An Error Thinly by Tom Atwood
Genre: New Age
Get Flash to see this player.
Having playback trouble, try the Quicktime player:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial
Fan List
Description:
I started work on this piece before leaving for vacation. It rattled around in my head driving through Kansas (see artwork). The title comes from lyrics that may be added later, that have also been rattling around, but are not yet fully formed.
(Photo by Ellen Atwood
Along Hwy 36)
featured on
songs from the american plain
now available
the lost records™
(Photo by Ellen Atwood
Along Hwy 36)
featured on
songs from the american plain
now available
the lost records™
Hardware:
Alvarez guitarCasio Privia PX-300
G5
Software:
GBYou must be registered and logged-in to comment.
bronco
Now Tom I know you think I don't appreciate New Age but
that's only because I'm in my Old Age. This I really liked!
The use of the various instruments without one
overpowering the others was great. And of course there
was plenty of my favorite - that acoustic guitar. Towards
the end I got this mental image of you sitting around a
campfire on the prairie and all these animals were making
noises in the night.
Tom Atwood
Thanks, Tom. I like that campfire image. We actually had a fire one night. It
was chilly in Colorado last week. Glad you liked this. Basically it's just a guitar
piece dressed up.
Jim Bouchard
Nice to hear you're back from vacation. This is really cool and I can't wait to hear it with the lyrics. Reminds me of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra a little, maybe because I've just been listening to them.
Tom Atwood
Now that you mention it, the woodwinds do give this a Penguin Cafe
Orchestra feel. Thanks for listening, Jim.
Ed Hannifin
Yep. Definitely from the Penguin Cafe Kansas franchise.
Cameron
The opening eighth-note pattern grabbed me from the
start. Poignant, lilting, striving.
It repeats and builds throughout the piece, providing a
good musical foundation. The melodic content reminds
me of Rodrigo -- mysterious, haunting. It conjures up
images of nighttime.
Your use of percussion is very artful and imaginative. You
weave the various sounds in and out nicely.
That "flute" sound is a colorful punctuation. I would have
used it a bit less, but it does add a hypnotic quality to the
overall piece.
I can see why this composition "rattled around in your
head" on your vacation. It has a certain driving, insistent
quality about it, although the general atmosphere is
mellow and contemplative.
Very nice photograph which matches the music perfectly.
Tom Atwood
Thanks for your comments, Cameron. Good to hear from you again. As for
the flutes, my wife had pretty much the same opinion as yours--she would
have used less. I think if I had Symphony Jampack 4 I would use other
instruments, but with GB1, I feel like the flutes are the most 'realistic'
instrument among the woodwinds and horns. And so, I tend to lean on
them...
My daughter Ellen will appreciate your comment on the photograph. (She
must have been bored on that long drive through Kansas to take a
picture of
her father.)
Thanks again for listening.
mandolinquent
The label "New
Age" brings me out in a rash because it usually
denotes an absence of ideas and a mush of sound.
This is way too full of patterns and delicious
disharmonies to be that. There's too much on for it
to be lazily relaxing. It has more to do with Satie/
Ravel type miniatures for money, but I guess they
don't make an MJ genre for that. As with
Lamentations, a really fresh piece of work that uses
instruments in a really original way. "Just a guitar
piece dressed up" huh?
Tom Atwood
Thanks, Wm. I guess I have gotten so used to cramming into genres that I no
longer cringe or get hives like you do in this New Age world. I appreciate the
comparison with Satie & Ravel. This piece pales a bit, I think, but I appreciate
it nonetheless. Gets me chuffed in a gobsmacked sort of way.
Seriously, thanks for listening and for the kind words. You have now elevated
this piece to a level the bombers will notice. (Thanks alot)
Cori Ander
I am completely with mandolinquent on this point! Your music is potent and not
at all dead end. I strongly suggest you try another category.
Tom Atwood
I agree New Age is not exactly the right category, but looking at the list of MJ
genres, I don't see much else. Acoustic isn't right. Classical? Funk? Country/
Western/Bluegrass?
White Hawks
this is very cool. nice guitar tunes and i also like those
"flute" sounds which comes out in some places in this
song. thanks for sharing this beautiful pieace.
- Hawks
# nice picture:)
Tom Atwood
Thanks Jemimah. I will tell Ellen you like her snapshot.
I. Spike
The missing track for Rumblefish...
Loved it!
Tom Atwood
Thanks Mr. Spike, for listening, and for your kind words about fish and
rumbling and such.
Mystified
It calms...then twitters...then calms again, rather like
thoughts disrupted by errant chatter (of passengers on a
crosscountry trip?)
But, oh how I love those moments where the guitar just
settles into that wonderful, mild lull of warm, rich sound.
beautiful...thank you.
Tom Atwood
Thanks Cat. There was alot of errant chatter on that drive through Kansas,
the state that never ends.
Called "Good Music". You could file song this under that,
Tom.
