Gasp for air! What a week. Lots of creativity required, so I am one happy camper!
Monday: I got a pair of the darling striped rain boots from Aldi. Too cool! Now I'm ready for walking the dog in those autumn rains.
Tuesday: Sandie Wollasch, Dominik Steegmüller and I were in the studio doing backing vocals for Wolfgang Abendschön's new album. He releases a new CD every year and this is the 4th year that we have done his backings. And we have SO MUCH FUN ! There aren't any sheets to sing from. We get to invent, and arrange the BV's all by ourselves. And Sandie and I never run out of ideas. And once we get started, the backings kind of take on a life of their own and they are super unusual and complicated; just the way I like it! The 3 of us have an amazing musical vibe in the studio. I wouldn't mind singing backings with those 2 people once a week!
When we were done and had eaten our pizzas, I went upstairs to Florian's studio and spent several hours with him making sure he didn't wreck any of the last mixing of "Inner Sanctum". (I say those ridiculous things about Florian, but in truth, he is a genius! ) He filed and polished on the mix. Made tiny adjustments that you will never hear, but now he (and I) are completely happy with the mix. And that's good, because on ......
Wednesday: Final mastering of the CD ! All the frequency peaks and valleys are given just the tiniest adjustments so that each song on the album works with every other song. Then the silence you hear between the songs is set. It's not a science. It's just gut feeling. This album should be meditative and contemplative so we decided on relatively long pauses between the tracks. By long, I mean that instead of 5 seconds, we chose 6 seconds.
The mastering was done by Jürgen Lusky in House of Audio in a studio that was built just for this sort of thing. It's a close, quiet atmosphere and I was a little self-conscious because I had washed our dog that morning and didn't change clothes. I think I smelled a little bit "wet doggy". But I doubt you will hear that on the album. Also, I forgot to eat before I went and my stomach growled louder than the music on the speakers. But you won't hear that either!
When we were finished there, I popped back over to Kangaroo Studios to record the song "Heile mich, Herr" for the tribute album of Hella Heizmann songs. Her daughters are finishing the album that Hella began before she became too ill to work. They gave me the honor of singing the last song that Hella wrote. She wrote this for the patients at the Klinik Hohenmark where she spent several months recovering after having a mental breakdown several years ago. It is an honest and simple song with a text taken from the book of Jeremiah. "Heile mich, Herr, dann werde ich heil. Hilf mir, dann bin ich geholfen. " (Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed. Help me, and I will be helped.) It was hard to sing with the lump in my throat.
Thursday & Friday: have been spent preparing for 2 concerts next week. October 2, Eddie and I and Luke and Florian will be singing in the Evangelisch Kirchengemeinde in Achern. We will be trying out a couple of the songs from the new CD. It is actually quite unusual for Eddie and I to have a duet concert and it isn't Christmas. :) We are looking forward to it.
October 3, I have a concert with Samuel Jersak and Luke at the Ev. Lutherische Kirche in Lauben.
So I've spent a lot of time thinking, praying and putting together those two programs.
Eddie has his first performance of the season this evening. "Barbier von Sevilla".
And last but not least: We just got 3 tickets to see The Gaither Homecoming in Wetzlar on October 9! We 3 are super excited about that. David Phelps, one of our most favorite tenors (and a graduate of our Alma Mater, Baylor University) will be singing with them. Can't wait!
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams
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