Reflection

When Burt Bacharach died I was in Manorhamilton in Leitrim working on Butterfly Wars at The Glens centre. May he rest peacefully.

I wandered up to The Glens at 9 PM that evening to play the piano, and I began tinkling. I arrived at this discordant arrangement of "Close to You" and recorded it with an iPhone and posted it online...

Playing piano relaxes me.

I'm told the version of Close to You is weird... that's OK. The birds are supposed to be... dead close to you in this version -- more my shtick.

Just singing a cover as it's written never excites me. I always like to explore it musically in the moment. How awkward or weird can I make it without losing musicality? How many layers of harmonies can I add? Anything poly? Different instrumentations? Or if it's weird to begin with, let's make this light and lovely? I chose to make that version weird. When they kicked off on Facebook with "it's weird," well, thanks, mission complete if you ask me. Could've arranged it a hundred other ways in the moment...

I've no intention on giving any effort to this version, it's staying in the moment but I do like the idea of discordance, and tuning... and this version of the song. But I understand it's not easy listening... musicians liked it.

Happy world piano day!