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Gone But Not Forgotten

by Reid Karris

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Quietism 03:06
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Roberta 01:35
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#4 06:43

about

-All songs written and recorded by Reid Karris
-Reid Karris – guitar, drums, water phone, percussion
-Dave Strand – musical saw, ocean drum, percussion, djerydo

By the summer of 1999 I had been experimenting with alternate guitar tuning for quite awhile and it was also at this time that the majority of the guitar for this album was recorded. The basic idea for the recording was improvisational song writing and a hand full of tracks were laid down. The resulting album was titled “songs for the forest” and about 10 CDs were produced and handed out to various people. In the years that passed I had always dreamed of someday revisiting this music and adding other instruments to it. Occasionally throughout the years I would listen to the recordings to see if I was finally a good enough drummer to begin the project and at the beginning of 2008 I selected 6 track from the 1999 session as well as 2 tracks from my acoustic album “whenever it is, is whenever it will be” to begin working on.

Given the not quite perfectly tuned nature of the quitar tracks it became evident to me that instrumentation would be something unlike that of other recording projects of mine in the past. I devised three categories of instruments to work with; bowed metal, struck metal and wood. Bowed metal consisted of musical saw and water phone while struck metal consisted of bells and cymbals. Wood blocks, frog callers and shakers then rounded out the sound. Besides owning the majority of the odd instruments I wanted to use for these recordings dave strand has been a good friend of mine for many years and we have often played music together in an informal way with our other close friends. I have always enjoyed working with him therefore saw this as a great opportunity to record a serious project together. The sessions took place after all of the drums were recorded on consecutive weekends for about two weeks. The use of these instruments along with a droning effect from the guitar and rhythm create a sound the blends easily with the surroundings. I often enjoy listen to the album while in the car with the window open allowing the sounds outside add to the music. At times there are solos performed by emergency vehicles or passing trains and the rumbling of semis and sound of crickets fit right in too.

The name “gone but not forgotten” brings to light a concept I have always had about the music I make. This is that song writing is not a choice that I make but rather something that I have to do. After a song is written and recorded it is gone from my mind for I have moved on to others. Over the years there have been quite a lot of songs that never got recorded and that I no longer know how to play. The fact that most of these songs began as improvisations recorded almost a decade ago fit perfectly with the conceptual ideas that the music represents. This album is dedicated to all the music that never got a chance to be heard by others and has ended up dormant in my mind. This is possibly my shortest album in terms of length but it is also some of the most in depth and odd arranging I have ever performed.

credits

released December 1, 2008

artwork by Tim Breen
picture by Jeremy Farmer

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about

Reid Karris Chicago, Illinois

Reid Karris is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound experimentalist and improviser hailing from Chicago Illinois trying very hard to get all the music stuck in his head out for all the world to hear.

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