Inner Unrest

Etheric Rambles is available for download

2011-11-05T17:36:00.001+01:00

This year hasn't been my best for music, with less time and more concerns, and I have recorded few new songs.
I've tried the 50/90 challenge this Summer, but only managed to record 8 songs as I started my vacation by spilling boiling water on my left hand.
Anyway, Etheric Rambles is complete at last, and I've decided to release it for download now although a better version with a real mastering and the support of Musictrade netlabel will come in the future.
Most songs have been inspired by things I've experienced throughout my life, the kind that belong to Altered States of Consciousness, Holistic visions and "Extraordinay" events, like Healing, State of Grace, Contemplation, Astral Projection...
Included in the free download on Bandcamp is a video of myself performing an improvisation for FAWM 2011, Foggy Afternoon.

Etheric Rambles by Joanne Gabriel

FAWM 2011 : an unexpected outcome

2011-03-04T19:55:00.021+01:00

To join or not to join?

I've started a new job in September and since then I've had very little time for making music. So as February and FAWM drew near I decided it would be more reasonable not to take part in the challenge this year. Besides in 2010 I wasn't in the mood and the experience wasn't very pleasant. Nevertheless since then, I was having a strange recurrent dream in which I was coming back to a house full of people who were making music and who all knew me. I had forgotten them but they welcomed me all the same, and I was very happy to be here. I guess this dream combined with the messages my old FAWM friends left on my board in the early days of Feb made me change my mind.
At first I came back to FAWM convinced that I would post 3-4 songs. I was rather confused regarding the style/genre I would write in, especially after posting Norepinephrine. But the feedback was very positive and I realized my good old artistic schizophrenia was back, due to the sort of stuff I used to post on FAWM in the early years and the not-so-positive feedback I had for Almighty in 2010. Well it WAS positive, but less people were following me and I knew it was the consequence of shifting from alt/indie stuff to something being more radically experimental. So I got rid of schizophrenia and took inspiration as it came, and here was the nice surprise : inspiration was there, and the first songs flowed effortless.

Inspiration

It was the first time since FAWM 2008 I was pleased with songs written and recorded in a hurry, and for me my 2011 stuff has something very similar to the "soul" of the tracks I released in the Lost Opuses and Casual Matters. And to be honest, this unexpected quality (regarding the emotional part) soon caused me trouble because I was afraid to "lose it". Mid-FAWM was a struggle, that finally led me to the "second wind".
The second wind is one of the most pleasant and awesome things I've experienced throughout my creative course.I would take part in this kind of challenges only to get the second wind. Many musicians are skeptical about the validity of events like FAWM where you have to force creativity and, on top of that, have a deadline. For my part I love the process, because you have to let loose. When I start a FAWM my aim is not to write 14 good songs ; it's to write songs, even crap songs, so as to put aside all the things that block my inspiration. When at last I manage to get rid of all the useless considerations, like "is there a better way to play this?", "should I really submit a song that shows how poor my drumming skills are?" and so on ; when I stop spending hours on a song I don't like because I have no clue how to make it sound better, and when I give up trying to force myself to write songs that are "different" and don't sound like me ; then comes the second wind : inspiration is here, near at hand, simple and natural, the songs flow because somehow the lesson has been learned and the way I should work is accepted.

No collabs...

That's the downside of this FAWM. I usually work very differently when I'm involved in collaborative projects and it takes me a lot of time. Whereas I would move forward with my own songs, I accept mistakes and glitches less easily with collabs. Moreover, some collaborators are a little fussy and I calculate on the additional time I could have to spend on the song if the person I'm working with is not satisfied with the first takes. So this year it was clear from the start : I wouldn't have stood a chance to complete FAWM if I had got involved in collaborative tracks, unless if it was for one or two tracks only (something reasonable). But I think 9 or 10 persons asked me, and all of them were songwriters I admire and praise. I really didn't want to choose so I simply turned them all down, as sorry as I might be.

... Except for two songs

with Mark L Berry : When I Look Back At Twenty

I was afraid to get involved in collaborative works with other performers. But when Mark L Berry contacted me I had no reason to refuse to work with him. Mark writes lyrics, and for me they are very particular lyrics : he writes memoirs, and his story is very poignant. For each chapter of his memoirs, he writes song lyrics and ask musicians to record the instrumental part and sing. The result becomes a companion song for the connected chapter.
The song we collaborated on is called "When I Look Back At Twenty". Mark looks back on what he's faced and achieved in his life.
Here is the chapter I've read before writing the song. You can also check out the other companion songs of his memoirs.
The concept is close to the one I had for Almighty last year, so it was appealing enough for me ; but additionally there's something very special about Mark's personality and the lyrics he writes. He puts so much of him in them, so much of the tragedies he had to face and of the positive energy he's raised to move forward and now spreads around him... I had to put a lot of myself in the song too to do it justice. It's the only song I posted on FAWM this year that exceeds 30 layered tracks.

With Mojo : The Stolen Song

Since 2009 I'm double fawming without even noticing it, as I'm putting together some experimental short tracks to fit Mojo's creativity. I don't notice it because it's very special, I really record for him and I tend to forget I put something personal into the catcore tracks. It's like I'm the extension of Mojo's love for music and simply perform what he can't perform by himself due to physical incapacity.
The way I work with him has evolved a lot over the years, as when I started I recorded him separately, looped the best samples I had and completed the songs according to our moods. He was taking part in the final process by either playing keyboards (the way a cat plays keyboards) or simply sitting close to me, listening and showing that he was satisfied (or not) by winking, meowing or purring.
During FAWM 2010 he contributed to a track by recording live vocals for the first time and since then he's showed more and more interest for my music and claimed the mic while I was performing. I was hoping to be able to record a few songs with live performances by him this year, knowing there are a few confines : he seldom speaks (or sing) continuously over one minute and a half, maybe two minutes ; he often moves while we record and I have to follow him with the mic ; he loves the mic so he rubs his nose against it.
Anyway this year Mojo showed absolutely no interest in fawming and making music for almost the whole month. The few samples I got from him were really shy, short and crappy, with a lot of intrusive noises and interferences. I think he doesn't like his new mic : I used to record him with a lapel mic that died a few months ago. I replaced it by a cheap mic for computers but he doesn't respond well to it. I sometimes use the SM58 but it only works if he keeps still and doesn't force me to follow him across the room.
The only song he showed interest for was something I was working on in the first half of the month. I guess he found it sounded like the Chicken Wings song we recorded in 2008 (and actually it does, I hadn't noticed before but it does). He loves the Chicken Wings song, I sometimes play it to him and each time he winks and babbles. So when he heard the song I was putting together, he claimed the mic (by meowing and clinging to my trousers). I hadn't planned to do so but I pressed the record button, then let the song aside as he had stolen the track I was saving for the bass. At the end of FAWM I decided he had taken possession of the song in a significant way ; I looped his voice to complete the track and posted it as The Stolen Song without any further addition except the bass.
I completed his album in my last two fawming days with the scarce samples I had, and it was only at that moment, when he heard the finished songs, that he started babbling and warbling. How can you explain to a cat that FAWM lasts only one month and that it's over? Maybe there will be a post-FAWM album for Mojo this year.

