colleen

We’ve now reached the end of this series, with a track from my fifth album, featuring melodica. Is melodica a keyboard instrument? Well, technically it’s a wind instrument that does have a tiny keyboard, so I guess it does qualify ;-)

I’ve always loved the melodica (you can listen to my “The melodica song” from my Mort aux Vaches 2005 radio session) and have always found it a shame that it’s so often associated with a kind of “twee” vibe that makes it more akin to a toy than a real instrument. As far as I’m aware, only the late great Augustus Pablo managed to make the instrument truly shine in its own right, and he is the obvious inspiration behind this track, one of the last two that I worked on when making the album (along with “Eclipse”, the other track where the dub influence is the strongest).

I initially had doubts about including the melodica on the album, precisely because I thought I’d get too close to the original Jamaican model (something that was not an issue with the viola da gamba, as it’s so un-Jamaican). But I had this bass line which I absolutely loved and nothing came on the viola, so I thought “Why not try it?”, and it immediately felt so right that the song literally came together in an afternoon.

Its title is inspired by a truly magical place, the island of Salina, part of the Eolie archipelago north of Sicily, where the night sky is just spellbinding: because of the low light pollution and the height of part of the island, you don’t need to look up to see the stars, they are right in front of you as you look out towards the ocean. When I heard the delayed melodica, it immediately reminded me of the immensity of the Salina sky and the feeling of being part of the universe that I felt over there.

Artwork is once again by the *stellar* Iker Spozio ;-) And the album is still available on both CD and vinyl, on my Bandcamp, Thrill Jockey’s website, and many other places.

I truly hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have, I normally never listen to my older music so the trip was more surprising to me than what I would have expected! TOMORROW GET READY FOR THE FIRST VIDEO FROM THE ALBUM! :-)))

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