Across the Plains

Track 3 of Extraordinary Voyages

This month’s piece is titled “Across the Plains.”

A random photo of a sunset I took a couple of month’s ago.

In Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Phileas Fogg attempts to travel around the world in eighty days or else lose a wager of 20,000 pounds. We follow him and his companion as they race across the world by steamer and rail. While I love this idea, I decided to turn the focus of the song to the peaceful settings Phileas and company would have traveled through while on their journey.

The inspiration for “Across the Plains” comes from Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports. For each piece on this album, Eno recorded small phrases of notes on different lengths of tape which were then looped. Since each tape was a different length, they wouldn’t align the same way twice within the piece. Here is a great article on his process from Reverb Machine.

I tried this approach with “Across the Plains.” It begins with a collection of piano phrases, each of which are between one and five notes. I then put each of these phrases on a different length of loop. Roughly halfway through the piece a couple of drones fade in to provide harmonic support.

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Sharing

A Song

“Joyful” by Ginger & Pear

A Book

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A Quote

“Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.” - Frank Zappa

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Thank you for reading and supporting this newsletter. The best way to show your support is by liking and sharing, which you can do by clicking the share button below, word of mouth, or sending a message to a loved one by steamer. If you would like to read and listen to more here is a link to track two of Extraordinary Voyages, “Currents.”