CDs | six by six
Six by Six
Paul Towndrow
(KWRCD008)
“The wind is howling. We are ten minutes from the recording studio and the engineer is on the phone to me telling me that a power line is down and the studio has no electricity supply. We have one day to record the CD. A solitary window in the busy schedules of six musicians. And now, it would seem, without the availability of a vital commodity. We are arriving at the studio, hoping beyond hope that the situation has remedied itself. It has not. However, there is a streak of luck. A neighbour has come to the rescue with a small, petrol driven emergency generator, harnessing enough energy to power the studio (minus the heating and some of the lights). We are setting up. The lights flicker. It’s January – cold. This is part recording session, part survival weekend. Microphones are being checked, gloves worn, breath visible. Now we’re rolling. The first take is good but we do another. It has energy this time; enough to make the lights go dim at the peaks of its intensity. We have faith and go forward. We are recording a CD during a power-cut. It’s not so bad. Music, having overcome far greater hurdles than this, is said to be wise and powerful and when it needs to make itself heard it will. We are being told that the generator needs to be returned by six and that we have three hours to record the remainder of the album. Now we are in the midst of a great take but suddenly the lights are out and the fold-back has gone. The electrics have cut out and the take is lost. The power is back on and we lay down another (the missing take is just a memory now - ghost music). More energy is harnessed and more expended. More is released. There’s a buzz. The last note of the last take of the last song is dying out and we are listening and waiting and now it is over, recorded in six hours.
At 6pm the generator is returned to its rightful owner and now it is 6.36pm, we are leaving and the lights, of course, come back on.
Edison! You’re late. “