Total time: 64:39

Journey through a blissful soundscape of Spring. Imagine being surrounded by birdsong, the soft hush of trickling water and the occasional wind chimes tinkling in the background as you leisurely enjoy the twilight of the new day.

Note: This is an outtake from the Garden album. It is an extended mix from the first section, stripped down and mellowed. *

Notes about the album:

The original impetus behind the Garden album was to have a single track using birdsong and softly flowing water sounds to create a sustained atmosphere of peaceful joy.

An audio psychoacoustic bliss like springtime on tap to chase away the frozen blues. Especially helpful during the long gray cold of Milwaukee winters.

The project was inspired by a several instances. First I had always been inspired by the Environments series of recordings that were produced from 1970 to 1979. Then while I was living in a basement apartment in the early 90s I experimented with creating an extended soundscape of synthesized birdsong which for myself was an early break though on how a soundscape could dramatically alter a living environment.

Then finally as an improvement to that early recording of synthesized birdsong and as my own exploration and response to Paul Vnuk's "Silence Speaks in Shadows" which I helped engineer and produce. I began to look for locations I thought would be interesting for field recordings.

In early spring of 2002 while walking in the woods, I had found a location near where I was living at the time that had a winding creek with two small waterfalls on either side of a bridge spanning it. If one stood on the bridge and faced the right way, you could hear the two waterfalls distinctly in each ear which gave a very interesting spatial effect. The effect was so magical to me and I started recording there. On a few occasions found myself recording at dawn capturing birdsong as well as the water sounds.

Not merely satisfied with simply using birdsong and water as extended field recordings I found myself orchestrating the field recordings and manipulating them to both extend the range of the sound and quickly found an interesting exploration to be found in stretching and manipulating the field recordings.

The daytime themes I wanted to use to create a sonic paradise of all sunshine and joy I found very difficult to sustain through the project and the first section soon turned to stranger and more shadowy themes.

I struggled a long time with the piece and finally had to come to terms that I could simply not force the soundscape to be an extended singular experience I intended. So instead of simple birdsong and water with added musical elements had to "allow" the piece to shift into other areas in for it to progress.

The extended mix you hear here is my going back and stripping away some of the elements and had my friend Michi add some violin to the existing keyboard parts. The result came closer to my original vision of a sustained sonic bliss and now through this outlet I happy to finally be able share it

* Special note due to the limitations of bandcamp's upload maximum we were unable to make this a single track.