It seems related to why I like to write in coffee shops or around people. Somehow, there is a creative energy that vibrates because they are there combined with a feeling of being in a bubble amidst it all, yet still a part of things. Thank you. I find your posts touch me in that place beyond words, which is hard to speak to and lovely to feel.
Different Trains, composed from events even more troubling than now, if you can believe that. Stress needs music more than music needs stress. Loving your posts.
Love this Kimbra! I encourage you to check out Charles Ives - his music and writing (“Essays before a Sonata”). He lived at the turn of the last century in NYC and rural CT. A big influence on John Cage (“silence”) and moderns like Frank Zappa, Eno, Michael Nyman .
I can hear how the lyrics move with the rhythm of the piano, very meditative. I love moments like this. In an airport myself, just wishing there was a piano!
Aw Kimbra. ☺️ And to think I live in the same state as Newark LIA :) Hey, a lot of people do. But anyway. The bold, suspended harmonic content of this alongside the lilting tempo is so refreshing. You start in a somewhat modally ambiguous F major vacillation between 1 and 2, with an emphasis on the 7 and 6 of F. I’ve always found that a peaceful tempering of major into a mellower version of itself. (See, I’ve got puns.) Then you ascend to the relative major parallel, Ab, which adds more urgency as well as suspension of tonality, the D is left to din atop as well, which keeps a theme… then finally to top off the scheme you turn to D as a major-minor-ambiguous resolution, with severity as it’s a tritone away from the Ab we receded to, a tritone below specifically… It creates this matrix of modal keys to play with, almost like a Coltrane or Evans piece… with tonal centers a third apart, and playing with modes as well rather than the strictest or simplest major or minor tonalities alone. The overall resounding effect of the piece is something elegantly cliff-hung… it’s urgent yet stead, peaceful and yet beckoning you to join in. An atmosphere of hope amid mourning. The tension increases subtly throughout and we resolve progressively to a different tonality from the start and more suspenseful than the start, yet more final than the start, and yet with the same rhythmic motif more or less guiding the piece throughout. Reminds me of the sky, in Florence Welch’s words, “how big, how blue, how beautiful”… Hope you make a song out of it, even if you decide to evolve it more (and why not) 🎶
Your lyrics go well with the loop, just need a chorus and you’re set. I would be interested to know what you think of Flor and Son coming to Apple TV. It’s about an Irish family who use music composition and training to reconnect. And while I’m at it: Apple, Kimbra would make a great addition to the acting team that you’ve assembled. Kimbra may not know it yet, but I think she would make a terrific actress.
How lovely the part about loving to play the piano beat the airport even while being ignored by passerbys. I hope you'll yield many songs from this experience.
Wanting (maybe needing?) sound to be absorbed by bodies all around without needing (or wanting?) listeners-- that’s new for me, but got me wondering if maybe words and phrases work that way for me when I
Yes !! Thank-you for sharing such wonderful intimate aspects of some of your thinking and creative process !
A resounding YES to confluences, and experiencing potentially all things, anything IN a moment, where we notice sounds & pitches - intentional and incidental, that combine, clash, enhance and can even be entrancing.
Parallels to so many interactions between people: Sometimes resonating in passing, together or apart, sometimes coming together in all aspects that can mean.
It seems related to why I like to write in coffee shops or around people. Somehow, there is a creative energy that vibrates because they are there combined with a feeling of being in a bubble amidst it all, yet still a part of things. Thank you. I find your posts touch me in that place beyond words, which is hard to speak to and lovely to feel.
Different Trains, composed from events even more troubling than now, if you can believe that. Stress needs music more than music needs stress. Loving your posts.
Musicians know the art of creating something from nothing, like colors in the wind.
Love this Kimbra! I encourage you to check out Charles Ives - his music and writing (“Essays before a Sonata”). He lived at the turn of the last century in NYC and rural CT. A big influence on John Cage (“silence”) and moderns like Frank Zappa, Eno, Michael Nyman .
Your right the announcement in the midst. Sounded like an echo in the music looking for something lost. Loved it.
I love the spontaneity of this. It’s like a discovery.
💙 i wish we could tour together someday
I can hear how the lyrics move with the rhythm of the piano, very meditative. I love moments like this. In an airport myself, just wishing there was a piano!
Aw Kimbra. ☺️ And to think I live in the same state as Newark LIA :) Hey, a lot of people do. But anyway. The bold, suspended harmonic content of this alongside the lilting tempo is so refreshing. You start in a somewhat modally ambiguous F major vacillation between 1 and 2, with an emphasis on the 7 and 6 of F. I’ve always found that a peaceful tempering of major into a mellower version of itself. (See, I’ve got puns.) Then you ascend to the relative major parallel, Ab, which adds more urgency as well as suspension of tonality, the D is left to din atop as well, which keeps a theme… then finally to top off the scheme you turn to D as a major-minor-ambiguous resolution, with severity as it’s a tritone away from the Ab we receded to, a tritone below specifically… It creates this matrix of modal keys to play with, almost like a Coltrane or Evans piece… with tonal centers a third apart, and playing with modes as well rather than the strictest or simplest major or minor tonalities alone. The overall resounding effect of the piece is something elegantly cliff-hung… it’s urgent yet stead, peaceful and yet beckoning you to join in. An atmosphere of hope amid mourning. The tension increases subtly throughout and we resolve progressively to a different tonality from the start and more suspenseful than the start, yet more final than the start, and yet with the same rhythmic motif more or less guiding the piece throughout. Reminds me of the sky, in Florence Welch’s words, “how big, how blue, how beautiful”… Hope you make a song out of it, even if you decide to evolve it more (and why not) 🎶
Your lyrics go well with the loop, just need a chorus and you’re set. I would be interested to know what you think of Flor and Son coming to Apple TV. It’s about an Irish family who use music composition and training to reconnect. And while I’m at it: Apple, Kimbra would make a great addition to the acting team that you’ve assembled. Kimbra may not know it yet, but I think she would make a terrific actress.
How lovely the part about loving to play the piano beat the airport even while being ignored by passerbys. I hope you'll yield many songs from this experience.
I so enjoyed this. Thank you beautiful x
Loved the piano mini concert.
Such a feeling of aliveness from the movement of bodies around you. Thanks for the story and the music. Beautiful!
Wanting (maybe needing?) sound to be absorbed by bodies all around without needing (or wanting?) listeners-- that’s new for me, but got me wondering if maybe words and phrases work that way for me when I
.... try to write to, or for, friends. So good of you to write while we are not attending, but can at any moment. Great post.
Yes !! Thank-you for sharing such wonderful intimate aspects of some of your thinking and creative process !
A resounding YES to confluences, and experiencing potentially all things, anything IN a moment, where we notice sounds & pitches - intentional and incidental, that combine, clash, enhance and can even be entrancing.
Parallels to so many interactions between people: Sometimes resonating in passing, together or apart, sometimes coming together in all aspects that can mean.
So often The secret is to be fully present.