Icy Cinema: Feb. 7, 2018

At the end of two hours of improvising music today, we were tossing out name ideas when Darrel said Amen, Icy Cinema, which is a palindrome. To which I said, Icy Cinema and the three of us looked at each other as if to say, I think that’s it! And so it is, I think we have a name for our Ambient trio.

Here are a number of tracks from our last practice, Feb. 7.

Icy CinemaLilybeth's Lament
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Icy CinemaMarch
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Icy CinemaMoroccan Moon
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Icy CinemaWord Sword
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Icy CinemaCrater Cut
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Icy CinemaWeave
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Space Cakes and Cinescapes

CinescapesTunnel Vision
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CinescapesHalliday Ja
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CinescapesWon Too
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CinescapesWon Morn
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I've come to love ambient music over the last few years, largely because I listen to it by default in the morning, meditating, and at work. So I was jazzed about joining Darrel in Gray's music room a few times in December for ambient jams to improvise cinematic soundscapes.

Darrel and  I are mostly on our guitars, thick with effects and tricks, while Gray floats from keyboard to kit, guitar to Theremin. These are four of the more magical moments from our second session. Here's what Darrel heard:

Tunnel Vision - making me imagine walking the streets of Tokyo just before Dawn. Won Morn offers lovely weightlessness - dimensions and intrigue, a first spacewalk? But change is afoot with Won Too - with its unsettling fields, dark skies... and battering. And the journey into darkness concludes with a visit with Edvard Munch in Halliday Ja.

Cinescapes 2X4

The Rainbow Show

Taos rainbow

When a rainbow appeared
touching down across the brushy hills
at the foot of the mountain facing
we stopped cleaning up after dinner
pulled our chairs together on the porch
and sat for the rainbow show
as the misty air blew through
and the low light lit the yellow hills
with long shadows like warm morning light.
The rainbow faded as the magpies gathered
just over the hill, no longer bright
as everything began to slip into its dusky attire
shadows vanished and where the rainbow was
no rainbow, the prismatic air invisible again
and through it all a nearby cricket played its violin legs
steadily with only brief pauses till the concert ended
leaving only a chatter of chirping
and the creaking of the kettle beginning to boil.
The magic hour over
dogs barked across the hills
and silence rose where the wind was.

Taos, NM
July 18, 2017