Words to Synthetic Poem #1 written by Heidi Levy, with vocals by Nancy Early. Chris Erickson plays drums on song Crystaline Rapids.

Songs 1-7 originally released on the 1984 album Before and After Gershwin. Songs 8-13 originally released on the 1984 album Clear Waters.

All songs were recorded using two cassette decks and microphones except song Lunar Landscape, which was done at the Goldenwest College recording studio as part of a class assignment in beginning synthesizers.

Digital remastering was performed in December 1998. Digital noise reduction was used as often as possible, but defects in the original tapes can still be heard, and do not indicate a defect in the disc. This album contains material from the first two albums to be released (on cassette) in 1984: Before And After Gershwin and Clear Waters. All of the songs except Lunar Landscape were recorded using two cassette decks. Some of the songs were recorded as early as 1980.

I used a reel-to-reel tape recorder to get the short echo effects. Later on, I used two reel-to-reel decks, several feet apart, to get really long delays.

And best of all--some of the drum tracks were produced with the Mattel Synsonic drum pad.

Lunar Landscape

I was taking an 'Intro to Synthesizers' class at my local community college while I was working on my Recording Arts degree. The department had acquired one of the first Juno 106 units, and had a small 4-track studio. This piece was my class project.

Your Majesty

This piece is a keyboard practice piece to help stretch my fingers. The Humboldt Brothers did a version of this song with Rick on vacuum cleaner. I was too lazy to bring in an entire drum set, so I used only the kick, snare, and hi-hat.

Going to the Fair

The chord sequence was from a jam that my friend Steve and I did once. This version has three 12-string guitars and three vocals. The words are just silly.

Due to the different speeds of the two tape decks, each track is slightly out of tune with the others, causing a full "chorus" effect.

Synthetic Poem #1

This song was recorded at the Wintergreen location (where Humboldt Mark was living at the time). He had picked up a multi-effects unit that had distortion, delay, and something else on it. While Nancy was doing the vocals, I would change the delay time on the unit.

The original plan was to do a series of electronic pieces, with friends' poetry spoken on top. This, like almost all other long-term ideas, never came to pass.

Mandarine

At the time, I listened to the Tangerine Dream. I really liked the live album they had out at the time. This piece was influenced by that album.

Niafra

Humboldt Rick calls this "the Marlboro song". The riff (or something like the riff) was originally written by Humboldt Steve (who actually lives in Humboldt. The rest of us are just honorary residents). This piece also uses Humboldt Mark's multi-effects unit.

Crystaline Rapids

This was an experiment using two reel-to-reel tape decks for a Frippertronics type delay. The melody was set up, and I asked my brother Chris to play drums on it. I think he was about 8 or 9 years old at the time.

I See the Stars

During both of these albums, I was interested in the bass guitar, so many of these songs have the bass guitar doing the more interesting tracks. I started recording this song in the afternoon, and when it came time to put vocals on, "I looked out my window and I saw the stars and I saw the moon, but I couldn't see the sun any more."

Slimey Weeds

The first version of this song with vocals. I wanted to see if I could do "guitar leads" with my voice, so I recorded a basic music section using a simple riff that I had done on keyboards while jamming with Humboldt Mark, then just made up words to fill in the gaps. This turned out to be my post popular song.

I've also noticed that my best vocals are recorded when I have a cold. You can hear at the end of some of the verses where I'm almost gasping for air!

One of my friends used to buy retreads for his car. When driving with him, I used to point out pieces of tire on the highway and say "That's why you don't buy retreads."

And, at the time, I thought that all songs had the word love in them, so I added the line about "love in the middle". This line may have also been influenced by The Rutles' Piggy in the Middle.

Other than that, the words don't mean anything. They have some phonetic qualities (foreign face, broken beers: the words start with the same letter), and they rhyme.

Undisciplined

This was influenced by King Crimson's Discipline song. I wanted to do a song that had syncopated guitar lines.

Procession

This is just a song about layering instruments. This is done in a fashion similar to This Budd's For You on the Goleta Daze album. Except this piece is done by hand rather than by MIDI.

Come Home Sunday Afternoon And Find Your Cat's Eaten the Furniture

This is another Tangerine Dream type song.

I Haven't Yet

This is an unfinished song. When Rick asked what I named it, I said "I Haven't Yet.".

Poppycock

This song never got released. I don't know why; it's one of my favorites.

Morning Moon

This was an experimental piece with my analog synthesizer. It never received overdubs. This is one of the earliest of my recorded songs.

SAE

Another version of SAE. This one with a looped guitar.