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For this tune I tried to combine elements of 16th century classical music with a flamenco vibe so the title had to reflect that. I decided to name it after Catherine of "Aragon" (Aragon is a region of N.E. Spain) who was Henry VIII's first wife.
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It's always difficult when a relationship breaks up after a long time. "Love Is Blue" was written during one of those periods...
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This track was conceived on Tenerife when a friend of mine tried to convince me to sun bathe, even though it was cloudy, hence "Cloudbathing". This tuen has a long improvised section at the end (the solos on all of the tunes were improvised to make it more fun) and during this section I used a bottleneck for a few bars. I'd never done it before which is why you can hear us both laughing!
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I was messing around with some harp harmonics and "The Music Box" just came out of nowhere. It's always nice when things like that happen...
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Fraser wrote "Lake Placid", although he's never been there. I particularly like the dynamics on this one. It's difficult to listen to it without holding your breath...
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This track was originally called the Spider dance, mainly due to the way the fingers move when playing the main theme, almost scuttling across the neck. However, as soon as I came up with the arid sounding middle section it was clear that the title should belong to a more dangerous arachnid - "The Scorpion".
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Fraser played me a skeleton of "Siesta Resistance" which he'd written in the early hours after a spanish meal! I offered a few suggestions and he came back with this great sounding track. The only thing was that I didn't even want to play chords underneath the middle section so I came up with a counterpoint that had some nice contrary motion ideas. It almost sounds like the two guitars are pushing and pulling at each other.
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"Japan" was another track when I just picked up the guitar and there it was. The thoughts and feelings behind this tune are far too personal to ever put into words...
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"Rites Of Autumn" has a mystical quality that I really like. I've been messing around with it on piano recently and I've got enough themes and variations for a complete orchestra score. Maybe one day if I get the time...
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The final track, "Midnight Sun" depicts the intimacy of moonlight. One of my favourite moments happened while recording this tune. It was about 7:00 A.M. and just as we went into the final Lydian section we both became aware of the birds singing along outside the window! It was so nice that we played that outro a lot softer than normal, just so as we didn't drown them out!
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