Hidden Soul Diaries #1

Hidden Soul Diaries #1

The End Is The Beginning? (Then what is the beginning)?

Somewhere, somehow in someway, in the process of completing “Hidden Soul of the Fjords,” the last note written, the last vocal sung, the last sound mixed in the studio, have now become the first sounds of the unknown world they will journey to inhabit. Who knows where those sounds may end up or be heard?

In the May of 2017 I was invited to Western Norway by evocative composer and Norwegian artist Heidi Torsvik. She asked that I come to Vevring in Sogn og Fjordane and spend several months living in a remarkable old wooden house that was handmade by the beloved (and now somewhat renown) farmer and local builder named Agnar Thingnes. This home was right on a small pier-like corner of the fjord waters and at times felt like an old wooden ship on the water with the sound of the tide ebbing through the home all the way up to the third floor. This was my first time in the fjord region of Western Norway and I can add that I had traveled the world and never seen a more beautiful place in my life. It was here that we built a solid, though very simple “make-shift” studio and I began initial composing for something that would be based on the fjords themselves. This was the birth and birthplace of what now, some three years later, has became “Hidden Soul of the Fjords.”

To capture some of that early experience I will include a Diary entry from my first few weeks in Vevring:

“It’s been a lovely period and I’m now into the first of four 15 minute long compositions (Neo-Classical/Ambient/Club) for the Hidden Soul project. This first being called “Shining Darkness”. Got a great recording from the balcony two days ago, of some massive thunder and lightning and about 30 minutes of continuous rain without any noise except for some of the local birds and a few fish that actually jump out of the water and make small splashing sounds. I’m using that recording already in this first composition. The thunder echoing across the fjord and bouncing off of the mountain on the other side.”

I began calling that make-shift studio in the old wooden home, “Hidden Soul Whispers” and what was started there would eventually become “Hidden Soul of the Fjords” a music project blending many more “Found Sounds” from all over the region with focused composing in a kind of Ambient meets Neo-Classical meets EDM meets ECM musical matrix that included hundreds of remarkable vocal choral arrangements. This musical journey eventually becoming a double album to be released in September 2020 on Naxos International and NXN Norway. I’m now calling the album genre an “Elemental Sonic Soundscape.” The first of two Singles, “Reflections” will be released on April 17th 2020 with the second “Trees That Whisper” coming around June.

Btw – Did you know that the name Vevring comes from the Old Norse word Vafra and means “Goes here and there?” Nothing could be truer of the wild creative spirit of that region. The root word for wayfarer is part of this from the Old Norse Wæfring hence Vevring.

My hope is that these ongoing “Hidden Soul Diaries” will be small attempts to explore the Dreams, Mysteries, Fears, Reflections and Wonders of all things “Hidden Soul” and I hope you’ll enjoy the pondering and musing. I seek to keep these writings simple, not too long and open-minded. Perhaps best stated, these Diary posts will seek to humbly explore the “Nature of Perspective.”For this first post, I will close now with another section from one of the original 2017 Diaries, this one included a photo. The entry simply said;“Some of my new neighbors.”

-June 3rd 2017

To wily perspective (wherever you may find it)…

L z s  W t r

4.16.2020