A collection of ambient or ambient oriented acoustic/electronic recordings, mostly from 2023. Downtempo, melancholy, reflective and I hope easy on your ears and a balm to your soul.

interstitial

Noticed I hadn't posted anything here lately, so I'm sharing this brief soundtrack piece for a project I've been working on.

OAN Orch-1

The marvelous Jens Felger shared this music for collaboration. He marked it as hip hop, and after a couple of listens, this came to me. Written and recorded this fine frost-on-the-pumpkin morning of October 24, 2013. Yeah, I love soul.

Music by Jens Felger, lyrics and vocals by me. If you don't follow Jens, you owe to yourself to give his work a listen. One of the best: https://soundcloud.com/jens-felger

I could never be your teacher
I'm not wearing hearts
or patches on my sleeve
but I believe in learning
and I'm yearning for a new start
I catch myself daydreaming
scheming how to reach you
No I can't be your sugardaddy
or a trash talkin' superbaddy
I'm no gambler, no ramble round Joe
I like to take it slow
think before I go
and well I know you might
find that dull but in the lull
in a perfect moment there
make a connection feel
the convection the heat
a beat on a rain slick street
I'm nobody's savior
role model of behavior
yeah, I'm working on that
cut down on the fat, 
looking for the center
wherever that is at
I'm no kinda hero,
juke box, tragicomic
soap box, mega-manic
all I gots right here so
let me get near,
put down your phone
let me say it clear
I am your man,
ain't that what you need
I am your man
it's simple as can be
I am your man.



I Am Your Man/Canvas - Jens Felger Collaboration

You were swapping out a tire
on a double axle dump,
by the side of Toto road.

But the frame was getting rusty,
it must of cracked above the jack,
and it shifted the load.

Well you tried to hold the handle,
but you heard something snap,
and got the biggest pain, you ever knowed. 

Now it's forty-nine miles to the ER.
Two weeks waiting for the surgery.
Ninety days in bed in the dark.
By then you wasn't taking to no therapy. 

Oxycontin, oh Oxycontin.
first the pink ones, then the gold
and now the blues. 
Oxycontin,
that’s all that's left of you.

No I don't doubt the suffering
you were in was quite severe. 
You never been the kind
who would malinger. 

But ever since the day
you got that script from Doctor Pain,
you don't feel anything.
Damn, you hardly lift a finger. 

Now it's twenty-nine months
of living in your scars. 
It's fading away,
fading like your memory. 

Counting days in doses,
in a plastic jar,
and still you ain't into taking no therapy. 

Oxycontin, oh Oxycontin.
first the pink ones, then the gold and now the blues. 
Oxycontin, that's all that I'll leave you.

It’s all you really need.
------------
with Bryan Ciliberto on drums - from our 2019 release, "on a dream sea" on Bandcamp.

Doctor Pain - Return To Normal

An ad lib instrumental featuring a mountain dulcimer backed by bass, synth pad and piano.

faded and neglected

A jazz/chill piece featuring Joe Drzewiecki on soprano sax and flute/pad. I play the other parts, programmed the drums, and designed and mixed the soundscape. It was a treat working with Joe!

She Wears GilgaMesh Stockings - featuring Joe Drzewiecki

A brief nocturne for saxophone by Joe Drzewiecki (@jomama-2) and piano (me).

Crépuscule dans l'obscurité - Joe Drzewiecki and MLucas

An impromptu arrangement of a melody by Frederik Vahle, as I explore my spiffy new Kawai MP6 keyboard.

[photo by ML]

Schlaflied für Anne

Had a pleasant morning fire roasting peppers. Three tracks of loose jamming in the the ambient groove vein - quick recording with minimal edits.

Pepperoasting

This avian waltz started as an ad lib improv on the piano - hope you find it relaxing. Maybe I'll come along and clean it up a bit someday, maybe not. Crows aren't necessarily tidy, but they're neat anyway.

Five Crows Flying Slowly

An edited free piano improv. An intermezzo between something that was and something that might have been, if only.

Once Upon A Forgotten Time

capturing a winter afternoon 
recorded 29 January 2023 in North Judson IN, USA - MLucas on synth, keys, and acoustic guitar (DADFAD).

ShadowSign

A solo piano free improv recorded 20 February 2023.

