Odilon (beyond the visible) - Sketch

Evening work: Odilon (beyond the visible) 5.1M mp3. 

A new song emerging, perhaps for the new (now underway) C3 recording project.  Words came first, from my old friend and band-mate Bret Hamilton.

Then, the music unfolded as is with Paul over a series of rehearsals.

Odilon Redon feels the cloud, but he can’t explain
Why he sees a burst of orange that saturates his brain
Every time he smells the rain, every time he smells the rain
Light spills everywhere
Light runs down the walls
Light is smeared across her face
Light pours and streams and falls
Light drips into your eyes’ til it overflows
    Monochrome, Kodachrome, yogurt and Styrofoam
    Pixels and parachutes, pastels and paste
    Sight out of time palette out of taste

Odilon wears a cravat of silk
Against his neck to ring his purple shirt
his yellow vest sings a siren of tiger milk
So he drinks and curls his toes in golden dirt
He can’t escape the riot of the spectrum
That rubs against the edges of each thought
The spiral of each resonant vibration
The climbing of azure and rust upon his back
Ants make their way up Odilon’s neck
Ants of every stripe, ants of every hue
    Ants with salve, soup, and sandpaper
    Ants on their way into his view

Redon, Redon, you have (have) gone
Down the river of secret songs
Mixing your paint in somnambulist brew
Lifting the curtain to the untried and true
Redon, Redon, you have not gone

Words: Bret Hamilton
Music:  C3 (Steve Ball / Paul O’Rear)

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Comments

[Paul O'Rear]

Really? - I thought it was the other way around! Or at least an happy coinciding of music and words that seemed to belong together. :)

[Steve Ball]

Yep, Bret sent the words awhile back before we even began discovering and arranging the form of the initially improvised "5 piece."

"Words came first" means they were here and done - then they were applied to the music with a melody on top of our guitar parts.

"Music came first" (the way I often write) means the music is essentially done, and the words are written for and from the music -- by listening for what 'sounds' and meaning is already in the music, if that makes sense?

Either way, who knows where any of this really comes from?!? :)

[Dion]

Great to hear some new work!

Looking forward to the C3 project.