about
In 1984, I wasn’t in a band ... our old keyboard player was though, and he’d just bought the new Yamaha DX7 and wanted to see what it could do – but he couldn’t play that well. His new band’s sax player could though, and he thought it would be interesting to see how my intuition would interact with his classical training; we were all called Dave. I went round Dave Frances’ house and found he wasn’t just a sax player; he had a baby upright grand in his bedroom and played cello and trumpet as well – I felt intimidated because I can’t read a note. So, I suggested an experiment; we sat back to back and played a chord each in turn, and made a private note of what we were playing, so the other person could only go by the sound, and not go to where they thought they ‘should’ go ... to his surprise, we created a chord sequence which should not work and within 3 hours of trying it at different speeds we had recorded and written an instrumental we both like. It was recorded on a twin tape deck, and built up a lot of hiss, so please excuse the quality ...
I had been to Stonehenge for the first time just two months before and we came up with felt how I felt in the very first moment I saw it. I had written a poem with a title I thought he may like, and we named the piece of music after that.
From the Sea of Time
A river flows,
The path of destiny
Through the valleys of despair
Past the glades of new spring
Where two dreamers dance the ripples
As the moonlight pulls the tide
Washing away the lovers
Out to the sea of time
© David Rowan, 1984
lyrics
In 1984, I wasn’t in a band ... our old keyboard player was though, and he’d just bought the new Yamaha DX7 and wanted to see what it could do – but he couldn’t play that well. His new band’s sax player could though, and he thought it would be interesting to see how my intuition would interact with his classical training; we were all called Dave. I went round Dave Frances’ house and found he wasn’t just a sax player; he had a baby upright grand in his bedroom and played cello and trumpet as well – I felt intimidated because I can’t read a note. So, I suggested an experiment; we sat back to back and played a chord each in turn, and made a private note of what we were playing, so the other person could only go by the sound, and not go to where they thought they ‘should’ go ... to his surprise, we created a chord sequence which should not work and within 3 hours of trying it at different speeds we had recorded and written an instrumental we both like. It was recorded on a twin tape deck, and built up a lot of hiss, so please excuse the quality ...
I had been to Stonehenge for the first time just two months before and we came up with felt how I felt in the very first moment I saw it. I had written a poem with a title I thought he may like, and we named the piece of music after that.
From the Sea of Time
A river flows,
The path of destiny
Through the valleys of despair
Past the glades of new spring
Where two dreamers dance the ripples
As the moonlight pulls the tide
Washing away the lovers
Out to the sea of time
© David Rowan, 1984
credits
from
Still Motion,
released February 18, 2011
all writing, playing and recording shared 50/50 between David Rowan and Dave Frances ... on a keyboard owned by David Balchin in 1985 ... somewhere near Heathrow ...
license
all rights reserved
