Tabula Rasa

Written by John von Ahlen

Together forever
Together forever
Together forever
Together forever
Save My Soul

Additional Info:

Tuesday 22nd October, 2024
1932 hours - Just came back from the Lonsdale OC meeting, after which I took Jack for a walk around the city. I spoke to Fay on the phone and she taught me some Greek phrases. At lunchtime I visted Sharyn and dropped off some chicken necks, and we went to the Post Office and then Supermarket. I went back to hers for a cup of coffee. On the way to the train station I bought 2 Bahn Mi and some Donuts with Jam. I got back to the studio at around 1500 hours and ate the Bahn Mi. Delcious as always. It's now 1934 and I am going to start on Tabula Rasa. I was on the train to Sharyns and thinking about how to approach this track and it dawned on me that the intro to Save My Soul has my custom JD800 pads sound which I've been using since the 90s but havent had a chance to really feature on any track. Save My Soul has started as Tabula Rasa but then mutated into a proper song, hence why I renamed it Save My Soul due to the lyrics. Tabula Rasa was always meant to be an instrumental. So I realised that Tabula Rasa should be predominantly feature the JD800 (or now JD990 module now that my JD800 is a little cactus) pads.

1934 hours - Incidentally the title of the track came from Avengers Annual #10 (see below), a comic which I bought as a youngster in 1981. I had never heard the phrase Tabula Rasa, but it made an impression on me. The actual comic itself also made an impression as it was kind of epic, combining The Avengers, The Uncanny X-Men, Spiderwoman and Captain Marvel with a story that was entertaining and profound. That was back when Marvel was producing amazing comics and stories, not the utter garbage that the MCU has evolved into post Endgame (Deadpool vs Wolverine notwithstanding).
But I digress. OK, let's begin...

2143 hours - I think I finished the track. I originally wasn't going to have any vocals in it, but I thought having a few vocals from Save My Soul in an ambient fashion would work> I also included some of Louises vocalisations plus some recordings I made of some native birds when I visited my cousin Petra in Tasmania 2 weeks ago. I like the feeling of the intro of the track and feel like I could have maybe extended that section, but the track alrerady goes for nearly 5 minutes. The ending of the track is designed to segue into Save My Soul as a prelude, so I guess I will do a mix for the album that combines the tracks, or maybe make it a Bandcamp Exclusive Track?

2154 hours - I'm now printing V1, which I guess will the the first and last version.