https://dougwieselmannyc.bandcamp.com/album/hope-for-the-trees-blodeuwedd
This track came out of experimenting with an OP-1 synthesizer that a friend had leant to me.
I was playing with it’s virtual 4 – track and found a loop that I liked which I captured on a portable digital recorder. What sometimes happens when sounds are combined, other unintentional sound occur, which I find interesting. I began to articulate those “ghost” melodies, recording
them onto pro-tools with various instruments along with some processing with Ableton. I wanted to make something with a longer arc than I’d generally done.
I then separated the individual four tracks, layering them over time and combing them with the “ghost” melodies as well with the original 4 track loop. I added a few more elements in the process, once the form emerged.
Blodeuwedd – “flowered face” in Welsh – is the name of an ancient Welsh flower goddess, conjured by two wizards. Hers is a long and twisted story of beauty, coercion, love, rebellion and transformation, which ends with her being turned into an owl. I came across a reference to her in my reading of Robert Graves’ The White Goddess. It seemed an appropriate title to this track.
My attraction to ghost melodies is along the lines of my interest in the barely perceptible water melodies that I’ve worked with on my solo clarinet record From Water – (figureight – F005).