First Live Video

After receiving several comments from people who told me they would like to see how I work, I considered shooting a video. I'm a dabbler in video making but I made a few tests with my phone, with the help of my sweetheart Alex, and found it was possible. So we planned it for the end of Feb : we moved the furniture, took a good amount of time to set everything up and do some soundcheck, and I went for a short improv (it had to last less than 15 minutes, which for me is a very short time to develop something interesting).
Not everything went like I intended, as in every improv and live performance, but I now know that shooting videos is another possibility for me to widen my approach of music.
One of the unexpected things was the appearance of Mantra (Mojo's brother) during the performance. Well, I was expecting him to come down his cat tree but I thought he was going to spoil the whole thing and pester me, but he didn't so it's even a nice addition to the informative goal of the video as it gives an insight of how the cats behave when I perform and record.

Conclusion

In spite of the lack of time and the feeling that I was half there all the time, the fact I only posted 14 Caterwauler songs (including the improv video, which should count as a half song), I'm rather satisfied with most of the songs I recorded in Feb. And Mojo has his third album.
I've fiddled with Hydrogen drum loops, what enabled me to explore a bit and widen my approach of rhythm. I was wondering in the past months what would happen if I tried to give my songs a kind of electro feel, and I guess there will be more songs like this in the future. So a good FAWM, the least prolific I've ever had, but I've managed to handle my "artistic schizophrenia" and to give a soul to my songs after several months without being able to write and record.
And above all I've won against Time. It was important for me to complete this challenge, because surrendering to work schedules and putting music on the back burner would have been a tremendous failure and heartbreak.

Old Things

2010-11-04T14:28:00.005+01:00

I come from a family of musicians. When I was a kid I started learning the piano but I stopped due to the life style of my parents who were seasonal workers in a ski resort. that was a great disappointment for me and I developped a kind of rejection for all the instruments I could have learnt with my relatives. Yet I kept a growing craze for electric guitar. Finally, when I was 16, I bought a book, borrowed my father's classical guitar and started learning by myself.
No sooner had I learnt the basics of the guitar than I made the first attempts to write my own songs. I really enjoyed the feel of the nylon strings, but my aim was to get an electric guitar. Maybe I was bound to play the electric guitar... A short time before my 17th birthday I sent a postcard to a magazine, to take part in a draw. There was only one prize : a Japanese Squier Stratocaster by Fender... and I won it. I gave this guitar a name : it's called Gabrielle, and I still play on it nowadays.
I made my first multitrack recordings in 1998. A friend had lent me a 4 track tape recorder and I challenged myself to record at least one song every two days during my summer holidays. It was my first "Introspection session". I wrote songs inspired by my everyday life, my doubts, my fears, the questions I asked myself about the meaning of my life, the world I lived in...
The first Introspection recordings consisted in guitar and vocals only, but soon I started using anything that was near at hand. I used my classical guitar to make percussions, managed to get a bass and crappy Casio keyboards...
For my 18th birthday a guy I had provided housing for sent me a thank you gift : my first multi-effects pedal, a Zoom 2020. I immediately began experimenting with sounds. As years went by I brought in new toys and new techniques, switched from tape recorders to digital recorders, and fiddled with my brother's drums.
Most of the songs I recorded for the Introspection project have remained in boxes until now and few persons have listened to them. One of the main reasons is that I hate the prominent presence of beats I recorded from my keyboards most of the time. Another is the poor quality of the sound of the earliest recordings.
Nevertheless I've decided to release a few of these songs now. They are not great but they are part of my musical history, and some have a strong sentimental value for me...

Dreamscapes

2010-09-21T18:28:00.005+02:00

I have started a long awaited collaborative work with Geronimodeleon : our aim is to record "a collection of dream inspired pieces".
The first one is called "An Aerial View Of Red Earth". It will be included in the "Dreamscapes Volume 1" album released as a Raining Cloud project.

Geronimodeleon sent me a few pictures of the Red Earth we were about to fly over together, and a track of sound/noise, half eerie, half ethereal for me to record over. The pictures provided me the visual inspiration while the background track showed me the direction to follow. I made loops of overtone singing to keep the strange feel we had started with.
During the recording process we exchanged a few emails and decided to introduce some discreet dissonance inspired by Ligeti (I personaly had in mind the 2001 A Space Odyssey pieces). Geronimodeleon took care of the production and applied some treatments to the tracks I sent him. The guitar loop was recorded in real time to preserve the dynamics.

Almighty released

2010-08-04T21:19:00.010+02:00

Almighty has just been released :

- on mininova : MP3 or FLAC
- on archive.org
- on fairtilizer

When I wrote and recorded Almighty, it was merely a beta test. The FAWM challenge seemed the perfect opportunity to do it.

I wanted to find a new approach for my music, and the idea of having something behind the tracks to give them a deeper meaning had already been haunting me for a long time.
Music for a film that only exists in my head, or inspired by drawings or photographs (like my Caterwauler "Stellar Dreams" inspired by the Hubble Telescope pictures), ... That wasn't new to me. But in order to have a clearer insight I wanted to try it with a whole album.

