busy hands & the devil's workshop

fall colors looking toward my 'magic forest'-[c]2011 doug duffey

October 10,2011: "busy hands are happy hands" and "an idle mind is the devil's workshop" seem to have been my mottoes, lately; or else there's an OCD & ADD cocktail going on in my head. i can't seem to make myself stop improvising & recording experimental & avant garde solo piano music. this 'run' began when i went to switzerland earlier this year and hasn't stopped yet.

i keep finding different ways to do things... and they seem to work... so, voila! my theory is to do all the work i can while the spirit moves me [and this is a very spiritual -not religious- place i am working in & from] and edit later. there again, that goes with everything i DO, including art, photography, and writing- when i eventually run dry- or go brain dead- it'll be time to edit & publish or exhibit. 

i really need to concentrate on editing the work i did in switzerland THIS year, before anything else. it was possibly the most prolific period in my life. the solo piano improvisations & solo synth improvisations only need trimming & filing per cd- the multi tracked synth improvisations need mixing- which will take more time... and patience.

since i've been home, i wake some mornings, get my coffee, &  before i do anything, compose/record "matins"; some evenings after being out working in the yard or running errands i come in and compose/ record "vespers" - both as gratitude meditations- and then eventually i stretch out into some spacey avant garde experimental stuff. there again. its all experimental. my new self coined motto is "there are no mistakes in art"

self portrait in a broken mirror w/trees & sky- [c]2011 doug duffey

perhaps i repeat myself- or get redundant- or both- but something that began a few years ago, with the recording of 'changin' times'*: that i would only record "live" in a big room w/band [although we did go back and do overdubs on it*] i have since only recorded "live"w/no overdubs- we did that with 'work that thang' and all my solo piano and vocal work [although 'traditional' has overdubs on the 'production' numbers] - anyway, i think i am getting over all my self imposed recording phobias [that everything "has to be real; has to be live"] and just going for it, no more 2nd guessing- saying: it is what it is. hit it, quit it, and move on to the next project

so have been feeling good about my newest solo works- but feel it is time to get back to writing a new cd for the band- and hopefully record it this fall/winter.

 [C]2011 DOUG DUFFEY