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Folk Music [DEL​-​017]

by Del Stephen

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1.
I WOULD LIKE A DREAM IN WHICH I MAKE THROUGH MAGIC OR FREE WILL MINUTE MOVEMENT OR THE ETERNAL REELING IN (A LINE NOT WITHSTANDING A LIMIT LEFT UNCOUTH) AN OCEANIC PRESENT FOR MEMORY I HIDE SURPRISE ME WHEN I FALL
2.
Su 04:42
Here she is Coming down From the steps of Lana’s house Listen to the words She speaks As her front door lingers Open Opening Opened Her voice: “When my soul tires of the new- Yes- That’s how I know it’s a-” My voice: “Good morning- Susanna-” Here she is The time is now The problem isn’t why But how Myopic myriad marbles How Her voice: “It will flutter away like- Yes- All it takes is-” My voice: “I didn’t mean to start- Please- Su-” And back Into Lana’s bedroom She went back Shy of the day Shy of the new Shy of the good And of my voice.
3.
I’ve been thinking of Coming to learn The Name Of your person Sat under the old pine tree. I’ve been dreaming of Coming to live In the space Of your person Sat under the old pine tree. Now I know That you might be Surprised to find me there So I stay And it’s always this way Sat under the old pine tree.
4.
Imagine Jazz 02:41
DON’T CRY I COMFORTED THE KETTLE WATER WHISTLE WAILING TO SIGNAL CLIMATE CHANGING SPRING COMES EARLY FOR SOME SEE-OO-EE-OO-EE-OO-WEE-OO SEE-OO-EE-OO-EE-OO-WEE-OO WINDY WEATHERED WEEPING WILLOWS WHAT THE HECK DO WE DO-WEE-OO-WEE-OO-WEE-OO DON’T CRY THOUGH THE THING THAT THINKS TO THAW THOUGHT WRONG I COMFORTED THE KETTLE YOUR TEA IS READY HONEY.
5.
6.
How I could So easily bathe you With a shower Of compliments Just enough For you to know your worth How I could So gently rinse you In a river Of my love Just enough For you to understand How I could So tightly wrap you In a blanket Of my trust Just enough For you to know my thoughts How I could So carefully dress you With the fabric Of our time Just enough For you to wear it well.
7.
8.
Delicates 01:49
Trying To think about All of the things that go Through changes The washing machine goes Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh On a cycle Counting down to zero.
9.

about

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"How did all of this music come together? Well, that's a good question. I've been wanting to share some of my poetry through sound recordings for quite some time now. At the beginning of 2017, I caught a really bad cold that took most of my voice away from me, so I spent a couple of afternoons at home reciting poems and lyrics into the microphone. I quite liked the hoarse quality of my voice during extended hours of not drinking any water. Leonard Cohen had just recently passed away, and I wonder if that had some kind of peculiar influence on me at the time, despite my being a bit of a stranger to his music. Of course I didn't want to sound like him and of course I don't think I do. That being said, the timing was a little bit funny and a little bit serious. Huh.

Anyway, to accompany the poems, my friend Chris Rikkerink also sent some short, lo-fi phone recordings of himself playing guitar, which I then spun, chopped up, mixed, and looped (here and there) into what I call 'impossible compositions', like the kind of samples that probably could not be played live by a single person, at least not very easily. I'm really happy with how they turned out, like a rhythmic blanket for my poetry to exist on. I'm grateful for Chris' willingness to participate in this kind of exercise without really knowing what he was getting himself into. And even though he shared an appreciation for the final recordings that came as a result, for a long time those recordings just lay still in my computer. I would play them for friends here and there, but I just felt that they needed more of a family if they were to more formally go out into the world.

So, I continued to play various shows and record and release a slew of other projects, like "And The Celestial Diva", "INTERDEPENDENCE MAP", and "Moss Rock", among others. I even assembled a couple of groups and we played and played again. No matter which directions my musical path was taking, there was something about these spoken-word and guitar mix recordings that I could still relate to. It would often frustrate me that, as far as I was aware, there was no real place for them to be heard. One day, after recording some duo improvisations with my friend Andrew Finlay Stewart, I had the idea to record a little bit of just him playing the violin, with a plan to do some of the same kind of post-production remixing I had done with Chris' guitar recordings almost 2 years prior to the day. I was amazed at the spontaneous beauty of his playing, and I'm equally grateful for Andrew's willingness to lend his unique sound to what became the opening song on this album. When I look back on it, that recording session with Andrew may have been the final spark I needed to catch in order to re-ignite and (re)-unite the recorded poems with some newer sort of collage compositions that I had made with keyboards and synthesizers.

These instrumental collage pieces are single-take recordings with no turning back and I suppose what you might call "first thought, best thought" organic melodies. While I could've easily imagined an album solely dedicated to these kinds of songs, and such an album might indeed come in the future, instead I opted to incorporate these songs as instrumental 'passageways' between the more vocal and lyrical recordings on the album. All of these pieces from the past couple of years finally fell into place, and it's impossible now to see them as coming from different places. They are now the 9 parts that make up this album that could only be called "Folk Music". I always thought it would come out in wintertime, but today is the first day of spring. What more is there to say? Don't overthink it. Go ahead and listen. And as always, thank you for being here."
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Music, production, and words by Stephen Del Duca, except where noted below.
Made in Toronto, Ontario between 2017 and 2019.

Additional Credits:
Andrew Finlay Stewart played violin, which was then sampled/arranged for collage-composition on "Meemydreemanai"
Chris Rikkerink played guitar, which was also then sampled/mixed on "Su", "Imagine Jazz", "Just Enough (For You)", and "Delicates".

More poetry can be found at
delstephen.tumblr.com
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credits

released March 20, 2020

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Del Stephen Toronto, Ontario

art, music, poetry

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