I started thinking about a plot, a short story I could develop and record music for.
Soon I remembered this weird dream : there were enough details and it was not too long, so I took a deep breath and wrote down all I could remind of, about the landscapes, the sequence of events and the feelings I had while I was asleep and after I woke up.
The most difficult thing was to get over shyness, to unveil very personal feelings. I knew it was the best way not to sound like a megalomaniac, what I didn't want at all (and confess I feared in the beginning).

Once I had made my decision it was rather easy : let the music flow, find the right sounds and melodies to express what was already described in the texts, and more (otherwise what would be the point?).

A few years ago I was attending an improvisation course in the Conservatoire of Nancy. My teacher was this kind of odd persons who can affect the whole way you practise. He made strange sentences about planting pitons to explain how you should build an improvisation, and taught us how to put a meaning behind each sequence of sounds.
The way I worked for Almighty was nourished with these ideas. Each track has a strong intention, and I've done my best to convey the intense emotions this dream brought to me.

So here we are! It's done, I have to record a new one now ;)

Tremendous respects and thanks to Doc for the splendid artwork and mastering, much love to the Musictrade guys and special acknowledgements to Geronimodeleon for his texts revision.

KraftiM recycles J. Gabriel

2010-08-02T17:19:00.007+02:00

Jobin by KraftiM

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

When I joined Musictrade, I shared my "bin" with my fellow musicians. A good number of songs, sketches ans sounds I didn't like and had rejected. I allowed them to use, transform, cut, do anything they wanted with this stuff.

I won't describe what happened next in a better way than KraftiM did on jamendo :

Once upon a time there was a bin.

Filled with orphanaged soundsnippets from an artist who hesitated what to do with it. Along came a soundarchitect who just learned to behave more ecologically responsable. And so the bin was searched carefully , parts were scrubbed, put in a new home, chopped, treated, refined, remodelled and combined until 7 tracks came out.

The artist is Joanne Gabriel, the sounds are recycled by KraftiM. The titles are derived from the original tracknames and should be pronounced in french...

The result is a brilliant artist giving a new life to these forsaken tracks.
It's weird to hear sounds I disliked and didn't care for, used as material for something completely new... and good!
Jobin made me discover new soundscapes, new textures, forget the failure I couldn't help but hear in each sound and replaced it with cheeky cohesiveness. Experimental, free and inventive, KraftiM did what I couldn't do myself : he gave a soul to the ghosts of the bin, built them a world at the heart of which they could now have a life of their own.
Each track has a strong personality, and as a whole the album offers a journey into a strange yet familiar world...
I knew it already, but this album reminds it all the time : KraftiM is a genius regarding sound sculpture, carving and shaping. It can't even be called a remix album, it's much more than that. KraftiM is a Soundarchitect...

OBE

2010-07-27T22:39:00.003+02:00

For a few days I've had this urge to record a track about Out of Body Experiences.
I don't know why this topic reappeared now, probably due to listening to elating music from my Musictrade friends and having interesting discussion about spirituality, metaphysical approach of life and such things... Anyway, this track came very easily compared to most of the other ones I've recorded lately.

My first OBE occured when I was 15 or 16 years old. I was lying in the grass under a tree, the air was mild, and I could see the sun through the leaves and drifting clouds. I was staring at the sky, listening to some music and at some moment I looked down and saw my hand. Then I realized I was watching it from above, as if floating beneath the branches.
I learnt afterwards that my brother had called me several times and gave up because I "didn't seem to hear him".
I had other OBE after this over years, most of them very intense and some scary because they were spontaneous and uncontrolled. I read a few books and practiced lucid dreaming to tame them.

The track I've recorded describes more of a "static" experience, not the "astral trip".
I've used entangled sounds to render the ethereal feel of the experience as well as the strange sense of being anchored.

<a href="http://joannegabriel.bandcamp.com/track/obe">OBE by Joanne Gabriel</a>

Twigetticast n°3

2010-07-19T15:32:00.005+02:00

New Twigetticast by Jim Perkins (Bigo & Twigetti), including the Softspace/J. Gabriel collab "Minimal Mind" and other trippy tracks.
As usual, check the blog for more details on artists.

Musictrade : Free Music, Free Culture

2010-07-15T18:20:00.004+02:00

This is how the netlabel Musictrade defines itself :
"Musictrade is an international community-based netlabel focusing on electronic music. Our agenda is to release interesting, imaginative and impressive electronic music for your enjoyment - for free, with no strings attached."
No need to say I gladly accepted to join them when they invited me ; all their artists are amazing and over-talented, and they welcomed me very kindly in their network.
Beside the fact they offered me a priceless help for the release of my new album "Almighty", it's a unique opportunity to collaborate with great artists and to learn from their experience.
For these reasons I consider my arrival in their sanctuary as a major event in my musical life.

Check Musictrade featured artists and all the albums available for free download on their website.

Minimal Mind

2010-07-15T17:25:00.002+02:00

Here is the first collab between the electronica artist Softspace and Joanne Gabriel, an ambient track called "Minimal Mind" :

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://joannegabriel.bandcamp.com/album/minimal-mind"&amp;amp;gt;Minimal Mind by Joanne Gabriel&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

Welt on Vimeo

2010-06-23T17:20:00.001+02:00

Welt by Chicken Chris is now available on Vimeo.

English subtitles coming soon.

WELT from chickenchris on Vimeo.

