BUTTERFLIES
Bass: Christine Lanusse
Late at night and I was noodling unplugged on the couch. I took a short break and started musing on the sensation of nervous excitement, also expressed as "butterflies in the stomach." I sat down again, picked up the guitar and this very simple riff presented itself, it was just an arpeggiating major 7th chord alternating with a central fractal in 3/4 time. I notated the idea and came back to it the next day with fresh ears. I picked up the riff where I left off and after some time I felt like the riff needed to capture the unpredictability of that anxious feeling, so I tested playing it in 5/4 and then 11/8. I had settled on 11/8 time and commenced the search for a B section, however due to technical difficulties with my recording software I abandoned the idea until the next day. In the third exploratory session the riff underwent another transformation. I played the ostinato in several different ways until I decided it worked best in what I conceived as 21/16, grouped as 5+5+5+6.
I found that this time signature and tempo created the right amount of tension and drive to convey the feeling I was searching for. I recorded the riff and then decided to transfer the figure onto piano, which gave it another dimension. I attempted to expand on the idea by experimenting with fractals, later interspersing with spread triads which became the B section. At this point I was content with the two parts but something was missing, this led to the exploration of several ideas. Initially I considered a single note rock riff and then a Latin rhythmic feel using Vitchev’s voicings for the C section, but further practice and experimentation with chord sequences led to a metal inspired section. This provided a dynamic shift and a stark contrast to the rest of the composition, whilst simultaneously serving as the background for a saxophone solo, unfortunately this was not recorded in time, in lieu of a saxopohone solo, a guitar solo was improvised to fill the space.
