The journey.
I watch the campfire crackle as the sun fades. A rock on a mountain is my home, a small sheltered place where I cut avocados in half and burn things I need to get rid of along with those dry twigs and branches. Some melodies sprout on lush lawns in the park, remember them, record them half asleep in the blue dreamy haze in the evening.
One moment she's a stranger at a downtown traffic light. And in the next I'm drowning in a twisted life's long story, being poured into my ear so boldly and yet trustfully sincere, that I don't dare to run, although I never asked about her foster parents, nor about her alcoholic husband, her despair.
Out there in the desert I find dust and heat and horseflies. The wind out here, when coming as a gentle, cooling breeze, can bring relief from all that makes the place unbearable - but also be unbearable itself, tear camps apart, press dust into the tents and trailers, there's no way to block it when you have no house.
But living under the sky for two months and a half, you'll get used to all that. And learn to cherish that the ground is firm and that the wind is cooling. That there is water there, replenishing your strength, and people, and a fire burning when it's cold at night. The desert's your home. And it makes for a powerful teacher.
Slab City, May 2013
Special thanks to Malcolm who left his trace on this release. To Tom who was a sister and Neil who was a puzzle to me, to Wil and to Cuervo, to my Slab family and other companions. I'm sure we'll soon meet traveling again.
I watch the campfire crackle as the sun fades. A rock on a mountain is my home, a small sheltered place where I cut avocados in half and burn things I need to get rid of along with those dry twigs and branches. Some melodies sprout on lush lawns in the park, remember them, record them half asleep in the blue dreamy haze in the evening.
One moment she's a stranger at a downtown traffic light. And in the next I'm drowning in a twisted life's long story, being poured into my ear so boldly and yet trustfully sincere, that I don't dare to run, although I never asked about her foster parents, nor about her alcoholic husband, her despair.
Out there in the desert I find dust and heat and horseflies. The wind out here, when coming as a gentle, cooling breeze, can bring relief from all that makes the place unbearable - but also be unbearable itself, tear camps apart, press dust into the tents and trailers, there's no way to block it when you have no house.
But living under the sky for two months and a half, you'll get used to all that. And learn to cherish that the ground is firm and that the wind is cooling. That there is water there, replenishing your strength, and people, and a fire burning when it's cold at night. The desert's your home. And it makes for a powerful teacher.
Slab City, May 2013
Special thanks to Malcolm who left his trace on this release. To Tom who was a sister and Neil who was a puzzle to me, to Wil and to Cuervo, to my Slab family and other companions. I'm sure we'll soon meet traveling again.
download is free, but donations help pay my rent. if you give 5 euros, i will send you an actual postcard from some place where I find myself hanging out. if you give ten, that postcard will be handdrawn. Please remember to mention your address in the comment section
for a change... these are not homerecordings. they were all made en plein air, laying down tracks at full moon on hiking trails, leaned against trailers or squatting besides smoketrees, in the dust and under the domes of big tamarisk trees. using a mobile recorder and my computer, as long as the batteries would last.
only when I was three songs into the process, I noticed the theme, that I was actually writing one about each element. and so this concept started as an accident. I borrowed a drum beat from a boy who called himself magpie and some words from people I met on the way. I lost my little uke at some point, but then got it
back. and all in all received so many gifts and acts of kindness that I am almost embarrassed to say.. this is all that I can give you in return:
01 THE FIRE
(INTERMEZZO I: CHAR)
02 THE WATER
(INTERMEZZO II: DAVID)
03 THE AIR
(INTERMEZZO III: CUERVO)
04 THE EARTH
(INTERMEZZO IV: ELAINE)
05 SILENCE
(TOM, CHRISTINE, CLIFF)
these songs were written, mixed and arranged by Julia Kotowski aka. entertainment for the braindead, recorded en plein air in spring 2013 in the Southern Californian desert. To be released as the seventh and last in a series of acoustic Postcards in June 2013. the ocean drum on the earth was played by Magpie Malcolm. thanks fo that!
Published under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA.