I can't remember really how "Tree Music" came about. From what I recall now, it just seemed to happen. After "Devachan", I kept recording, and I suddenly had enough material to fill a 90 minute tape. About half of that material was structured as "The Amethyst Dream". At one point, Lars at Domestica and I talked about releasing "The Amethyst Dream" together with "Devachan" as a box set of sorts including "Tree Music". The idea was scrapped, but suddenly we had another album ready for release. "Tree Music" and "The Amethyst Dream" were released simultaneously.
The odd thing about "Tree Music" is that it seems to have a theme of its own. All the songs deal, in one way or another, with nature. The unintentional concept album! It is also by far the strangest album of mine, with "Willow Moon" being the off-beat centrepiece. (And off tune too for that matter...) There's also a new version of "These Darkened Trees" which is the perfect example of how not to make a record. I had just bought myself a cheap sitar, and with fearlessness bordering on sheer stupidity, I decided to play a very long solo on said sitar. I also turned it up pretty loud in the mix, so that no-one would miss it... Those were the days! Anyway, this arrangement (bar the sitar!) became the foundation for subsequent takes on the song, including the one with Pangolin.
This is indeed one freak of an album, and perhaps that's an appeal of its own. At least one person I know has cited "Tree Music" as his favourite Peter Scion album... Another friend of mine had a good laugh when he heard "The Flower of My Secret Garden" for the first time. "What a freaky song!" he said, probably with equal parts of joy and fear... "Tree Music" seems to generate odd reactions.
The album cover was a shameless tribute to the ESP Disk' aesthetics. I love the homemade feel of their covers; that simple, stark black and white look that seemed to signal an urge to express oneself. I could easily relate to that, and although I no longer make music myself, I still can.
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The odd thing about "Tree Music" is that it seems to have a theme of its own. All the songs deal, in one way or another, with nature. The unintentional concept album! It is also by far the strangest album of mine, with "Willow Moon" being the off-beat centrepiece. (And off tune too for that matter...) There's also a new version of "These Darkened Trees" which is the perfect example of how not to make a record. I had just bought myself a cheap sitar, and with fearlessness bordering on sheer stupidity, I decided to play a very long solo on said sitar. I also turned it up pretty loud in the mix, so that no-one would miss it... Those were the days! Anyway, this arrangement (bar the sitar!) became the foundation for subsequent takes on the song, including the one with Pangolin.
This is indeed one freak of an album, and perhaps that's an appeal of its own. At least one person I know has cited "Tree Music" as his favourite Peter Scion album... Another friend of mine had a good laugh when he heard "The Flower of My Secret Garden" for the first time. "What a freaky song!" he said, probably with equal parts of joy and fear... "Tree Music" seems to generate odd reactions.
The album cover was a shameless tribute to the ESP Disk' aesthetics. I love the homemade feel of their covers; that simple, stark black and white look that seemed to signal an urge to express oneself. I could easily relate to that, and although I no longer make music myself, I still can.
MP3:
DOWNLOAD
WAV:
DOWNLOAD
hi peter--thank you for uploading your hard-to-find music for all to enjoy.
ReplyDeletei have a question about the song titles on "tree music." the titles weren't tagged, so i looked at the cover scans on mutant sounds, but i'm still confused. as far as i can tell, the cover scan gives the titles as:
1. Tree Music / The Flower Of My Secret Garden
2. Willow Moon
3. Cloak Of Shame
4. These Darkened Trees
5. Dance To The Witch's Visit
there are, however, six tracks in your download. is the sixth track untitled? or does the track numbering work differently somehow?
thanks for any help you can provide, and thanks again for making your music available.
nan, Tree Music and Flower of My Secret Garden are two separate tracks. When I test downloaded the album, I got the titles with each track. Feel free to ask if there's anything else you need to know!
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