Rubato, Pieces For Guitar

Creative ideas often come from that space between wakefulness and sleep, the doorway between two worlds. Looking back to when it was created, the feel and inspiration for Rubato came from this twilight place of semi-consciousness.

In the early 1990s, I lived in an old Victorian in Oakland, California with nine roommates. It was a busy, full of life place, but my bedroom was a retreat far from the others, in an isolated part of the house. The room that Rubato was recorded in was tiny – perhaps 5 x 10 feet. It was actually my bedroom’s closet; almost a womb-like environment.

And that was a good place to birth it. When I was writing and recording this music, I didn’t know that I was making an album that would have no vocals at all. But as the project took shape, a certain mood was forming: one that I knew would be broken if a voice or words were added in.

The process felt very vulnerable to me. I was creating in a quiet, protected environment: I only let others hear it after it was almost completed, for fear that any response - good or bad – might stop the creative process. Even now, that vulnerable feeling may come across when you listen. It’s not a lonely, feeling, but a solitary one.

M. L. - January 2017

Microphones: Neumann U67 stereo pair.
Recorder: ADAT (one of the first ones!)