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Bonus Track: Midnight Arroyo (demo)

from Shelter In Place (pandemic double album) by Arthur Durkee

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Bonus Track: Midnight Arroyo

This is not a "finished" piece, but it belongs with Shelter In Place, as that was its inception. This is demo track, for a piece I am likely to re-record more definitively.

Early in May 2020, I sat down at midnight and played my Roland ep-9 digital piano, improvising four tracks of grand piano and vibraphone. During the process of improvisation, it formed itself into this piece. I re-recorded it after making the sketch, then mixed it the following day, and also wrote out a lead sheet.

This is what I wrote in my journal about Midnight Arroyo the following day:

"This piece unexpectedly opened up some deep emotion in me. Sometimes, an elegantly simple, sparse tune evokes that unavoidable poignancy of existence. It stayed on my mind all the next day, and left me emotional. I'm satisfied with this work, even though it hasn't been an exactly easy or soothing ride to bring it to completion. The music, for me, hovers serenely over an inexplicable and near-bottomless sadness and grieving. I don't have words. There are no words strong enough for the feeling I had when playing this piece into being, or listening back to it later. Only the music has sufficient strength to bear the weight."

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from Shelter In Place (pandemic double album), released March 31, 2020
Arthur Durkee: piano, vibraphone (Roland ep-9 keyboard)

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Arthur Durkee Ann Arbor, Michigan

Arthur Durkee is a composer & songwriter who records & performs on Chapman Stick, bass, analog modular synths, bamboo & wood flutes, keys, frame drums, and voice. He has won awards for composed, notated music as well as for his recordings, & is a published poet, & designer & illustrator. ... more

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