New collab with Kevin Reid

2010-05-28T17:39:00.003+02:00

It's almost a tradition now : a FAWM collab with the awesome songwriter Kevin Reid.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://caterwauler.bandcamp.com/album/kevin-reid-caterwauler"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;We Belong To Where We Began by Caterwauler&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

As usual, it's got an indie rock feel, but has a very nice bridge with a completely different mood :)

Struggling with noises

2010-05-21T18:24:00.007+02:00

There are clipping and interferences in some of my latest songs, and I swear I deliberately put them there to produce a sense of dirtiness, that would be a metaphor for the unhealthy Planet.
Joking. This is absolutely not true.
At the moment I'm having hard times with Air, one of the two songs I wanted to rework before releasing Almighty.
The first version I recorded was full of intrusive clipping and noises. During FAWM I had no time to stop by the song and dig what was causing this. I've been working on Air for a few days now and found out the noises are kind of electrical interferences that occur when I play the bass (O_0).
They were amplified by the delay and reverb effects I had applied to the bass. I removed them and tried to play slightly differently. But the noises are still there, not as prominent as before but still there.
I think most of musicians would do everything they can to remove completely the interferences but I personally think they are part of the song.
The house I've settled in is a house with bad electric circuits. A friend of mine called the interferences the "Gremlins of the house" and that suits them perfectly). My songs always reflect the place I live in, because I'm not alone, people (and cats) around me produce sounds and as I work with my home recorder either in my bedroom or in the living room, it's impossible to completely exclude external sounds. The quality of the circuits of a house is also reflected in my recordings, and all the ghostly noises that are specific to each place.
I've always considered that my recordings should reflect the reality around me rather than attempting to provide a sense of fake perfection. I believe in dirty mixes and raw sounds, as I believe that beauty is not something flat and polished. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder... Not mine, as I am totally not capable of listening to my songs without hearing the emotions I've injected in them, and therefore I cannot be objective even regarding the mix.
I mix my sounds the same way I would mix some emotions if I wanted people to pay attention to one rather to another at a particular moment. And when I can't easily get rid of some Gremlins because they are here with me in the room, I eventually accept them. Then every listener who is not me decide if beauty emerges from the dirt, and likes it or not.
When I surrender to the Gremlins I've usually spent hours trying to put them off. Moreover in this case, the noises are somehow or other caused by my fingers brushing the bass strings (static electricity? O_0), it's really weird and I don't feel like editing the tracks each time I record the bass (or should I play with gloves?). My music is and has to be raw to be effective (at least I believe it), the less I edit and the less subterfuges in it, the better. That's probably why the mainstream will always hate me, hehe.
So I guess I'm done with Air and that I won't make it any better... Too bad the clipping in the first version was so loud because I really loved it...
I have one song left to rework, not because of intrusive noises this time but because I challenged myself to record a track with my old crappy Casio SK2100 and the result is a sound that wouldn't easily blend in the album.
Almighty coming soon...

Theta vs The Sky Cult remixes Joanne Gabriel

2010-05-18T21:39:00.005+02:00

Theta vs The Sky Cult made an amazing remix of Looking For Something.
I met him on thesixtyone before the redesign and discovered his excellent music. So I gladly accepted when he offered to remix one of my tracks.

The issue was I couldn't provide him with separate tracks but he accepted the challenge all the same.

I asked him how he worked and this is what he answered :

I normally listen to a song a lot to really try and internalize the spirit of
the song and important aspects of a song. I bring a full copy of the song into a
track (even if I'm working from stems or samples). I'll create some patches for
my instruments at this point and play along on a keyboard or guitar to dissect
the tempo, base key, general construction, melodies and chords of the song. With
your song I was able to get the key and the rising/falling melody down. I then
started pulling out samples from the master to find pieces that I could reuse
for my own interpretation and also used paulstretch to create some ambient
sounds from some vocal samples.
I had an idea of what I wanted to do with
your song to preserve the beautiful journey aspect but as I worked I ran into
some difficulties because I wasn't able to riff well enough on some of the
harmonic ideas. I explored layering vocals into multiple different tracks with
pitch shifting to create some new harmonies and then used my drum machine
running through effects to accompany this. I definitely wanted to have multiple
'movements' and also combine your sound with this lo-fi psychedelic sound of the
'thetasky' project so I explored this sort of sample editing and layering from a
couple different directions and ended up some interesting results. This is
really just experimentation within the framework of your song (key, tempo and
melodic idea). I was a bit worried that I hadn't preserved enough of the beauty
of the original which was my main struggle making this remix :) I do think it
turned out well though as a unique sound that represents a blend of two sonic
signatures.

The Looking For Something remix is a brand new song, with weird and refined textures that would suit well the soundtrack of a movie or a video game.

<a href="http://joannegabriel.bandcamp.com/track/looking-for-something-thetasky-remix">Looking For Something (ThetaSky Remix) by Joanne Gabriel</a>

And here is the original song :
From the opus "Dreams" ; this song uses the same chord progression as "Flying" as it follows it in chronological order and would describe how the dream develops after we land.Sometimes in our dreams we find ourselves looking for something but just don't know for what and where to search...

<a href="http://joannegabriel.bandcamp.com/track/looking-for-something">Looking For Something... by Joanne Gabriel</a>

New Twigetticast

2010-05-10T15:48:00.006+02:00

A new podcast by Twigetti, from Bigo & Twigetti.
Awesome stuff, I listened 3 times in a row.
I especially heart Oliver Blank.
And I'm honoured to have a song included in this podcast : "Life".

For more info on artists in this podcast, see the blog post :
http://bigoandtwigetti.co.uk/blog/?p=223

A collab : Looprication & Caterwauler

2010-03-22T17:07:00.004+01:00

One of the best moments of this FAWM for me :

Looprication and I have talked about collaborating since last year. I struggled with the deadline this Feb but I'm glad I found some time.

Looprication sent me a file with his parts. I added mine and sung his lyrics.

As simple as that.

The only direction we had was :"Shoegaze".

Looprication's music can be found here :

http://www.looprication.com/

The Twigetticast on iTunes

2010-02-28T19:17:00.007+01:00

I had just discovered the excellent music by Bigo & Twigetti when thesixtyone made its redesign.

Fortunately we could keep in touch and I am honoured to have one track (Daybreak) included in an awesome podcast on iTunes :

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-twigetti-cast/id354988970

Here is the post on Bigo & Twigetti's blog :

http://bigoandtwigetti.co.uk/blog/?p=67

FAWM 2010 : Almighty

2010-01-31T17:57:00.015+01:00

Here is my project for FAWM 2010 :
- A 10 songs album : my goal is to tell a story in the form of soundscapes and sound-art tracks "Almighty"
- 4 songs (or more) of free inspiration

Almighty

This story comes from a dream I had a very long time ago, maybe 12 years or more (I can't really remember).

