Five final mixes for "The Sydney Highrise Variations"

We have 25 songs to finish, mix and master between now and the Nov. 13 release party for our poetry score to The Sydney Highrise Variations. Yesterday Adam Long and I pulled the first five fish into the canoe.

mp3s

1. "Far above the tidal turnaround"

6. "They docked at apogee"

12. "In the land of veneers"

16. "The C19-20"

17. "The cantilevered behometh"

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We started with the band songs that are ready to mix, thinking they would require the most effort and take the most time, so the artist name for all of these is Three Fried Men.

Three Fried Men is Heidi Dean (vocals), Matt Fuller (guitars, drums, vocals), Chris King (vocals), Lij (guitars, drums, vocals, organ, whistles), Adam Long (percussion), David Melson (bass, guitar, vocals) and John Minkoff (guitar), though John isn't on any of these particular tracks.

"In the land of veneers" features Carl Pandolfi on organ. "The C19-20" features the poet himself, Les Murray, on vocals, and the rock producer Roger Moutenot on drums.

All the words are by Les Murray from his poem, of course (that being the idea of a poetry score). The melodies are mine, worked out to guitar parts by Matt Fuller for all of these but "Far above the tidal turnaround," which began its existence on a very old scratch guitar tape Lij gave me at least 15 years ago. I am a musical scavenger.

Basic tracks were recorded by Lij in Nashville at The Toy Box, assisted by Marc Primeau, though Carl recorded his own organ track at home and hand-delivered the session, and Adam recorded his percussion track on "Tidal turnaround" yesterday afternoon in the studio.

I think we'll list Matt Fuller and myself (Chris King) as co-producers again this year. We kind of worked out the songs and concept, mostly in Coldwater Canyon overlooking Los Angeles.

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Sketch by Lij from an old architectural school project. It hangs on his studio wall in Nashville. It will form the basis of the back CD cover.