Oligotrophic

An ad lib solo piano improv on the classic Henry Mancini melody, Moon River.

Moon River - piano improv on a melody by Henry Mancini

A free piano improv on a mild evening in early March 2023. I'm enjoying the Kawai DG30 -- recording these little pieces and sharing them here is a bit like an audio journal. Back when I did a lot of ice fishing, we talked about 'first ice'. Usually in December some cold air would settle in under high pressure and so the first ice of the year would be clear and the sun shining through it would spark a period of heightened macroinvertebrate activity and hence good fishing. I took this photo a few days ago on a small woodland pond. It was a mild March day, and noticed the ice looked similar, only in this case it's nearly finished for the year - final ice. It's an ambiguous time of year, I hope some of that feeling comes through in the gentle tension of this bit of music.

Final Ice

A sand box project, more about trying some ideas and tools than about where it ended up. Still, felt it was worth sharing for a while -- to me that's where SoundCloud shines. Recorded on a bleak early spring Saturday in North Judson Indiana, USA March 25, 2023.

Structure And Erosion

A sing-along version with Homer Harbour's moody nightfall lyrics is available at: www.soundslice.com/slices/F-r4c/. Using the selector at the bottom of the SoundSlice page you can choose either this version (Folktronic) or a gentle pipe organ rendition not available here on SoundCloud.

For midi, musicxml, braille, a solo pipe organ version, and additional information, visit the Internet Archive at: archive.org/details/140folksongsrote00unse.073.omr.

After scanning item number 62 in "140 Folk-Songs for Grades I, II and III, Volume 7" (1922) we extracted the music using OMR and exported it as musicxml. Then we divided it into several MIDI tracks and produced this stately folktronic recording.

Produced by @MLucas. Image of a rainy night streetscape by MLucas.

Public Domain. No Rights Reserved.

The Lamps of Night

Please enjoy, and wherever these sounds find you -- peace.

Lineage of the Lost

Thankfully, most journeys are uneventful. You travel, you reach your destination. At some point, you go home. Here's to drama-free round trips!

A single day recording project -- December 3, 2023.

Uneventful Journey

A melancholic ambient piece based on an improvised organ chorale in D. I left the original organ improv untouched and just added to it.

Rustic Elegy

A morning piano improv on a melody by Hoagy Carmichael. Though best known for the fabulous Ray Charles recording, this song was composed by Carmichael in 1930. It's associated with the US state of Georgia, and the lyrical reference to "moonlight in the pines" suggests that, but the lyrics were penned by Stuart Gorrell who was likely thinking of Hoagy's sister Georgia. Stuart Gorrell never wrote a lyric before this one, nor after. Nevertheless, an illustrious career.

This is a casual version, the way I actually play the piano in my living room. Far from perfect but I feel like that it's not too far from the way Hoagy imagined it.  Recorded on the Kawai D30 shown in the photo in North Judson, Indiana USA on February 19, 2024.

Georgia on my Mind improv

From our 2011 album, Overflown, available on iTunes, Amazon, or directly from us. 

Corinne sings and plays rhythm, Dirk Shorter on bass, mastered by Jon Huxtable. I penned the lyrics and played the other instruments. 

Peppermint Garden

In the air there’s a taste like candy, 
a chemical sense of the place. 
Everything’s shiny and everything’s green.  
And the sun is still burning late in the evening,  
and we laugh at the morning, 
in a peppermint garden.

The clashing of tigers-
swallowtail butterflies 
dancing in gyres, 
spinning in circles 
on the wings of delight, 
high on the heels of desire. 
Running rings ‘round your head,  
flashing from lavender flower to flower.  
You saved them impaled on a pin,  
formaldehyde and a bottle of gin,  
in the garden, 
in a peppermint garden.

That’s the way it is, 
and it’s never going to change,  
in the garden,
in a peppermint garden.

I knew a girl, 
she was Chaos, 
she had a boyfriend, 
 let’s call him Sin. 
They drank herb in the morning,  
and played out their youth in a dream. 
And they never did nothing worth writing home, 
 and they never gave in, 
they just wrote off disaster.
But that’s how love’s always been, 
in the garden, 
in a peppermint garden.

[Based, in part, on the motto of the City of Chicago: "Urbs in Horto". This is the "horto" part. This track was previously posted on SC a few years ago, but was deleted due to the poor sound quality that plagued early SC postings. Enjoy!]

