.i'll stick it up on the "a distant hand lifted" post.
"faux-naive childlike piano style"...I was going to say I sounded like Les Dawson. Then I attempted a Cecil Taylor onslaught and wound up in A&E.
Has any thought ever been given to creation of a cindytalk piano only compilation or album. I've been listening to some solo piano performances recently and as albums few work well, most make Les Dawson sound virtuoso. That said, those that are good are very good e.g. John Bosswell - The Painter. Creating the tempo and flow for an albums worth of piano seems almost impossible and I cannot imagine a more challenging project.
As an aside to this, do you have any recommended listening because at the moment good work is like finding a needle in a camel's eye.
PO,
I don't know if Cindra will agree but, as far as contemporary piano music goes, "Alina" by Arvo Part is (in my opinion) an absolute masterpiece.
Uh huh,have to agree.Alina has been a favourite for a while now.Not as stunning an Arvo Pärt album as Tabula Rasa in my opinion,but almost.
PO... thought has definately been given to a piano-oriented cindytalk compilation,circumstance has just not allowed it to happen yet.a compilation culled from the "main" three albums will need to come first but only after
present/future work has had a chance to be released.we'll see what the summer brings...
I just played around with a compilation from the "main three albums". It's virtually impossible to whittle it down, better just go for a full trilogy with bonus tracks on disc 4.
Such was my love of particular tracks I had neglected to give other songs a fair hearing recently. I just rediscoverd Disappear - wow.
Final point - Traumlose Nachte should be on side two of Heroes between V-2 Schneider and Sense Of Doubt, try it, you'll see it makes sense.
ha! traumlose nachte was named whilst driving through the streets of berlin,so it would connect on thatr level too.
Technically I don't think it's where you name a tune so much as where you record it when it comes to the bowenoberlin genre but I'm no export. A terrific track all ways up. I sincerely hope you meant being driven through the streets of Berlin. The thought of you behind a wheel is just too scary.
aye uhm,uh huh...being driven of course.i'm far too scatty to ever be a driver.never fancied it and the mind just wanders too far off...
Come to think of it, you seem to do a lot of your best thinking in a moving car, it's only when it stops that you reengage with the human race via the gift of speech.
i likes to drift.....
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