The Joy of Unexpected Quiet
This weekend we were supposed to be looking after a friend's dog. The dog is a corgi, a barker (maybe that goes without saying), easily startled, and, once it starts barking, takes forever to stop. We look after their dog because they're our friends,`and because they look after ours when we need it. But it's not really something I look forward to, and while I like their dog, I'm always happy when they come to pick him up.
They were supposed to go to a resort in the western part of the province, but snow has closed the highways, so they've had to cancel their trip, and we're no longer on the hook for corgi duty. So having been blessed with the time, I'm going to do some recording today, make some ambient music. I've got something sketched out, an interleaved piece for flute and horn and guitar (my instruments). I've got a few errands to run, we need to finally take down the Christmas tree, but after that, I'm going to hole up in my little office in the basement and record something short, I'm thinking maybe just a few minutes. A test recording to see if it's anything. I did a sketch of it yesterday just on guitar, using my looper pedal, and I think it should work. I think it'll sound better with winds.
When I was younger there was something burning in me, with everything I did - writing, game development, music - that made me want to make things, release things. And while for all of these things, I eventually did, I never did it at the pace I was feeling inside. In retrospect, it was kind of a false urgency, the feeling that if I didn't do this while I was still young, or young-ish, that I'd never do it at all. And this is obviously silly, because while things slow down, you're not done till you're dead. Life has felt recently for me like a narrowing, a place of fewer possibilities, but the thing is, that's only true if I let it be.
So this afternoon, or maybe tonight, I'm going to warm up on my flute and horn, tune my guitar, plug in my mics and audio interface, and make something. Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't. And I'll be happy either way.