(c) 2011, Corinne and Marty Lucas, all rights reserved.



Peppermint Garden - Return to Normal

The opening track from Return to Normal's "The Briars and the Brome":

A 21st Century Levee Moan

I'm going where nobody knows my name,
I'm putting out the fires
just to feel the burn again,
I'm losing every face
I thought I ever knew.
The only color I can ever see
    is blue.

I'm holding on to sand,
and dropping every gem.
I'm standing on the outside,
looking at my empty skin.
I never flew a flag
I really looked up to.
   The only color I can ever see is blue.
All blue, it's blue, just blue, it's blue.

My head's inside a jukebox
in a roadhouse bar.
My soul's a faded snapshot
of a 1960's car.
My heart's been bruised a few times,
but it always seems to mend.
I'll sing this Levee Moan
from now until the end.

Oh! I'm going where
nobody ever calls me friend.
I'm drifting with the ashes,
scattered by the wind.
Oh! I keep floating back,
to precious moments that we knew.
    The only color I can ever see is blue,
All blue, it's blue, just blue, it's blue.

With https://soundcloud.com/corinnebl on vocals and rhythm guitar and https://soundcloud.com/houckjt on some hot mando. I play the other instruments, produced and mixed. Jon Huxtable at smallfishrecordings polished the mix and mastered. As always for Return to Normal, recorded at our home in North Judson, Indiana USA. Available for download and as a limited edition CD - DM me if you'd like a physical disk.

I took the photo at Munising, on the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan's U.P. It's not really a levee, but it looks a lot like one.


iTunes

A 21st Century Levee Moan - Return to Normal with Joseph Houck

A story about my chance meeting with legendary Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges in a smokey coffee house in Bloomington, Indiana USA -- a place called "The Two-Bit Rush". I collaborated with Pichy Sotomayor in Buenos Aires (@delirata-1983) who plays lead guitar, bass, and programmed the drums. Mark Biegel of Schererville, IN plays some fine  cornet, and Corinne sings the harmony. I wrote the lyrics, sang the lead and played the piano. Mixed and mastered by Jon Huxtable in Scotland -- all-in-all an international collaboration befitting el bibliotecario ciego. Special thanks to Joyce B. for helping me remember the Two Bit Rush. This is the closing track on Return to Normal's "The Briars and the Brome".

Coffee with Borges

A long time before Starbucks,
and all that 'barista' jive,
I drank a lot of coffee
at The Two Bit Rush,
a little college town dive.

Where half a dozen
round oak tables
each circled by
a dozen unmatched chairs,
you'd sit right down with strangers,
cool jazz and lively conversation
filled the smokey air.

I went to his lecture
two days before,
so I recognized him right away
when he walked in through the door --
a studious gentleman in his late seventies,
grey hair and overcoat that billowed
in the winter breeze.

His assistant showed him to a chair
at the table where I was sitting,
but he didn't see me there,
and I thought (like)
'what do you say to 
Mr. Hemmingway?"

ooooh, coffee with Borges,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
coffee with Borges.

Now there's seven billion
human souls,
this planet is so very full,
and it seems they've all
got a story to tell,
but here's the navigator
of our collective dreams,
the polyglot translator,
bending time with just
the secret magic of his mind.

So I wanted to say
something clever,
or at least express my respects,
ask him what in 
his long life turned out
to be worthwhile,
and what brought 
only pain, loss and regret.

But in the end,
I spoke not a single word,
remained invisible,
unspoken, 
and unheard.

But there's still 
this little snapshot
in my brain,
though with the 
passing time it's
pale,
and creased,
and blurred.

Oooooh, coffee with Borges,
that's how I remember,
coffee with Borges,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
coffee with Borges.

A long time before Starbucks,
and all that 'barista' jive,
I drank a lot of coffee
at The Two Bit Rush,
a little college town dive.