The dream in itself was like a movie, playing from the beginning to the end. I was both a spectator and a protagonist, the way it usually goes in dreams... I can remember when I woke up, I was stunned. It was like I had really lived this experience and I was really amazed. At that time a spiritual approach of life and important matters was food for my thoughts : how could I be a better person, what could I do to help things change around me...

Though the context was very symbolic in this dream, I couldn't help myself thinking again about the response we would have if we were asked this question :

"What would you do if you were almighty?"

You know, like the three wishes stories... What would come to our mind first? Health, money, power, ...? What do we deeply wish?

Well... I don't know what my answer would have been at that time if I had been asked this question while being conscious. But this is the response given by my Unconscious...
Made me thoughtful for years, hence this project...

Almighty

I - The Planet

Spaceships are landing on the planet, fleeing the war that destroyed The Earth.
Amongst the other refugees, I'm discovering this vast land. The world is dark and grey, ruled by dust and clouds. This is a permanent twilight.
The air is foul. We can barely breathe. There are rumours that it is poisoned and will kill us all. Many of us are already ill.
There is almost no vegetation. This is a desert.
Spaceships are still landing raising clouds of dust. People are massing in makeshift camps, directed by soldiers.
I can't remember anything about the war. I only know humans fought against humans, causing the exodus. And now the survivors are striving to settle down in this hostile land.
I'm trying not to breathe. I'm wondering how long we will be able to resist the foul air.
What makes us ill? The dust? Or some component in the air? And how can we live without light anyway?
This is the planet. Welcome home, humankind.

http://fawm.org/songs/95/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Plastic Spatula (for dental technicians)
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and delay effects.

II - The Machine

I'm in a spaceship. I've entered a room. The machine entirely fills it. The walls are covered with screens and knobs, digital diagrams and flashing lights.
Amazed, I watch screens and read data.
This is a library. More than a library, it's the memory of the humankind. Here is our whole History. Not only the History of crowds and nations, but also the History of every individual.
In the middle of the room is a console.
There is a remote control. I pick it up and switch the power on.
An hologram gushes from the console. It is a young man wrapped in white light, with a fair face. He talks to me with a gentle voice.
"I am the Entity" he says. "I am made of the souls of every human being who died during the war. They are in me, they live in me. I am the sum of their souvenirs, feelings and emotions. Through me you have the power to do anything you want. Tell me what your wish is and I will fulfill it".
And here I stand, the remote control in my hand, swimming in white light.
I am Almighty. What am I going to do with this power?

http://fawm.org/songs/607/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
Zoom GFX707
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Spoon
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and pitch effects.

III - Air

Almighty.
I can see the landscape stretch in front of me.
We need air.
I breathe.
I want this breath to spread all over the planet.
And while I'm breathing, trees emerge on the surface of the planet. Forests gush from the ground.
They breathe with me.
Everywhere the trees grow, more and more trees, widening forests, green and profound.
Air diffuses all around the planet. Oxygen.
Breathe my Planet, breathe. You now have lungs.

http://fawm.org/songs/1303/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Bass Cort
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and delay effects.

IV - Water

Almighty.
The forests are breathing. They need water.
And while I think about water, brooks emerge in the landscape. They multiply and they widen.
Large streams, broad rivers flow.
And while water is pouring, while seas and oceans are uprising, the forests have purified the air.
The clouds are scattering and rays of light are breaking in the sky.
Water is shimmering.

http://fawm.org/songs/3108/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Casio SK2100
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Bass Cort
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and delay effects.

V - Life

There is a sun. Was it there, hiding behind the clouds, or did it appear when the Planet transformed?
I don't know...
The Planet is warming up now.
I can see movements, I can hear sounds : life is born. Life abounds.
There are animals everywhere, birds, fish, mammals, insects...
I'm embracing the horizon.
We're saved.

http://fawm.org/songs/3825/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and pitch effects.

VI - Architecture

Now we need cities.
And here they come, vast and beautiful.
White skyscrapers and walls of glass emerge from the ground.
Architecture turns into a work of art. Everywhere new buildings are rising.
Museums. Libraries. Galleries. Arcades. Fountains.
We can settle down in our new home and rest.

http://fawm.org/songs/4670/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and pitch effects.

VII - Hopeless Humankind

They've called me. There have been confrontations in the streets.
Some persons have tried to steal things from others. Some others have thrown the weakest out of their homes. There are militias and it's dangerous to wander in the city.
I go in the streets. It's not long before I'm attacked.They can't harm me, I'm almighty. I could even destroy them at once.
What is the issue? I gave everyone everything they needed.
They want more.The Humankind is hopeless. Give them a new planet, air to breathe and water to drink, food, homes and wealth and they will still wage war among themselves.
Now I have to make a decision. I go to The Machine.

http://fawm.org/songs/4671/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX707
Danelectro Fab Tone
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Spoon
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and delay effects.

VIII - The Human Brain

I have called the Entity. I say "I need you. All we have built is being destroyed. I think the issue is the human nature itself. They are swift to anger and jealousy. They have always been disposed to make war, and they always will. Unless we alter the human brain. Please help me to increase the human aptitude to love and wisdom, and decrease its agressiveness. I'm not wise enough myself to make the right alterations, I need you to guide me."
And he guides me. We penetrate the mysterious clockworks of the human brain. We change the connections, remove, add, alter.
The Humankind is capable of understanding, compassion... naturally.
It is a Rebirth.
We can live at peace in a beautiful world. I am happy for the first time since I am almighty.

http://fawm.org/songs/5645/

Improvised track
Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and pitch effects.

IX - The Natives

We had been living in peace for quite a long time. And suddenly they were here : the Natives, sailing on the seas with their large ships.
They had abandoned their Planet long ago because it had become impossible to live here. Now the Planet had changed : it was heveanly, and they had come back.
I don't know where they had gone all this time, and when they exactly came back. I woke up and saw the ships approaching. And I knew at once they perceived us as enemies.
I don't want a war again.

http://fawm.org/songs/6858/

Gear I used in this track :
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX707
Casio SK2100
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and pitch effects.

