Thoughts on Piano Music, Nature & Life

Summertime...

Posted: Thursday July 28, 2005

Yes it’s that time of the year again…

Ever so discreetly, spring has vanished and with it, the marvelous sense of exuberance, especially here in the north of Canada, that accompanies this short but enchanted time of year. Tulips and daffodils have vanished as discreetly as they came… Dandelions too have left the fields they painted such a lush and resplendent yellow just a few weeks ago…..

Just a few weeks ago, we visited with Peter, a good friend, diagnosed with cancer – barely a year ago, and chatted about alternative ways of healing, of hope… He too went, discreetly, in the anonymity of his hospital room… Life goes on, indifferent to individual fate…

On the gravel bar across our home, baby geese learn to navigate the shallows under the watchful eye of their parents. Fawns take tentative steps and their big eyes discover a new world… Many will never make it to adulthood. Roses bloom in the gardens and it is fireweeds and daisies that color the fields now… Fresh runs of salmon ascend the river, climb the falls, eager to reach their spawning grounds… Natives set their nets, and no less eager sport fishers line the river pools. Fresh juicy salmon steaks sizzle on barbecues. Yeah, it is that time of the year again…

My new CD “Enchanted River” is close to completion. How exciting it was to record bird songs in the spring myself! I discovered a whole new world… Not that I didn’t use to listen to bird songs before…But recording is different…One becomes acutely aware of minor differences in pitch, of accents, of repeating melodies… and of course of invading noises. Nothing like recording to get a sharpened sense of what true silence should be, of the slightest interferences of man-made noises… Distant engines of all sorts that have sneaked into our soundscape… Pure silence I guess is going to be the most valuable commodity in the future, probably along with pure water…

Yet, between chain saws, traffic, planes, helicopters and trains, I managed to capture some truly enchanting nature sounds. That is what inspired me to name the new album that way. This is going to be a wonderfully soothing CD, I am really excited about it. It will be posted on the site for sale probably within a month or so.

Cheers
Serge Mazerand

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