Last night, Jeremiah, Tim, and I finished up our pre-mixes (we made reference mixes as close to the final product was as possible at home, then will send the ProTools sessions off to Randall Dunn for the final mixing) of the Tartar Lamb II record.
Today, I listened through the record from beginning to end for the first time - and then two more times after that. I have to say that I'm extremely proud of my bandmates in TL2 for bringing to life a music which was, at first approach, virtually impenetrable; which was very difficult to understand from an instrumentalist's perspective because of how the piece is notated and temporally structured; a piece which was very difficult to understand from an ensemble's perspective, everyone needing to know everyone else' part impeccably, and only being able to gel with one another when everyone knew all the parts, yet all of us being confused on how to rehearse with this requirement. And what these guys have done is turn these extraordinarily unusual ideas into a record that is beautifully listenable, deceptively simple-sounding, and perfectly evocative of its subject matter and intention. I'm so wonderfully fortunate to be able to work with a group of geniuses such as this, and can't wait for you all to hear the record, which is very much a studio project beyond the performance piece.
I've been noticing that my own vocal cords seem to sympathetically resonate to recordings of at least my *own* voice... and by extension, recordings of my own music. Since I listened through this record three times today, in a row, with basically a lump in my throat the whole time, I now have an intensely sore and exhausted feeling voice. I'm speaking with hoarseness now. And I'd hardly done any talking today or yesterday.
