journal

If I can leave well enough alone the new piece of music is now complete. I was hung up on the introduction for at least a couple of weeks. After several rewrites I finally came to my senses and shortened and simplified the opening to a solo piano that introduces a couple of reoccurring themes.

I've settled on the working title "Counting Stars". The piece is about 26 minutes in length, includes vocals, and as I've written before I'd like to release it as an EP in late spring/early summer. The song is a lot more piano oriented than Abstract Expression - In fact most of the first 6 minutes or so has very little guitar.

The one snag is that I discovered the poems that the lyrics are adapted from are not, as I originally thought, in the public domain. So I'm going to need to get permission from the publisher. What I've read on the subject makes it sound like it is a fairly straight forward procedure but who knows when it comes to intellectual property issues.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll get that process rolling and get drum tracking underway.

Check back soon for some samples of the new piece.

The Lunar Eclipse tonight was the last one we will see till 2010. I tried to take some long exposure shots of it but only this one came out at all well. The clouds rolled in not long after I got out there, which made for a nice effect in this photo but soon eclipsed the eclipse.

click for bigger version

Made some progress over the long weekend on the new piece of music. Guess I'd better start thinking about a title for the thing and some sort of concept for the artwork.

Steve from ZNR on Abstract Expression:

Fantastic solo album from Electrum guitarist Kulju. Continuing in the "power trio" vein of his group but leaning far more towards the fusion side of things, "Abstract Expression" is a powerhouse!
...
The guitar playing is second to none & the recording is extremely tight and crisp for an independent release.

On the distribution front along with ZNR; Of Sound Mind, Jazzis, Synphonic, Fossil Records, and Apple ITunes are on board (though AE is not yet live on their on-line stores).

The thing about exchanging emails with all these prog distributors is that I find myself buying more CDs lately. I end up buying more CDs from a distributor than I make on the sale.

However I've discovered this really interesting band called Amarok. I picked up their latest CD "Quentadharkën" at Kinesis a couple weeks back and I think it has a very unique and enjoyable sound - a distinctive mix of world music, fusion, and classic prog. And I finally picked up Mostly Autumn's "Passengers" which I've been meaning to get for years. Also good stuff.

I picked up the CDs late this afternoon and was able to dash off to the post office down in Salem to get the pre-orders mailed out. So you folks who preordered should have the CDs in a few days. I'll be sending out the promotional copies tomorrow morning.

So anyway, this is what 1029 CDs looks like.

I'm gonna need a bigger basement.
(what's with me and the Spielberg references tonight???).

So today is the big release day, the shipping envelopes are all labeled for the presales and promos I'm sending out. Custom forms are filled out, press kits all printed up and ready to go, and business letters written for distributors.

I have no CDs.

As of Noon they would be ready for pickup sometime after 2. Then at 3 I was told the CDs were assembled but hadn't been shrink wrapped but they could have a partial shipment ready for 5ish. Now at 5:30 they went home without calling me back to let me know the status. Nice.

In the end I suppose one day makes no difference but for tonight this is annoying.