I moved to New York from Europe at the start of 2005. I’m a recording engineer and media music writer, but for a long time I’ve had it on my heart to make a commercial album. Coming to the US and starting over, I had more time to think, I suppose as now I had a lot less in the way of obligations and commitments. Walking around New York I became aware of all the things I think and feel every day. especially in a large modern city with so many different people and particularly in a city like New York with people from surely every part of the world. As I walked and looked at all around me I became aware of some of my feelings, and I tried to be as honest as possible about them to myself, which I don’t always find easy. Some of these surprised me, some shocked me, some I knew well and some I couldn’t even really put a name to. Anger, doubt, joy, longing, prejudice, fear, insecurity, sadness, awe, empathy, feeling overwhelmed, desire, superiority, inferiority. I felt rich, I felt poor; I felt tall, I felt short; I felt unwanted, I felt at home.
As I experienced these feelings and others that are harder to identify, I felt that there’s no way that I can express them all verbally. Even if I had a friend or partner that would listen to me for hours every evening, there probably just wouldn’t be the time to express to them all that I’d felt in that one day or even to be able to express most of it in a way that someone else can understand. And this is what most gets to me. This area of emotion and feeling that doesn’t seems to have a way of being expressed. I turned to what I know, music, and I decided to assemble an album which in some way helps me articulate and explore some of these feelings.
For me its a ‘lights off’ album. It’s really a soundtrack album, but the film is the listeners film, and the music will mean many different things to different people. I love that side of music (especially music without lyrics), that it can be ambiguous. I don’t always need music to tell me how to feel. Sometimes I just like to make my own mind up and figure it out for myself. And sometimes the same piece of music can mean different things at different times. The thing I do know though, is that it’s difficult for me not to have some sort of emotional response when I listen to music, whatever that music is. That’s the nature of it, and perhaps why we love music much. Some of the tracks on the album have strong identities for me which I could put into words and with others I feel strong emotions but I’m really not quite sure what those emotions are. The music of 'Sinking Upwards’ is mostly ‘open’. If you have any thoughts whilst listening and you’d like to share them, it would be great if you’d post them on the site.
On the CD the tracks crossfade into each other so it's one listening experience without breaks.
The compilation track has excerpts of 5 tracks from the album. Every couple of weeks we'll put up another compilation with 5 different tracks.
If you want to 'add' a track to your profile that's not on the MySpace player let me know and I'll send you the link.
Simon
Marie ^_* ♥♪♫♥
