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I’d like to offer you three new songs: “Sleep,” “Impression, Part II“, and “Happier With You.” These make up more of the “Sleep” release.

Sleep, from April 2010, is a song I put together as a bit of a scherzo – “hmm, let’s see what I can do with these chord shapes” – and I ended up with this. I like it; the bass during the final section is a little unusual for me. I usually prefer the bass to be fundamental to the song, and to stay in that role; I’m not a fan of bass “leads.” (Don’t know why, as a bass player you’d think I’d appreciate a touch of attention. Oh yeah, I’m an introvert.)

The guitar was my Sheraton, run through an Orange amp; I like the basic approach of the Orange, and the sound fits well for me, I think.

“Impression, Part II” is, well, part two of “Impression,” and it has a bit of story behind it. For one thing, it’s the first song cycle I’ve done in years – in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever actually recorded any cycles. (I’ve written some, you see, and not done anything with them). It’s the mirror image of Part 1. Where Part 1 makes a statement, Part 2 denies it; Part 2 uses ‘real instruments’ where Part 1 uses synthesizers and artificial elements, in most cases.

Even the voice is different; yes, that’s my real voice, completely worn out after recording “Happier With You,” with a vocoded harmony line. There’s no real denouement to the song; there isn’t one in Part 1, either, and while it would have been satisfying to have a killer lead somewhere in there, it just never fit – and it would have taken away from the cerebral nature of both parts (and yes, I just described my own stuff as ‘cerebral.’ I’m sorry.)

Impression, Part 2 has something like eight acoustic guitar tracks to it; they don’t sound as busy as they look in the song’s source material. I’m very pleased with the sound, including the (compressed) bass. As usual, my voice is the part I have the least faith in. (It’s still the only voice I have.)

“Happier With You” is a song I wrote for my wife while driving home one night (we were dating at the time). It’s one of the best songs I’ve ever done, and this version is what I hear in my head; it may be a tad too fast, in the end, but what I did was play the acoustic guitar at the speed that sounded right to me, and fairly well matched that the whole way through. So maybe this is the speed it’s supposed to be.

It’s got a few “single sources” — the drums, the bass are done with one track each. Everything else is doubled and panned right and left. I recorded the voice a little different here (and used the same technique in “Impression, Part II”) – I set up a mic as it would be on stage, where the mic is on a stand, roughly six feet high, so I’m singing up – and I recorded the voice while playing the acoustic guitar (the acoustics panned left and right are recorded along with the voices, the acoustic guitar being recorded acoustically, as it were.)

The bass was incredibly hard to record. The drums, too, for that matter – harder than you’d think it should be. The electric guitars were pretty simple, though.

“Sleep,” as a release, is coming together. Seven songs, so far, in order:

1. Dream
2. Lucid
3. Sleep
4. Aurora
5. Impression (part I)
6. Happier With You
7. Impression (part II)

I have a few others on my list to do for this release, including some vocal tracks; we’ll see if I can get to them in short order.

Related posts:

1. Two new songs: Impression and Aurora!
2. New Music: Deluded, and new version of Doppler
3. New Music: “Honor” and “Where Did You Go?”
4. Music: Dream
5. New Music: Echoes