X - Departure

We are leaving. The Planet belongs to the natives. I have advised the Humans to leave and they have accepted.
We are a wise and loving people. We will not fight for the Planet. It is even enjoyable to give the natives a beautiful new home where they will not be ill and famished.
And as our spaceships take us towards our new life, all eyes look into the same direction :
A giant sphere of fire has emerged, and as the flames slowly go out, a white light spreads all over it.
I have already begun the work.
For the first time I realize that I have not misused my power. I have not even been tempted to exploit it for myself.
The dream flickers and scaters into pieces while the reality blinks and brings the strange feeling that I have taken a test...

http://fawm.org/songs/7981/

Gear I used in this track :
Bontempi PM64
Stratocaster Squier Fender
Zoom GFX8
RC20 Loopstation Boss
Shure SM58
Spoon
Recorded on Fostex VF16. I used some of its reverb and delay effects.

What's next?

2010-01-26T16:07:00.006+01:00

Well I'm giving up for now wandering on the internet and visiting 10 sites everyday to keep in touch with the t61 community and to try to find a new home.
FAWM is starting 5 days, I will be mad busy and it will be simply impossible.

If you never heard of FAWM, here is a sum-up of how it works :
- you write songs
- you post them with liner notes and a demo if you have one
- your music is streamed in the FAWM jukebox
- people comment on it
- you listen to other fawmers' music and comment on it

You can watchlist people if you love their stuff.
There's also the "unzonging mission" : a "zong" is a song with zero comment, and it is a tradition on FAWM to unzong all the music and give feedback to everyone.
We also have forums.

Too bad it's not a community for more than a few months, because it's the closest to t61 so far regarding activity and support.

I'll watch how things evolve concerning the "migration" and will post news here.

I will probably submit new stuff on t61 from time to time to see how things are going there ; but for now the last song I submitted didn't seem to get as much exposure as my previous ones.
I don't really care about hearts, but I care about how many different listeners liked my music and now I can't track them anymore. It looks like what I feared happened anyway, and that experimental music has been buried...

So if we have to be considered as products (only music, no one should care about the persons who makes it), there's no point for me in spending time there.

Projects :

- I have been asked to write music for forthcoming films by Chicken Chris (Welt) and Viktor Alexis (The Domain Of No Return).

- I also submitted my songs for a fan-fiction audio called SPOKANE GHOSTBUSTERS and they want to feature The Other Side.
http://www.audiophantom.com/spokaneghostbusters.html

More to come.

UPDATE :

You can now find me and many t61 exiles on Uvumi :
http://uvumi.com/#joannegabriel
http://uvumi.com/#caterwauler

Open Letter to Sam and James @t61

2010-01-22T16:08:00.003+01:00

Here is the Open Letter I addressed to Sam and James regarding the new version of thesixtyone.

Dear Sam and James,
My name is Joanne Gabriel.
I've decided to write you,
hoping these words will find their way even if I am more at ease with music when
I have something to express.
Please forgive my poor English, as English is
not my native language.
My aim is not to speak for the majority. I'm one of
those artists who always belong to a minority because the genre they are writing
in doesn't respond to most of the mainstream standards.
I hope you do realize
that the sixtyone used to enable minorities to coexist with the
majority.
Contrary to the other music sites, the sixtyone used to provide us
with fair treatment, as it enabled us to find our audience.
I hope you do
realize that communities of artists that belong to the "under-rated" genres had
made their home on the sixtyone.
I hope you do realize that having people
posting 15 minutes or longer tracks and providing them exposure in spite of the
fact they are out of the standards made you a unique place.
I hope you do
realize that this diversity in the genres hosted by the sixtyone commanded the
respect.
Speaking of art and music, you are compelled to consider diversity
and minorities.
Art is not made of standards, and marginal artists have never
harmed other artists.
I personally think that the capacity for a music site
to take marginal genres into account is a priceless quality.
Art needs
ethics.
As an artist, I find my inspiration in my everyday life.
I don't
write songs with the idea of making them marketable. My listeners and the way
they perceive my music have a deep impact on my work.
I feel a real
responsability and commitment to my listeners.
Until now the sixtyone has
enabled me to communicate with people who love my music. The system was so good
that, beyond the support and exposure I got, some discussions raised and fed my
inspiration.
No need to say I have praised you everywhere. I even told my
friends that you were the future, the cure for standardization in music, and
that if you grew your impact could be very profound.
I am truly worried about
the consequences that the changes in the sixtyone system will have on me and
other minority artists.
I fear that the experimental genre will once more be
ruled out and that many who had made their home on the sixtyone will have to go
back to their roving life on the internet in search of a welcoming
place.
This is also true for minority listeners.
I used to filter the
music I was listening to on the sixtyone. Actually the only genre I seldom
listen to is pop music.
I'm wondering how I will be able to find the music I
love without the genre filters, and many of my friends on the sixtyone have the
same fears as me.
We also need to communicate.
I am not speaking about a
conversation between two persons : I am speaking about interaction, like when
you spontaneously take part in a discussion because you saw a post on someone's
wall and it inspired you, made you feel like raising your voice.
If you can't
see other users' posts, you cannot agree or disagree. Discussions and
controversies are what make all things evolve, aren't they?
It's all about
music, and music is all about feelings, emotions, sharing and being
human.
You have gold in your hands, and believe me, a lot of people willing
to trust you and help you growing.
You will probably grow anyway, but I do
believe you have the choice to do it in a noble way.
Please don't desert
us.

Joanne Gabriel

And here is the track I should have posted yesterday.
Thanks a lot to all the people who supported me before and after this sad day.

<a href="http://joannegabriel.bandcamp.com/track/loin-du-regard">Loin Du Regard by Joanne Gabriel</a>

They killed t61...

2010-01-21T20:14:00.003+01:00

I can't believe it but they did it...
It took me years to find a place where I could build strong relationships with my listeners and interact with them...
When I found t61 I began interacting with as many people as I could. Collaborations, discussions, everything was easy. T61 was my home.
Now what?
Another place for mainstream artists? How will I communicate with people who liked my music, supported me, inspired me...?
And how will I find music to listen to in the experimental genre, how will I support other independant artists?
I'm simply too upset to think about it.
I hope it's not true, but today I feel like I've lost many friends all at once.
It makes me sad and angry.

