Azure - Final LoE Post!

Well, we have finally come to the end of this little journey! Here is the final blog post for my latest album, Language of Emotion. The final track is entitled 'Azure' and is the sequel to the acoustic intro mentioned in the previous post. In order to explain my thoughts behind this song, I must first paint a picture for you. Imagine looking up at any given point during the day and seeing incredibly vivid shades of blue. . . vibrant and unimaginably endless. Such are the skies on many days out here in Hawaii. I had stepped outside one afternoon and looking upward, felt this awesome sense of life and raw emotion surging through me while witnessing the beauty that exists here in the islands. The music which came from that moment is now the song, Azure.

LoE finishes much in the way that it began . . with a simple statement. If you recall, the opening statement was 'Though I may speak in the tongues of angels.' The closing statement completes this phrase . . . 'but if I have not love, I am nothing.' This whole album has revolved around the concept of human emotion and the various manifestations of such. However, regardless of who we are, what we are, or what we do . . . if we don't have love in our hearts for one another, we have absolutely nothing.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you. Hope to see you out on the road sometime soon!

For future reference, these will be archived on my website for viewing anytime. Aloha!

-AK

Azure - Acoustic Intro

Well, we are nearing the end of this little blog journey! The seventh cut on LoE is actually an intro for the song Azure. At one point, about six months ago, I was playing around with the DADGAD tuning and trying some different finger-style techniques. This little intro took shape from that session. The ideas behind this intro and Azure are one in the same, in fact the tuning for the background acoustic is also DADGAD. With that in mind, I will leave the emotional explanation for my 'Azure' post.

Deeper than the Unknown

The idea for this track started with a tapping pattern which ended up being one of the recurring themes in the song (this can be heard right away at the beginning). I had been working on some new techniques and one of the patterns that I came up with turned out to have this really cool, complex sound. Initially, it was something fun to play with and double with a synth, but the longer I played it, the more entrancing it became. After recording the intro and hearing it back, the track took on a life of its own. The title did not come right away, but later as the track was being completed. Unlike the rest of LoE, 'Deeper than the Unknown' was written in a different fashion, and only afterwards gave way to deeper emotions and reaching inside for something unseen. The track has some haunting twists and turns and I think, lends itself to rather well to the mystique of the human psyche and ultimately, the soul. You never quite know what might be lurking in the depths of your subconscious . . .

Colour of Love

The fifth track for the LoE project is entitled, Colour of Love. This song was inspired by the various aspects/illustrations of love in my life. Love exists in many forms, some more obvious than others. It could be as simple a mother's love for her child or as complex as the love for a country or ideal. The illustration of such love is very subjective to the person giving and/or receiving. Everyone expresses love in their own way and maintains their respective associations with it. For this reason, I can only give you my opinions towards the topic in the hopes that my communication is effective.

The sections of the song are designed to weave in and out of both the simplicity and complexity of love. The verses being the complexity and the choruses being the simplicity. The bridge is written to illustrate the dramatic and intense side of the aforementioned emotion yet eventually falls back into a simple yet elegant ending . . . beautiful, yet with a number of different twists and turns. The clean, rhythm guitar in the background was inspired by a progression/tonality that has been with me since childhood. I have always found it 'freeing' and and full of life. My mother could partially be responsible for this due to the playing of many Chip Davis records over the course of my life.

No Feeling Left

Happy Thanksgiving! Just finished my cooking and now I'm ready to give you guys the fourth installment!
This fourth track is entitled, No Feeling Left. The inspiration and title came from a conversation with someone close to me that was going through a rough patch. One of the statements this person made was that he didn't feel anything anymore. This struck me as very disheartening (as it would most anyone) and I wondered what 'having no feeling' would sound like. A melody started to come to mind and grew into the song that is 'No Feeling Left.' What is interesting here, is the tie to the LoE concept. In this regard, the lack of emotion and inability to feel anything is probably one of the more dangerous mindsets in which to end up. In this song, the dramatic soundscape behind the melody represents the crushing feeling of emptiness while the melody illustrates the cry from within to regain a sense of worth and emotion. This person explained to me that every time things started to go in a better direction, they always seemed to end up crashing down. The bridge (or B section) illustrates this concept yet ends up crashing again into that dark soundscape. Here is a video clip of the first verse into the chorus:

As a little bonus, I asked fellow Buddy Blaze artist, Joey Concepcion if he would lend a solo to this song to which he agreed so be sure to listen closely as he tears it up! For more info on Joey, visit his artist page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joey-Concepcion/339632932280

Until next time  . . . .

Throat Full of Nails

I'm really going to have to explain myself on this one, then again that's the idea. The song, Throat Full of Nails, was inspired by a disorder called allotriophagy. This disorder is defined as 'an unnatural desire to consume non-edible objects as food.' This disorder is incredibly compulsive and can be very detrimental (as I'm sure you can imagine) to one's health. Closely tied to this disorder, is the phenomenon of coughing up glass or nails which is centuries old and sits in a similar category as the stigmata. As one can imagine, were that to ever happen, the visual would probably be on par with something out of a Hellraiser movie and certainly excruciating for the victim of such a phenomenon. What is amusing about all of this (in a sick sort of way), is that we as humans have all had a sort of 'allotriophagy' disorder . . . maybe not with food (or lack thereof) but with other consumable things. We poison our thoughts by subjecting ourselves to immoralities and hate for others. We absorb all sorts of awful things without thinking twice about it, while we should be consuming positive, moral things. Agree or not, this is just another type of allotriophagy, more spiritual and figurative though.

On a technical note, a friend of mine, Darryl McEachin was kind enough to lend his organ chops to this song. The killin' B3 is all him!!!

. . . be careful what you consume.

Elysian Dream

I was feeling inspired (might be due to a glass of blended red wine) so I decided to post the next segment covering my thought process for Language of Emotion. The second track on the album is entitled, 'Elysian Dream.' I would like to start by first defining this term. Elysian (adj.) (or elysium n.) refers to the Greek concept of a heaven or afterlife. The Greeks believed that elysium was a post-mortum resting place reserved for those that were related to the so-called celestial beings/gods/heroes. So as one can imagine, elysium served as a very comforting thought to those near death. To get a visual, the best example of this is probably in the movie, Gladiator. To tie this concept to my little exploration into emotion, I wanted this track to reflect the feeling/emotion of being in a place where no harm can be done. It's that feeling during a first kiss, a baby's laugh, experiencing an incredible view, etc. All of these things can trigger that feeling, and make it seem as though you were in a dream.

Here are some of the technical aspects of the track. Originally, I wrote this track as part of an agreement with Ampkit by Agile Partners. Ampkit is a fully, functioning guitar amp/processor for the Apple iTouch. Here is a demo of Ampkit and my setup on the song:

Elysian Dream - Ampkit Demo

It is quite a fun little tool to use! Until next time . . .

Aaron Kusterer