An attitude of gratitude.

9.00 am. I dreamt that I’d initiated a punishing Exocet missile attack on the National Library of Wales. (Clearly, I have unresolved ‘issues’ with that institution.) A dismal night’s sleep, otherwise. The high-pollen count isn’t helping. The first waking hour of every day this week has been the most challenging. Spot check: blood pressure and heart beat are normal, arms and legs still ache and tingle, mild nausea and focal headaches persist, lassitude and tender glands are diminishing, sinuses a-filling, ears still a-ringing, and eyes now a-burning:

On with a little more postgraduate research monitoring admin at a limping snail’s pace. Having undertaken an initial consideration of the industrial soundscape project, and inquired about relevant sound sources, I’ve put it aside. An idea needs time to ferment. My forthcoming return to the valleys will help bring some aspects of it into focus. And, there are more pressing matters at hand; things that must be either concluded or consolidated. Before lunch —  more stocktaking towards developing a taxonomy of interests and achievements.

2.00 pm. Back into the sound studio to review the recordings that I’d made last week for the ‘Image & Inscription’ composition. While waiting for 14.5 GB of files to transfer to and from a memory stick, I reviewed my stock of artwork slides covering pieces made during my BA and MA studies, and in the period between degrees:

I inserted modulations, derived from Handboards 1 & 2, of the English translation of the Second Commandment into the track mix and aligned them with the source recording:

Already, potential is audible. But there’s no indication as to how the composition might proceed. That is how it should be. This stage is merely the underpainting. Periodically, during the afternoon, I’ve noticed an odour in the study that I associate with my grandfather’s house when he was a miner: distinctive and consoling — that of coal dust, which he and his son would bring home on their clothes. An olfactory hallucination, perhaps.

7.30 pm. I micro-aligned the afternoon’s tracks, and proceeded to equalize their volumes and limit their reach to below 0dB. Then, I added the Welsh translation of the biblical text and the modulations of it produced using Handboard 2.