Appreciations – Peter Seidel, Klara and Lilka Seidel, Min Lucas.
In memory of Ross and Rosemary.
A few weeks before she passed away Karen and her partner Peter ventured along to a small show of mine in Collingwood. Peter told me she had requested a certain song. Before the interval I glimpsed the two of them walking towards the exit onto the busy Johnston St. Karen was clearly struggling. She couldn’t last the distance. I stopped what I was playing and managed a segue into Karen’s request.
The relationship between artist and listener has never been so acute as in those 5 minutes. ‘Wash the Pain Away’ was the song. I sang it as well as I could muster, Karen gave me a gentle nod; she leant into Peter for support, they folded in together, and walked slowly out into the night.
A couple of years after Karen’s funeral, Peter asked me if I’d be interested in recording an album in Karen’s honour, in their living room on her 1908 Bechstein piano that was once owned by French Horn maestro Barry Tuckwell. And here it is.
We brought in some fine vintage Neumann microphones, some snacks and a bottle of peaty single malt. We recorded over a few suburban days, the low angled pre-winter light filtering through the window, gradually acclimatising to the touch and sustain of the Bechstein. Play one song after another, let the notes ring out, try not to push the vocals too much, stay in the moment, find the right arrangement, avoid rigidity.
I recorded many songs, 35 perhaps. The ones you will hear are the ones that worked best. Those recorded earlier in the day seemed the better vocal takes. I took the sessions down to the Donkey Shed studio in the Otways (Gadubanud Land), and limited myself to adding a couple of bilas sounds – extraneous decoration. Here is the record, played and named on Karen’s piano.
Muzyka to przestrzeń pomiędzy nutami
Music is the space between notes
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