Ava - Monday & Tuesday in The Dungeon

Yes, I spent two days in the dungeon this week with Garrick and, by times, with Stuart, with Dan (the new and very accomplished young bass player who has joined in the mix) and with friendly others to make up for my time away in Germany. And, we got so much done!

The "Tarot Immersions Project" is in great shape and all the key contributors are happy and excited with what we are creating. Each immersion is a highly original work of audio art and can be enjoyed on this basis alone. Some immersions have lyrics, some are chants and some are instrumentals to lend variety and scope to the overall collection which will consist of 22 immersions in total (0-The Fool to XXI-The World, inclusive).

XV-The Devil (which, one has to admit, can be a lightning rod for all kinds of negative thoughts and ideas) turned out to be easy to write but hard for me to find the right recording voice for until an off-the-wall approach was taken to the subject matter and then - voila - it all came together in a totally odd and totally satisfying way.

I find myself particularly happy with XV-The Devil because it is such a tricky concept to approach in a way that is positive, truthful and possibly helpful. And, we accomplished it. Actually, we accomplished even more than this because we also managed to add a little campy humour to the material. Good on us!

So ... Thanks, Stu, for lending your intuitive percussive voice to my Germanic vampire voice and making XV-The Devil one of the most screwball, (and therefore one of the most endearing) pieces we have created so far. And, thanks, Garrick for always being open to a different approach.

Monday night we rehearsed four of the six pieces we will be performing as "The Open Sesames" at the August 28th event being held in the Belleville Market Square designed to bring awareness (and liveliness) to the "Buy Local,Share Local" movement the Ontario food banks initiated last year. This was the first opportunity for Dan and I to work together and .... dah, dah, dahhhh ... it was also the first time "The Open Sesames" have gone completely off-the-grid and worked without any computer generated sound tracks. And, not only did we come together the way we all wanted to, and needed to, we proceeded to take right off !!!!!!!!!!

The ball is definitely rolling.