I enjoyed this. It's relaxing and interesting. I like the spanish
guitar type opening, the introduction of flute and percussion,
the transitions, interweaving of the parts and the melodies.
You had the "flutes" there doing some car horns and I'm
reminded of that revolving door feeling at certain points. :)
Tom Atwood
Thanks Mr Flynn. I am confounded by genre issues on this piece. Better than
being confounded by gender issues I guess? Really can't think of another
category to file it under, except "Other," which is the category for misfit
songs.
snowdragon
to the addition of lyrics on this one. You've set the bar
pretty high with the music so don't let us down. (no
pressure, no pressure.)
Tell the wife I loved the choice of sepia tones for the
photo as it gave a marvellous juxtaposition of 50s road
trip with 21st Century auto interior. This whole piece
would make a great Twilight Zone episode.
Tom Atwood
Picture a typical American family, on a pleasant summer vacation, driving
down a sepia-drenched hiway, unaware they are on the road to...the
Twighlight Zone.
Thanks snow. BTW, Ellen is my 13-year-old daughter (the photographer).
Tom Atwood
Twighlight???
Mr. S
bad ass mode once again. Secret mission stake-out style.
Nice piece.
Tom Atwood
Thanks for the compliment, S. (Do you mean my gun?)
Joanna
Great work here, Tom. I'm not a New Ager either, but this
had meat to it. It had something to say and somewhere to
go -- you really did an excellent job.
Tom Atwood
I'm beginning to sense a general, widespread dislike for New Age. But I
appreciate your
comments, Joanna. Thanks for taking time to listen.
Shimky
Come on, then, where are these lyrics?? ;O)
Great piece. Seriously, I would be very interested in
hearing how you mix it when you've got vocals on there
too.
Tom Atwood
Originally, this was a much simpler piece, for two guitars and voice. While
working on the lyrics, I decided to see how this would sound as an
instrumental, and it got very dense and flutey. If I finish the lyrics--which
deal with cutting and other destructive behaviors--alot of the window
dressing will have to go, and will be replaced by a simpler guitar backing. (I
think any lyrics now would get lost in what Mungo describes as the "revolving
door.")
Thanks for listening, and for the comments.
thetiler
I like the guitar and how it interplays with the keyboard.
Then the cord-al fingerpicking later on, almost an open
tuning sound feeling, it might be, not sure.
Nice
Thanks for sharing
Tom Atwood
Thanks Bill. The guitar is in standard tuning on this piece, although I may
have used a capo? Memory, fading...with each passing day...
Peter Greenstone
I got to hear this a couple of days ago but did have time to
comment until now. I'm really taken away by this, on a
journey. The combination of your sweet guitar playing with
your more newly found sounds is wonderful. It's warm and
comforting while expressing a little bit of a darkness
underneath. Emotionally complex, musically elegant.
Tom Atwood
Thanks for those kind words, Peter. If I ever release a CD, I want you to write
the liner notes.
alley-oop
I just found this! Most excellent, Mr. Tom. Your instrumentation is wonderful. Interesting sounds, all couched in the great guitar work. I'm looking foward, to hearing this with lyrics.
Your friend, JohnnyRay....I'm mean alley-oop
Tom Atwood
Thanks Tom, or Johnny, or Alley, or Ray. Whoever. Thanks for the comments
and for listening.
Retro Plien
this is cool - using the guitar over loops is an interesting way to go - the piece keeps you interested right through (so can it really be 'new age' then?)
liked this a lot
Tom Atwood
Thanks retro. No loops in this piece though. Just a looped feel through live
playing. Glad you took time to listen and comment.
mulletsrock
I appreciate your well done tracks. Currently, there are many
aimless, shapeless songs gaining high scores, much to my
amazement. But your tracks, with Tobin Mueller's, show the
difference with great inventive writing and thought through
writing and seamless production. I look forward to listening
to your music very much. You two are what New Age music
should always become... movement into a new age of
sensitivity and discovery.
Tom Atwood
Thanks mulletsrock, I really appreciate your comments, and the comparison
with Tobin, who is in another class altogether.
p.s. I checked out your material after reading your comments. Really enjoyed
Franken fun.
Drew Kopr
I love how you switch btw. major and minor sounds. The guitar sound is one of the best clean acoustic sounds I have heard on this site. Very nice piece!!
SpasmodicMan
Not wanting to be mellow, I listen and am cooled without
mellowing. Maybe because you are cool while inventing at
the same time. Maybe you should always imagine in Kansas
colors. Three cheers for rattling around in cars!
perceptualvortex
of strolling through the woods as the sun is setting. Has that "things aren't what they seem" feel, in an entertainingly mysterious kind of way. Very cool.
Tom Atwood
Thanks Drew, SM, and PV for checking this piece out. Always glad when you
guys stop by.
---
.
wittybrit
Enjoyed this hautung fantasy of misty swirls. Guess you and I are of the same age...I just wish there was a better term than new age, still its better than the alternative! (old age!)