photo: recording venue and frisbee park

 

en route Montréal-Terrebonne

There are election posters everywhere here, almost all adorned with smiling photos of the candidates. If they did that in Britain nobody would vote.

I'm a bit tired this morning after last night's recording session finished just after midnight with a wild set of tunes complete with Pierre's stepdancing. I wanted to record the Cape Breton-y stuff at the end of the day when the harpsichord was really out of tune, for an authentic homely kind of party feel, but I think I'd like to listen back to it this morning just to see whether that was rather foolish. 
I'm collecting a fine selection of insect bites on various bits of my person. Ow.

later, Terrebonne

recording venue and frisbee park

Well, this morning I learned how to tune an 1870 Estey Cottage Organ, which I expect will turn out to be a valuable life skill. There were a couple of notes on the borrowed organ that were just too wild to be usable, so David G and I set to the instrument with a screwdriver and the little tool still inside it that you use to pull out the individual reeds, Success! So I could do my prog rock harmonium thing on La Nourrice du Roi after all. For 4 minutes I am Jon Lord.  The cottage organ has two pedals, one for pumping the bellows and one to open the mute, so after the final chorus (complete with Chris on pipes) I let go of both of them for a satisfying multiple clatter and clunk to finish the piece. It sounds like nothing else on earth: I hope producer Anne-Marie picks the best one for the CD.