The train in your head is leaving.

Originally called Country and written as a way to explore all the sounds on my friend's ESQ-1, Round Trip is a shorter, more detailed treatment of the main theme, embellished with sounds from one of my favorite vintage synths, the Proteus/1, and my little workhorse, the Alessis NanoSynth. The original ESQ-1 tracks have been reproduced on my SQ-80.

The SQ-80 has an onboard sequencer and became my primary means of composing in the '80s. I had been using a 4-track cassette deck, which was a step up from simply bouncing back and forth on a dual tape deck, but was nothing compared to MIDI sequencing. I produced this final version on Cakewalk, which still blows my mind on a regular basis.

Take a little electronic trip around the shifting landscape.

Composed, performed, and engineered by Zen Greenway
Image - Raphael Stager (raffalel) on Pixabay
Titles - Zen Greenway

Round Trip

You can’t see the walls, but the ceiling is low. Man, I miss the sky. You could walk your whole life across this room. Listening to the machines somewhere off in the smoke.

I wrote this piece as an instrumental on my SQ-80. Later I wrote lyrics and recorded vocals and called it The Big Room. I only have my old tape master of The Big Room and will probably release it at some point as a “vintage” track. But I still have my SQ-80 and the original MIDI sequences, so I decided to release the instrumental.

Remastering it in Cakewalk was a lot of fun. Back in the day, I had access to only a few effects from two units, my MIDIFEX and Quadraverb. I’m not even sure I had the Quadraverb when I wrote this piece. So using a DAW is like a dream.

Anyway, I’ve got to get some air.

Composed, performed, and engineered by Zen Greenway
Images - Susann Mielke (susannp4) and 512893 on Pixabay
Titles and effects - Zen Greenway

In the Big Room

In The Big Room

Bubble planets swirl and drift in a liquid universe. Beneath them, the ruins of a sunken city waver in the current. There is a sun somewhere, suggested only, in glints and flashes.

I originally wrote this to score a montage of photos I had taken in Second Life. Then, I discovered someone else had already posted something similar, so I abandoned the montage, but kept the music.

How am I breathing down here?

Image - Stock Snap on Pixabay
pixabay.com/users/stocksnap-894430/
Titles - Zen Greenway

Water Light and Air

Water Light And Air

There’s something in the air. Something soft and luminous. It wraps us in the energy of a clear, warm day. Where are we going? And when? I don’t know. But the birds know it’s time.

Seagulls - Ade Swash (squashy555) on Freesound
https://freesound.org/people/squashy555/
Birds - pborel on Freesound
https://freesound.org/people/pborel/
Image - S. Hermann and F. Richter (pixel2013) on Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/users/pixel2013-2364555/
Titles - Zen Greenway

The Birds Know Its Time

You can love and still have to leave.

Image - Eak K. (Eak_kkk) on Pixabay
pixabay.com/users/eak_kkk-907811/
Titles - Zen Greenway

Say the Flowers Aren't for Me

It starts out small. What do you do when it grows? Should you let it? So many questions!

Image - Frank (goldbug) on Pixabay
pixabay.com/users/goldbug-725266/
Titles - Zen Greenway

Playing with Fire

I tried hard to make that synthesizer twinkle. Listen for the title reference at the end.

Image - Johnnie Shannon (jstarj) on Pixabay
pixabay.com/users/jstarj-884623/
Titles - Zen Greenway

Twinkle Twinkle

After my divorce, I had some trust issues with the Universe. But we worked it out.

Image - Someone on Pixabay. I forgot to save it.
Titles - Zen Greenway

Edge of the World

Me on keys and vocals.  My friend Mike Meriney on guitars.  Wrote this shortly after re-embracing music as an integral part of my life.

This Wishing Well

First tune I recorded entirely on my laptop/Sonar setup.  I wrote the groove first, just messing around, and suddenly realized it fit a song I'd wanted to write for years.  Then it all just fell together.

I Can Hear You

Life just is. It doesn’t need to be anything else. It doesn’t have to be a crusade or an apology. It doesn’t need a purpose. It isn’t an achievement or a goal. It doesn’t have to be a coherent linear progression, centered around one concept to which all others owe their existence, slave to predictability. I now perceive that part of me unconcerned with the definition of reality. The part that listens. The part that will never know what time it is.

This is peace. This knowledge. Peace is not a political concept. It is not something to be negotiated between powers or bargained for like an expensive property. It is the moment you see yourself with clarity and can continue. The moment you accept existence with feeling. Peace is already here, now, and we have only to remove the fear we use to obscure it.

Our lives are not meant to be lived as leaders and followers. We don’t have to discover the One Way and then teach it to everyone else. Our One Way is already defined for us.

We learn to burp very early. Really on day one. We also learn to drink and go to the bathroom. Sometime even earlier, in utero, we learn to sleep and wake. And dream. We learn how to do these things years before we learn how to talk, compare prices, sit at a desk, bow to the king, and blow up other countries. We learn them the same way all creatures with four limbs and a head do. The difference is by the time we’re adults most of us have chosen to push these things into the background of our lives, fitting them in between activities we’ve been taught are more valuable, depriving ourselves of them for as long as our bodies will tolerate.

The things in which the entire human race are undeniably united have been demoted in the face of General Rule. We won’t let people use the bathroom unless they’re buying something. We won’t feed starving people unless they listen to our sermon. We get embarrassed if we laugh too loud or cry in front of strangers. If we dream, we’re not paying attention. Sit up straight! Go to work! Pray to God! Fight for something!

I just can’t seem to do it anymore. When I look at the Enemy I see him eating breakfast. I see him looking at the stars. I see him finally deciding to hell with it and taking a nap in the afternoon. I see him holding his head in his hands, crying over the blood and the cruelty and the indifference. And when he raises his head, wipes his eyes and looks at me, I hope he sees the same thing.

Life just is. It is and it is and it is. We can accept and float between the joy and the pain, the known and the unknown. We know how. We learned to laugh and cry. We learned to dream. We know the way peace feels from long ago before we even saw the world. Remember?