(c) 2015 Corinne and Marty Lucas and Pichy Sotomayor


Coffee With Borges - Return to Normal with Pichy Sotomayor and Mark Biegel

Every day is a treasure, but only some are like this -- breeze out of the northwest, barometric pressure on the upswing, a few cumulus clouds purest white against a rich blue, sunshine sparkling on the water, then momentarily hiding behind a cloud, the green of leaves and grass moving in the breeze. Everything's a dance. 
Mark Biegel on trumpet, Corinne encourages the dancers, and I play the other parts. 
Track 8 from Concise, Return to Normal's instrumentally oriented collection available for free download on the Free Music Archive (just Google search for "Return to Normal, FMA"). Enjoy!

Dance Of The Puffy Clouds - R2N with Mark Biegel

Some porch-picking on the classical guitar -- open G tuning. Recorded February 25, 2017.

Late For Breakfast

From "On a Dream Sea", though this is more of a nightmare -- a recurring collective nightmare at that. 

I posted a demo mix earlier, but I feel this edition is much closer to my vision of what this should be.


The lyrics were penned by @enlimila, commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. I composed the music, but really it was totally communicated from the lyric, so I feel a bit odd even saying that.  

Corinne plays the Martin D28 and sings harmony. Joseph Houck (@houckjt)joins us on mandolin and harmony vocals, be sure to check out his wonderful songwriting and production.

I sing the lead, perform the other parts, including the electrified pianica, and produced. This piece is special to me -- I'll be adding it to the 'Best of Return to Normal' playlist. IMO, it sounds best loud.

More about Mammon: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon

Peace.

Buy it on Bandcamp

The Captain's Watch (from On a Dream Sea)  - Return To Normal with Joseph Houck

Written one hundred years ago by former pharmacist, C. Austin Miles, "In the Garden" was (and is) one of the most beloved hymns of protestant churches in the U.S. during the 20th century. 

This version is based on 314 in the official Methodist Hymnal. Miles said he wrote it after having a dream of Mary Magdalene as described in John Chapter 20, so it can also be viewed as a lost love song. The part about walking in the garden "while the dew is still on the roses" makes me think of the many young people who died in the influenza epidemic that swept the world shortly after Miles wrote this song. 

Though there have been many versions of this song -- by Elvis Presley, Perry Como...it's best know where we live as a favorite of early traveling evangelist and former major league baseball player, Billy Sunday.

We began our recording with Corinne playing from the hymnal in the non-metronomic style that was prevalent in country churches when I was a kid. Then we added guitar, ukulele, a rock flavored organ, etc. It was an interesting project; especially because the music has just a whiff of ragtime, the popular music of the day. 

A side note to those of you familiar with the SC group I moderate, Tune Town. The young girl pictured on the crescent moon was Helen Plumber nee Helen Becknell, Corinne's grandmother, at the Bourbon (Indiana) fair. It must have been shot about the same time this song was written. This she claimed as her favorite hymn, though she claimed many as her favorite, and we dedicate our humble efforts to her memory. Enjoy!

In The Garden (C. Austin Miles - 1912)

Calendar calls to me,
deadlines coming on again.
They never end.
Apriluaryember,
I get confused.

But I like the way
the sun shines better,
so low in these chilly skies,
the distant blue, luminous in clouds of grey.
It reminds of your eyes,
between the rainclouds.

You're so far.
You're miles from here.
Back secure in your hometown,
I should have known,
I should have known.

Still i like the way
the sun sets early,
red in the rust of this horizon.
Sometimes I seem to need a reason.
Other times I make another try.
Make another try.

Calendar gives its orders.
Now it's my time to go,
Go down into that old desk drawer.
into a dark and disused corner.

I should know,
I should have seen it coming.
Well, yes, I guess I saw it coming.

Down your road,
down your street,
down your lane.
-----------------------
from Return to Normal's second LP, Blinking in the Brackens, now available for download and as a physical CD on Bandcamp at: http://returntonormal.bandcamp.com/

Recorded at our home in North Judson, Indiana; final mix and master by Jon Huxtable, smallfishrecordings.

Calendar - Return to Normal

I'm playing my old National archtop in open E for bottleneck slide, piano, and singing on this 8 bar blues standard. It's in A if you want to join in. (A A7 D F A F#7 B7 E7 -- walk down, A7 G7 F#7 F E -- E7)

I recorded both the vocals and the guitar with a Shure Beta58 mic, then ran it through some fx to get that tube thing happening. No edits, just three raw tracks, and a basic shuffle drum loop. Quick n' dirty, but I prefer my blues raw.