It's probably useless, but there's an online petition :
http://www.petitiononline.com/sixtyone/petition.html

I went "on strike" on my three artist accounts (Mojo is too, the new sixtyone really doesn't look like a good place for musician cats), and I won't log in tomorrow (1/22/10) to take part in the boycot.

Sad day for independant artists and their listeners...
Back to the "struggle for life" on the internet...
I wish I could do something, but really... I'm lost...

Le Domaine Des Non Revenus / Retaining Time

2010-01-20T20:08:00.007+01:00

Another video including a track by me and that I just discovered, a short film by Viktor Alexis :
Le Domaine Des Non Revenus (The Domain Of No Return).

"Before the End... After the End..."

Le Domaine des Non-Revenus from Viktor Alexis on Vimeo.

The Source

2010-01-19T18:22:00.004+01:00

Jed, the director who used some of my music in his film VHS (that I personally love), made this video for my track The Source.
The Source is part of the Dreams opus.
I just discovered the video and I've been really moved and conquered by the interpretation he made of this track.

Thanks a lot Jed. This is a powerful and beautiful video...

The Source - Joanne Gabriel from Jed on Vimeo.

14 Songs in 28 Days : FAWM 2010

2010-01-12T17:20:00.004+01:00

It will be my third participation in the FAWM challenge, and the second one for Mojo.

14 songs in 28 days means a busy schedule, and now with Mojo fawming with his own account it basically means 28 songs in 28 days...

I've always reached the goal. But I usually spend months after the deadline reworking on my FAWM songs. I'm also aware that such a challenge needs "fillers" and that not all my stuff can be really good.

But what I like in FAWM is that you have to move forward if you want to make it. I can remember a fellow fawmer calling me a "crazy perfectionnist" ^^

When you record music like I do, with a crappy or odd equipment, that you don't like the sound "norms" and that you have no professional skills, you have to accept there will always be defaults in your songs. That's one thing.

Another thing is that people won't necessarily like your music because it's "clean" or "professional". They will find other things in it that will make them love it, and that's probably even more difficult to accept than the defaults. Why? I don't know... Human nature...

I can remember well the first time I posted a song on FAWM. I was very shy and unsure. I got very nice feedback from other fawmers and that helped me a lot with consolidating my songwriting and my sound.

Last year, the site offered us a new feature : the opportunity to freely tag our songs. I started tagging my songs "crappy" : because they ARE crappy, but I like it, I accept it and I don't want to change it.

I'm now less unsure, but I still have a lot of apprehensions when I post a song, whether it's on FAWM or on T61 or on any other site. And even if I gained self-confidence, I'm still deeply touched by kind comments and feedback, or hearts. Sharing music is a tremendously emotional adventure :)

As for Mojo, he doesn't care about these details. Catcore is fun, only fun, and will always be ;)

Music for a brioche

2010-01-08T18:28:00.005+01:00

Welt by Chicken Chris is the first film I've ever written music for.

And wow... What a film... I've simply been mesmerized by Chris's universe, by his way of mingling darkness and lightness, by his frightening yet touching monsters...

Chris sent me his film in two parts (it's a short-film, less than 20 minutes long).

The first part deals with what happens when the characters are "outside", before they are miniaturized and sent into the brioche by the professor.

For this part, I worked with short themes based on the scenes and tried to give them the right length. The difficulty was to express something meaningful and intense with 1 to 2 minutes tracks. Quite a challenge...

The only direction Chris had given me was to write an intro that would remind of some old sci-fi film music. I used pitch effects and cheap keyboards, and added my usual guitar and voices tricks. I submitted my first attempts to him, he was happy with them so I went on with this approach.

Chris had also asked me to work on the sound design, which was both an honour and a delight. I had never done this before and was a little intimidated, but I've always loved to record sounds from my everyday life and use them into my music so I decided to do exactly the same thing here.

I recorded a washing machine, an oven timer, creaking doors in my house, an old rocking chair, a salad dressing mixer... I created loops, applied effects or kept the original sounds according to what was needed.

When Chris sent me "Inside", the second part, I began with writing a few short themes just like I had done with the first part. Then I immersed myself into the magical ambience of his world and went for a 20 minutes improvisation-based track. Through this track, I described the black hills and the wheeled monsters, the fear and the enchantment of the two heroes lost in the inner world of the brioche, in no particular order, just following the inspiration provided by the images I was playing in loop. I sent the track to Chris and told him to cut in it just as he wished.

The result stunned me. I felt like Chris and I, who have never met IRL, had built a bridge between our two worlds so that our respective works were exactly what the other needed. I think "osmosis" is the right word here...

This experience has enabled me to create a new approach for writing music for films. I've been extremely lucky because Chris's world perfectly fits my dreamy way of writing music.

We already plan to work again together.

Don't forget to check out his blog :

http://chickenfabrik.blogspot.com/

Mojo The Cat : the weirdest collab I ever had

2009-12-04T01:34:00.010+01:00

My cats have grown up in a music infested world, with microphones and instruments around them, mommy singing and recording...

Prâna (who is now dead) used to spend half an hour everyday playing with the ends of my guitar strings that I never cut. He had developped a real technique : he seized a string end with his claws, held it with his teeth then released it so it would hit the other strings above the nut and produce a tinkling. He also sang each time I played songs using the D chord on my guitar.

Mantra loves to climb on my drums or my keyboards, but doesn't really pay attention to the sounds he produces. He usually just sits or lies down without being disturbed by the noise. He sometimes sings when I play the guitar (looks like he's responsive to the D chord too).

I was a little disappointed concerning Mojo. He wasn't interested by the guitar, and didn't sing. Even worse : when I recorded vocals for songs, he poisoned me until I stopped, crying and pulling at my trousers.

Things changed during the FAWM contest 2009. A friend of mine, Kevin Reid, asked me if he could use a sample of Mojo's voice in a song. I had tons of samples, as Mojo often babbles and I love to record him. I said yes, of course, and then I had the idea of creating a profile for Mojo and record "catcore" songs using his voice. I then discovered that Mojo was glad to hear himself. What is more, he looks like he perfectly understands the process of recording through a microphone. If I present him a microphone, he babbles and purrs as if he were playing to the gallery.

