Bamboo In The Rain: Part Two

03/29/20 • 5 min

My mind goes wandering in Chinese gardens Where sacred lotus flowers bloom in vain I'll never see or touch those crisp, white blossoms, Nor thrill to rustling bamboo in the rain.

They say the secrets hidden in thick bushes Can only be revealed to emperors. Not even they can see the garden in its fullness Until their road has ended, life has run the course.

--excerpt from "Chinese Gardens" by Liilia Morrison With the foot pedals under my feet I was mixing in celestial voices, cascades of bamboo percussion, and a panoply of spacey sounds from virtual synths Rob Papen's Blue II and Spectrasonics's Omnisphere. Underneath that is the electric piano sound from the Kurzweil 2600.

My mind goes wandering in Chinese gardens Where sacred lotus flowers bloom in vain I'll never see or touch those crisp, white blossoms, Nor thrill to rustling bamboo in the rain.

They say the secrets hidden in thick bushes Can only be revealed to emperors. Not even they can see the garden in its fullness Until their road has ended, life has run the course.

Previous Episode

Bamboo In The Rain: Part One

No one can tell what's hidden in your gardens That only emperors may fathom joyfully. I lie here on an ordinary meadow. My answer here, too close to really see.

My mind goes wandering in Chinese gardens, Where sacred lotus flowers bloom in vain. I'll never see or touch those crisp, white blossoms, Nor thrill to rustling bamboo in the rain. “

from "China Gardens" by Liilia Morrison

Recorded in October of 2017, using arpeggiation from SpectraSonic's virtual synth "Omnisphere" combined with conventional piano and strings from the Kurzweil K2600.

Anyone who knows performing musicians knows that they are not always in their "right" minds, or in their minds at all. Here, obviously, I was floating above it all.