Trouble in Mind is credited to Richard M. Jones. Jones grew up in New Orleans and played piano in the red light district with Joe "King" Oliver among others. In the twenties he moved to Chicago where he wrote songs and got involved in the nascent recording industry. He was the Chicago supervisor for Race Records, then worked for Decca, and finally with Mercury Records until his death in 1945. Although Jones wrote it, Trouble in Mind has morphed into a folk song, at least here in the middle of America. I first learned to play it from <a href="http://www.tadrobinson.com/">Tad Robinson</a> quite a number of years ago, and since then my version has diverged quite a bit from that as I countryfied it to my liking. Here's the original <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nOGTQND_ec">1926 Okeh recording</a> that features none less than Louis Armstrong on cornet and Bertha "Chippie" Hill doing the vocals.

Photo - the 1946 National 1145 acoustic archtop "jazz box" guitar heard in this recording.


Trouble in Mind (Richard M. Jones)

I went down to New Orleans,
but I didn't mean to stay.
My head got caught
in a feather bed, 
I couldn't get away.

Now there's pinching bugs,
crawling up on the porch,
and lightning bugs,
blinking in the brackens.
A chorus of tree frogs
singing in reverse,
if you've got the answer then ask 'em.

So I shaved, I bathed,
I brushed my teeth twice.
Washed my favorite jeans,
practiced talking real nice.
Arced over the moon
by a brush of your hair,
and when you stopped over...
well, I knew we were there.

Now I'm back from New Orleans,
and I swear I'm home to stay.
This muddy road, this rough rocky farm,
until my final day.

But there's frost feathers cloaking
this cracked window pane,
that constant west wind
like to howl me insane,
it hums in my ears,
it seeps into my brain,
these corn stubble fields,
well they never seem to change.

So I wish you well, 
my ex-soon-to-be,
when you're seeking to blame do not wonder.
For no rival could ever keep us apart.
And I'll love you forever - but after.

I went down to New Orleans,
but I didn't mean to stay.
My head go caught in a feather bed.
I couldn't get away.
------------------------------
From "Blinking in the Brackens" by Return to Normal, available on Bandcamp, iTunes and Amazon, as a download or physical CD. Trumpet by Mark Biegel, drums by Jon Huxtable. Recorded 2012 by MLucas, North Judson Indiana USA, final mix and master  by Jon Huxtable, smallfishrecordings Pluckley Britain UK. Song by MLucas, inspired by an Indiana folk song. For Hoosier authenticity, it's Or-Leans. Oh, one more thing, I recorded the steam train on my porch, it was being run from the nearby Hoosier Valley Rail Museum; it's the locomotive shown in the photo.

From Ripley County - Return to Normal

One of my favorite Hoagy Carmichael songs, recorded and shared as a study piece. This is an instrumental take, but the lyrics were based on a poem by Jane Brown Thompson.

My opinion: The best piano songs were written in the 1930s, if you're interested in songwriting craft, you can't go wrong studying the masters, and Hoagy Carmichael is certainly one.

If you find something to enjoy on this track, you may be interested in my At the Piano, Softly playlist: https://soundcloud.com/mlucas/sets/at-the-piano-softly


I Get Along Without You Very Well (except sometimes)

Music written and all instruments played by Jack Morefield @SoundCloud.com/jackwm
Words by Edgar Allan Poe
Featuring the voice of Marty Lucas @SoundCloud.com/mlucas
Voice mix, effects and final production by Inconsistent Jukebox @SoundCloud.com/barry_snaith
Art by Jack Morefield. Check out his stunning paintings. http://www.jackmorefield.com
Sample: Red Velvet Ant by Richard Devine https://soundcloud.com/richarddevine/recording-of-a-velvet-ant-cow-killer-wasp-1

The Raven - Poe - Morefield, Snaith & Lucas

2023 - For the past few months I've been working with Public Resource, a California based non-profit to release an extensive collection of older music for free use. In addition to audio, we'll be releasing the music as MIDI and musicxml. Last week we started posting a new featured piece every week on the Public Resource Soundcloud page (@PublicResource). Follow there, or look for frequent reposts here. It'll include classical music, pop music before 1927, ragtime, folk songs, and more. The main collection will be at the Internet Archive, and will be called the "Internet Jukebox". I'll post more about it as it grows.

MLucas

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