Next step was to put him on the keyboards. Whereas Mantra just sits there and doesn't move any more, Mojo makes really nice solos...

Now, why do I call this a "collaboration"?

I behave with my cats exactly as if they were human. I talk to them, answer to them,... Some may find it weird but that's the way it goes at home. So when I record catcore songs, I record them with Mojo. I explain him what I want him to do, I ask him if he likes...

During FAWM he got hilarious comments on his submissions ; I read them to him, I don't know if he understood everything but he was quite pleased to take part in my musical activity. And he loves to listen to himself. He blinks (as he always does when he's happy) and sometimes sings.

At the end of February, we recorded a duet, which was my way to confess that I had been behind Mojo all the time (no one knew except Kevin). The song is called "I would trade all my catnip for chicken wings". It's one of my favorite songs among all my stuff.

This catcore project is also a very funny project, I laugh a lot when I record the tracks and listen to the result.

In the future, I'd love to be able to record Mojo in real time for a song. Until now I've always recorded him separately and used samples and loops. But I'm sure we can do it, even if it looks difficult ;)

Since FAWM, Mojo has never annoyed me again while I was recording. I assume he needed to express himself and was frustrated when I recorded vocals because he had so many things to say...

Mojo on t61
Mojo's Myspace

Memories and brain hemispheres

2009-11-24T02:57:00.010+01:00

Another inspiration for me is souvenirs. It's important to be able to write songs in tribute to people who died and things that don't exist anymore.
When I recorded the Memories chapter during the 50-90 2008 I wanted to evoke things I used to feel, and thus wasn't feeling any longer, and my relationships with the past.
I used the same loop in several songs as a kind of metaphor. This loop consisted in a guitar sample alternately played normal and reversed. It's the basis of Retaining Time but also appears in other songs. The normal sound plays in the right loudspeaker and the reversed one in the left loudspeaker. Same device in Haunted, in which the regular rhythm plays in the right loudspeaker and the reversed one that progressively becomes irregular plays in the left loudspeaker.
The reason why I mixed those sounds this way is the will to speak differently to each brain hemisphere, to create unrest so that the two hemispheres are busy with something and hopefully the rest of the music kinds of eludes analytic listening.
I sometimes feeds the left hemisphere with something completely emotional, that should be dealt with by the right hemisphere, and provide the right hemisphere with something that would normally be received byt the other one. I don't know if that's how it works, only each hemisphere basic functions. When I mix music and use the panoramics I assume that each ear will convey the sound to its connected hemisphere.

I'm a 72% right brain dominant according to this test :
http://similarminds.com/left-right-brain-test.html

Dreams and devices to write music about them

2009-11-24T01:35:00.008+01:00

I've always been a great dreamer. I can remember almost every dream after waking up. I'm familiar with the strange way of dreams, their weird colors and sounds, their hazy consistency...

Dreams have always inspired me in my everyday life and of course have a deep impact on my music.

It's one of the most obvious inspirations for me, especially when I feel like creating soundscapes. In dreams-inspired songs I try to find the appropriate sounds to convey the feelings I had while sleeping. For instance The Other Side is built on a marimba sound combined with a pitch effect. Very low sounds are my way to convey a kind of anchorage, deep and heavy vibes that tend to draw us to the ground while high sounds call us from above. Drowsiness and torpor would be low sounds. Colors and lights would be high sounds... I also tend to use a lot of reverb effects so that the sounds envelops us as a dream. I like when we let ourselves get carried away by music, hear and feel it instead of listening to it...

I think this way of working has been reinforced by the teacher of improvisation classes I attended when I was younger. He taught me how to assign a meaning to each sound and to each sequence of notes. He said it was like nailing a piton when you climb up a mountain. Music needs intentions. He also taught me to deconstruct and to use my instrument in the most unusual ways. That's what led me to develop an entire technique for spoons playing. I have a wide assortment of spoons with diverse sizes and shapes and now use them as often as a plectrum.

When you want to talk about things like dreams, emotions, or anything that can only be worded with difficulty, the more diverse the sounds you use, the easier it gets. Everything that can help me to create, transform and polish sound is a tool for me, whether it is a pedal or a spoon.

I don't work in a "usual" way, I barely use my computer when I make songs but I have a lot of doodads that can produce noise or be used when I play one of my instruments.

I also record noises outside, storms, birds, bells... and voices. When I was a child, my literature teacher told us something I never forgot : "when someone dies, you usually can remember his or her face, what he or she used to do, a lot of things... but it's amazing how quickly we forget the voices of people we loved".

People take pictures, I record sounds. Sometimes I use them in my music, like the storm sample in So Be It, or I simply keep them in my precious library.

Life and music are so mingled...

Nightmares

2009-11-09T16:13:00.005+01:00

A few years ago I started having recurrent dreams about the end of the world. I also had panic disorders that manifested themselves through panic attacks and a tendency to agoraphobia.
In those dreams I always find myself alone and try to go back home to die with my loved ones. All the way I have to avoid dangers and sometimes protect someone, for instance my cat (who for some reason is often with me).
I have seen cities collapsing under a flood, people dying because of poisoned air, global war with air raids, extraterrestrial attacks, seisms, fire, explosions, meteors crashing... In the beginning I'm having what looks like a "regular" dream, then something disquieting happens and the fear grows, until I say to myself "We've come to it, this is happening now"...
I never had to face the very end because I always wake up, sometimes crying or even screaming... Then I'm so panicked I have to turn the lights on and struggle for fear of falling asleep again. All those nightmares are extremely violent, detailed and credible...
I've tried to use music to fight this creeping terror, to be able to take hold of it, just like I did with panick attacks and agoraphobia.
When I write music inspired by my terrors, I'm giving them a shape, something more familiar than visions of horror. Visions paralyse me whereas music gives me a key to my unconscious and a way to tame my emotions.
By now I have nightmares about the end of the world once in a while. I've explored my panic disorders and written a fair amount of things about them. But the nightmares problem is more delicate to deal with : the feelings I have in dreams are so violent I can't immerse myself into them at any time. I need to create a favourable environment.
What an ironic thing for an artist, to have such a source of inspiration and to use it to be able to get rid of it...