Ladat’s Support July’23 vol.2

Like My Baby

LikeMyBaby

This Nocturne, or at least its main themes, represents my first true attempt at composing on the piano several years ago. I composed or improvised a bunch of fragments and musical ideas together with the basic framework of the Nocturne.

As I've already implied in the description of my Fantasy, the two compositions were once conjoined when I finally decided to separate them and develop them independently. However, besides sharing the same key, a lot of textural fragments are still shared that can be noticed, and I bluntly quoted the main theme of the fantasy as a homage to their shared heritage. Personally, I'm particularly fond of the A-major melodic line starting at 0:38, which I consider one of the smoothest and most beautiful melodies I've written so far. Considering the hammering intro, it is one of the last additions I've made for this nocturne, and it helped me with a lot of structural problems. As with my other compositions, further changes will likely happen down the line.

I dedicate this work to another of my great friends, Ivan Dadić, a masterful smith, who once gifted me a beautiful crusader helmet he crafted (he even took measurements of my head for the undertaking). I humbly hope this endeavor will honour the gift he blessed me with!

Nocturne for Piano, F-sharp Minor

All Music by Me

Special thanks to Dani "The Muse" Ford and Kahlan "The Glorious Train Wreck" Davis

Cover by Anja (Pixabay)

Predator

SIERRA is a fresh track from my upcoming EP, REDWOOD. I've tried to strike a balance between structure and improvisation, adding a dash of jazz-inspired spontaneity, giving it a relaxed, free-flowing vibe that I hope you'll enjoy.

REDWOOD represents a sentimental journey for me. It's a music-infused interpretation of my memories from visits to family in California during my younger years. It's been a while since my last visit to the U.S., and I'm eagerly anticipating my return this October.

As always, I would be delighted to hear your thoughts on SIERRA. Your feedback helps me grow as an artist :)

For those of you interested in learning the piece, you can find a play-along piano Version on my Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_crYKcbQgI&lc=UgzL5VkswahxGojft7l4AaABAg

Sierra

Introduction in English:

On a Saturday, 9 June 1989, I receive a phone call from my mother at around 6 am. She seems to be laughing. But as it soon turns out, tears are bursting out of her. At first she can only say one sentence: "Your father is dead". Then her voice fails. I, who has just been roused from my sleep by the ringing, at first think it's a bad joke. My father, not even 55 years old, dead, who had been so full of energy in the last few months? With whom I had spoken lively on the phone just a week ago?
Then my eldest sister comes to the phone. She speaks like a robot, as if she has frozen all her feelings inside herself.
She confirms the sudden death of my father from a heart attack and urges me to come immediately from Berlin to southern Germany (800 kilometres away).
Much of what happened after that - from the last encounter with my father in the morgue, to the years of vacillating between feelings of liberation and sometimes massively frightening "I'll bring you to me in the realm of the dead" nightmares after his funeral, to finding a deeper inner peace with him in the last few years - I wrote down and sang about in the following song "My Father in Heaven".      
However, the song lyrics are not chronological, but set in 2011, in which I am all alone on a beautiful summer day in the cemetery where my father's grave is located. From this day I start a retrospective and an outlook.     

Lyrics:

My Father in Heaven

What a beautiful day
All alone in the graveyard 
Come to visit you
Without a grudge

It's unbelievably quiet
Hear the dead deep asleep 
In an beyond harbour
Be with you soon

I hated you sometimes 
Had you so gladly touched,
You're gone too soon 
Left me alone with the dirt 
Of this life.

Wanted to tell you so much more 
You can't sneak away like that
A moment ago you were still there  
I felt quite close to you,

Now only 
A cold hand in the morgue
Nothing more moves

My father in heaven, 
I miss you very much, 
With wistfulness my heart sometimes
Becomes so heavy

When you were suddenly dead
Many things seemed easier, 
I moved forward in life, 
I looked free

but when I slept at night,
you'd come into my dreams, 
trying to pull me over, 
to the land beyond.

You didn’t let me go for so long 
Lying like a black mourning box
On my chest and belly, 
Felt like I was in a tube 
Trapped by you.

Often couldn’t defend myself
Felt completely without power 
When in the deep of the night
you came to my room, 

without a body, 
pure soul contact,
worlds still unknown to me.

Father in heaven,
do you hear me now,
I speak to you in peace, 
I am no longer hurt.

Your grave is newly decorated,
I've picked a bouquet for you, 
I sit down with you, 
I surrender tot he silence
peaceful silence. 

I am here now, you there
even if the wall separates us,
we see each other invisibly, 
You always stay close to me, 

I'll go on now, 
Stay here, 
I'll be back soon

Father in heaven
I think of you often 
You are indispensable, 
Come with me....

Predator

Benjamin Nix