Down a Mighty River on Its Journey to the Sea

11 – Lakecide 8:26

Opens with car interior sounds – getting in, closing door, starting engine – recorded with a Zoom H2 4-channel field recorder. As our car pulls away,  we are instantly transported to a some parallel sonic reality.  Deep Harp, composed in real time using an inspirational harp patch in the Roland JD800, anchors the track.  I must have been channeling my inner Andreas Vollenweider on that night. The harp music is beautiful and gentle, yet it sweeps us up and propels us along powerfully on this journey like a small raft floating down a mighty river on its journey to the sea.  The harp is nestled in an evolving sonic bed of nature sounds- conversations among birds, waterfowl, lapping water, etc, and human nature (airliner fly-over). Sounds come to the front of the mix   and then slip away as we continue winding our way through this surreal world.  Overdubs of strings, choir pads, both male and female, have been added.  There are some surprising sonic moments, including talking street crossing counting down to zero, followed by the massive collective roar of a hundred Harley Davidsons taking off from a stoplight simultaneously… Denver Clay

Audio MP3
Lakecide beginning 0:32

Lakecide has been a long time coming. I was first introduced to Denver’s ditty in 1985. I brought his cassette tape to KBCH RadioTV’s studio, Channel 38 Del Mar, and transferred the song to videotape. It was first used in the Del Mar Historical Society’s Once Upon A Tide which looked back at Del Mar, California’s first 100 years. It played a larger role in KBCH RadioTV’s 1986 episode A Summer’s Day. I knew this song as the Del Mar Theme. In 2002 an enhanced version was transferred from Denver’s digital recorder to my Mac. Later, sometime between 2004-2006, Denver would have another re-mix of this ditty that would be used as the musical foundation for Lakecide’s musical foundation.

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Lakecide theme 0:40

The Lava Songs project began in 2007 with several Dr. D’s Ditties tracks, being placed into Final Cut Pro video sequences. Lava Songs was mixed with Final Cut Pro, a tribute to its audio software and effects. Lakecide began coming together between 2-5-09 and 5-03-09. I approached the piece as if it were a film soundtrack. To conform to the concept of cinematic scenes the piece was broken down into six segments-movements with a hint of the theme never leaving. A bed of natural lake sounds track was created by stacking and mixing several Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge nature recordings and then exported as a stereo 48k .aif track. A preliminary work track with more ambient tracks and Denver’s theme was mixed down, bounced, to a stereo 48k .aif file. Denver then recorded in his studio four overdub tracks along with a Spectron session. Denver also constructed the Rimba Breakdown and Break Gruv as a transitions. Anders edited and mixed these overdubs and transitions. At this point the Final Cut Pro project was 12 tracks deep. Recorded lapping water on the Upper Klamath Lake shoreline was then added along with irrigation sprinklers, a Tule Lake spring sunrise featuring waterfowl and shorebirds galore. Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge spring bird songs, my cat, Mocha, snoring, and night sounds from Serra Mesa in San Diego also were added. The car that starts and ends the piece is a 1987 Ford Escort wagon with a 1.7 liter engine. The current Final Cut Pro Lakecide sequence is 20 stacked stereo tracks.

I remixed several bird tracks in late January 2012. I also made sure not one musical note or sound element peaked above 0db. Denver added a long sustained note to tie together my new addition of a car engine being shutoff and the driver’s door being opened and being shut. Lakecide is a dream within dreams and dreams are what make living worthwhile… Anders Tomlinson

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Lakecide transition 0:31

Lava Songs:
Piano with a View
Nourish … Just surrender to the virtuosic universe, and immerse…
Pianomomento … Floating on a delicate bed of distant murmuring humans and birds…
Wishy-WashyFarmer In The Dell reinterpreted on the Yamaha baby grand…
Fantasee … This is one of Denver’s all-time favorites from his library…
Angerlee Wangsdt … Music is excerpt from song Wonderlone created in 1989…
Under-OutLava Songs’ epilogue begins with The Perfection of Simplicity…
Simplexity
Over-Into … The world we live in is filled with musical sound / soundful music…
Fangalina Riffa … Blended syncopation and layered with rhythmic percussion section contributors, man and nature…
Cistern Blues … Straight ahead mainstream chaos with a heart…
Triology … Mother Nature is one creative diva in this surrealistic sound-scape…
Davey Crocket’s Dream … The universe is always ready to play with you, you just need to be loose and playful and open to all outcomes…
Atmosonics
Floatus … You may feel swallowed up by the primeval enormity of this track…
Float-Me … The “Rumble of Youthful Enthusiasm” envelopes and sustains…
Floatees … This is an exquisite sparkling living breathing sound-scape space…
Lakecide … Beautiful and gentle, yet it sweeps us up and propels us along powerfully on this journey like a small raft floating down a mighty river on its journey to the sea…
Amournacana … Tone poem of an anonymous loner serving out life’s remaining days somewhere on the frontier of earlier Americana…

©2012 Anders Tomlinson and Denver Clay, all rights reserved.