Slow Clinic

The last couple of years I've been getting into ambient music (and its near and distant cousins: shoegaze, dream pop, post-rock).

I've really been enjoying "Accidentals" by Slow Clinic, as I start messing around with my own efforts. I've been absent-mindedly planning some things in my head. Running things in stereo by recording my good amp and running my old Pod into the guitar jack of my audio interface. I've bought a number of pedals recently (a looper, a reverb, a synth engine) and my initial little tests have sounded good. I've always loved musical soundscapes - in the classical world, I've always loved Bruckner, and his so-called sonic cathedrals - and this feels like something I can do, that I have the skill to do, that I don't need others for. The hardest thing is, as always, getting started.

So I've made a plan: next week. My partner will be away visiting her extended family in a rural part of the province, and I'll be alone with the dogs and my guitars. The evenings are free after work. My plan's to wait until the dogs are settled, head downstairs, do some recording. I've sketched some ideas for pieces. They may or may not hold up. But to get something down, and then edited, and then maybe released. To mess around further during the summer, then use the days I'm not in-office in the fall, stealing that hour before work, that half hour after, to start to record. Single takes, allow small errors and imperfections. Treat them as surprises instead. I'm middle-aged. I'm almost mid-40s. It feels good to still be doing new things. I've been excited about the upcoming midweek for the last month.