My mum's life in music... In spring 2015, my mum asked me to make an album of relaxing ambient music for her birthday present. Sadly she died in summer, before her birthday and before she even knew I was actually working on the album. The project became even more significant and I was driven to complete it. Because I knew she'd never listen to it, I changed it to be more of a mixtape of songs that she loved, songs she played that I loved, and some original material inspired by them to fill in the gaps. It is pretty rough, unmastered and I want to make a thousand changes - but it is important that I at least get this first version out for her birthday. She would have been 73. Happy Birthday, Mum.
Tracklist
Playing tracks by ooooooooo, Dusty Springfield, ooooooooo/Cirque du Soleil, Art of Noise, Love De-Luxe and more.
Comments
And I forgot to add that I used the Art of Noise track with the woman saying "Can I say something?" because mum adopted this as a way of trying to get a word in edgeways at the dinner table. She'd say it with exactly the same accent and intonation, sometimes repeating it in the same way... she was really silly a lot of the time.
White Christmas - this was a big hit in the year mum was born. Mum loved Christmas - she put a huge effort into decorating, cooking a fantastic lunch, buying really thoughtful presents and trying to make the day nice for everyone.
I'm Dreaming - this is an ambient piece featured on "A Candle's Golden Glow", a collection of ambient Christmas songs. I included it as a ready-made ambient introduction to the next song.
Don't Laugh At Me - mum loved Norman Wisdom's films and songs, and this was her favourite. It was also played at her funeral.
Until It's Time For You To Go - in our original discussion I asked mum about what she liked in the 60's and this is what she came up with. It is a beautiful song with poignant lyrics about the idealism and ephemeral nature of love. I'd never heard it before, but it seems to be a popular song for other artist to cover. This is surely my favourite.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - as kids we loved watching musicals, and I still really do. I picked this in particular as mum loved cars and driving, and it was a really cool film with brilliant songs.
Rise - a funky 70's classic that mum loved, and me too...
Here Comes That Sound Again - mum loved this tune and used to play it over and over again on a Saturday morning, in particular to annoy our neighbours who she saw as boring, interfering twits.
Who's Afraid of a Noisy Noise - we had a tape of the Art of Noise that we played incessantly in the car (on loop with the Starlight Express soundtrack and The Flying Pickets). I fell in love with the ridiculous juxtaposed samples and massive beats, and figured the modern genre that most fits with it is trap and related phenomena... so I tried to make a trap-ish tune out of an Art of Noise tune, samples from the theme of mum's favourite soap Eastenders, and brass stabs and other samples again from Come Dancing.
Noice - I got into ambient and minimalist music during this time, partly I guess as an antidote to the general noise. This is the only part of the album which fits what mum asked for - calm, gentle music with plinky sounds.