the brief

a not for the faint of heart exploration of the things that happen in the space between the worlds, going into and out of sleep

---

Jesse Cook's track Number 5 featuring Fethi Nadjem was the Ringo Starr of the 4.1 set, a last-minute addition that became permanent.

That's not as cryptic as it might sound to a non-Beatles fanatic. I only came across Jesse's track a few weeks after the "pick any song and it will channel" experience that initiated the fourth phase. One of the striking features of that experience to me had been a sense with a number of the possible async tracks that 'karo' was eager to 'play around' in their music. That karo thought working with those tracks would be challenging but fun.*

(In fact one of those tracks gave rise to the funi-flavour karosong & the chase was on, while another pushed forward as Safe in the hands, a sometimes soaring number with hints of Loreena McKennit.)

Karo's reaction to Number 5 was an immediate 'I want to play with that!' Fortunately, I liked the track too: I loved the feeling of the opening riff, the sparseness of the music, and the existing but near-non-existent vocal. So even though I had no title, no concept, no inkling of what the karosong might become, I put the track straight onto the brand spanking new 'now channeling' youtube playlist.

Then nothing happened.

---

Well, lots happened actually. I shut the house down, went to my winter sojourn on Lake Erie, got introduced to my cardiac condition, started active channeling To take to hold and Your lingering touch. Continued working on this archive.

As for Number 5, it took a month of sub-vocal channeling before any glimmer of lyrics came, and that was just the first part of the opening line (also the title I eventually realized).

---

have you ever found yourself out on a midday street
when the sun was so straight overhead
but you look down and you think you must be floating
because you can't see your shadow in the ground

---

It was the 52nd karosong to start channeling, the 13th with music by Jesse Cook, and the 9th funi-flavour song.

The song started coming fairly quickly for a karosong. By mid-January, I had the structure and was getting a sense of the song. By the end of the month — when a tall, dark, and handsome robot turned up in the second stanza — I knew this was going to be on the wierder side of the funi-spectrum.

---

then you look out to the west and
there's one of those magic transitions
then a tall dark and handsome robot
strides forward to explicate

---

So Azimovian.

I still had little idea where the song was going, but it was interesting to channel. My singing mainly tracks the lead instrument — Jesse's guitar in this case — rather than the beat or rhythm. Jesse's guitar was sparse and choppy, so my (sub-vocal) vocals had to be equally sparse, equally choppy, sometimes verging on staccato.

Not an issue: that sparse, choppy delivery was just 'there' throughout the first verse and chorus. It was a fun, enjoyable song to sing into being, especially the chorus.

---

these are the kinds of things that happen
in that space between the worlds
going into and out of sleep
when the mind can do what it will

---

Then nothing happened.

Well, lots happened actually. I continued adjusting to a cardiac-constrained life. The other 4.1 songs kept moving ahead, but this one seemed to be just marking time. I got a sense in mid-February the robot would reappear in later verses, but otherwise nothing until after I had returned to my home recording studio in early April.

Then the song took a left turn wierder.

---

or have you ever been scuba diving
watching the bigger eat the smaller fish chain
when a shadow blots out the sun above you
and your first thought is that's pretty big for a fish

and then you remember that of course
sharks aren't fish in fact
they're their own genera

why that's very discerning says the shark putting on his bib
would you scream before i dine please?
it makes it so piquant"

---

By now I knew this was one of those 'just hang on til it's over' songs like Nothing says 3.1 (the first asynchronous collaboration with Jesse, using his track Ocean Blue). I expected the third verse was going to be similarly strange yet come fast and furious.

Nothing happened.

---

these are the kinds of things that happen
in that space between the worlds
going into and out of sleep
when the mind can do what it will

---

Figured out the pattern yet? I had by then. While I had no lyrics for the third verse, I could feel its vocal pattern and sing it using da dah dees. These vocalizations are generally short-lived, a bridge towards the actual lyrics to come. Not with this song. The third verse stayed in the da dah dee stage all the way into July. Not a hint of progress.

In the meantime, the first two verses and the chorus were already being mastered. There was little change in the the delivery of the verses, but major change to how I sang the chorus.

In the original sub-vocal delivery, the choppy phrasing mirrored Jesse's guitar, almost note for note. It felt like I was singing inside of the guitar notes. But as I recorded the song over time, I found my vocal notes stretching, becoming longer, covering either side of the guitar notes, then joining into a flow that still tracked the guitar but rode up on top of it.

---

While the third verse wasn't moving forward, I wanted to share the song with friends and get it out of my head. So I output a 'two-thirds pre-release' version using tracks recorded in early June. The third verse was still just in the da dah dee form. (It's in the vault.)

---

It was mid July before the third verse finally started inching forward, with glimmers of a sly porcine pun throwing into the original Star Wars cantina scene and the (possibly) triumphant return of that Azimovian robot.

At least, that was the gist of it. But it still took several weeks for most of the lyrics to clarify and firm.

---

or have you ever been out galivanting
needed a place to rest your gal for the night
so you checkout a checkin at the chubby chick inn
where a sassy little piggie in pretty pink pyjamies

says yes, you may sty for the night

then you walk into the bar and you see
it's one of those star wars cantinas where
all hell's just about to break loose

and your last thought as
the lights go out is to wonder
where have i seen that robot before?

---

And even then, the exact wording and delivery of the sassy little piggie line with its sly 'sty' pun did not firm until mid February, finally completing the song 15 months after it started.

---

singing

I put Number 5 on the "now channeling" playlist the first time I heard it because I just knew it would make for a fun-to-sing and most likely funi-flavour karosong. You might say my inner singer purred at the chance to work with this track.

The delivery for most of the first two verses came easily with the lyrics. If anything, the delivery actually led the lyrics in this case, setting the vocal patterns that the lyrics then fell into. It was understanding those patterns that let me cover off the third verse with da dah dees long before I knew what the lyrics would be.

---

The verses in Jesse's async track are separated by short bridges that I first understood to have no lyrics. But as I worked on mastering the song during the Vancouver sessions, I found myself wanting to throw in rhythmic repeats of the title "have you ever" between the verses. They completed the song.

have you ever
have you ever

---

* Remember, "karo" is a label for the particular expression of the song energies through gordon. Karo is not a person and karo is not a name.