nixwilliams            

Blanket of Blue
© Williams 2009

Blanket of blue
So far away, and yet closer to you
Closer to you
On the ocean than in the next room
In the next room
The anger of thunderstorms, the silence of tombs
The silence of tombs
I wrap myself in a blanket of blue

Face to the sun
Summer holidays, off we run
Off we run
Through the memories and river gums
The river gums
Echoing always the shot of the gun
The shot of the gun
The twist of your ankle, your face to the sun

Rocks in the sky
The orange horizon, the curve of your eye
The curve of your eye
That chases ducks into the night
Into the night
The desert contracts in our syncopated quiet
Our syncopated quiet
You say the stars are just rocks in the sky

We buried him here
We buried him here

Download: Blanket of Blue (mp3)
Last.fm link: Blanket of Blue

Background

This song was inspired by friend’s painting.  Gabriel often posts updates of his paintings on his LJ, and I am always really excited to see the progress of his work.  This particular painting is one I adore, and if I ever have the money (and it’s still for sale) I will buy it!   The composition is gorgeous, with the reflection of the landscape adding a different undertone to the picture – in fact, if you flip the image, you get a night scene instead of a day scene.

By Gabriel M Thomson

To me it speaks of the vastness and timelessness of the Australian landscape, and the way time moves differently when you are removed from those things (other than the slow blending of day into night) that mark time.  The different shades of blue in the sky look to me like electricity wires, but also like the marks on the side of a candle or a sundial – again, indicating remoteness, and stillness, and a different rhythm.

From that picture I began to construct this song.  I wanted a circular or repetitive lyric as a way of trying to capture the repetition of the blue/line/blue of the sky, and the way I kept turning the picture to look at the night/water scene.  I’ve tried, with the lyrics, to capture both the awe-inspiring aspects of the country (the wildness, remoteness, stillness), and the undercurrent of violence and terror that we have to repress or ignore at times in order to occupy such a landscape.  It is the same with our internal landscapes – there are histories sometimes forgotten, yet they are always there.

As usual, I’d be interested to hear what you get from the lyrics!

Recording

I began recording this in early 2008, I think.  It didn’t really come together, so I put it aside.  I tinkered with it a bit here and there, and then this year (after Gabriel asked me when I was going to upload more music!), I worked on it again – adding some different instruments, playing with the mix.  One day in March, after not having looked at it for a month, I started singing it as I was doing housework.  I took this as an indication to complete a draft at least!

I have had a shocking time with mixing this, and I am still not completely happy with it.  It is too muddy, and on some speakers it’s too bass-heavy.  I’m beginning to think that it’s actually the guitar tracks that have caused most of the mixing problems, but at this stage I can’t be bothered going back and re-recording them!  Lazy.  If I had more time I would work at giving the mix a bit more openness, to reflect the atmosphere of the painting.

Misc

This song is for Gabriel.  Thanks to Gabriel, Esther and Dan for being my betas (in fandom terms!) and helping me out with suggestions for mixing.

As usual, I’m very happy for you to share this song with people.  However, if you do this, please link them to this post rather than directly to the download.  Thank you.