I Remember Tomorrow, A Prologue

Im not sure where to begin, so why not start with the ideas themselves. I fear I can’t NOT ramble about this project.

I made an album of original music over the course of a few years time; its working title was “Transient Transit: A Love Story” but it felt a little punny so I shifted the name to “I Remember Tomorrow” which is in line with its theme. I first thought I would release this back in 2017? That sounds about right. Any time I would get close I thought to myself, “not yet John, there is still more that can be done… maybe”.

The music itself is minimal, built from fleeting moments of inspiration and contain mostly first take recordings made after toying with one synth or another while sitting in a car, or staying a few minutes too late at home before leaving for work. The music really took shape when I started to experiment with coupling music I was working on with old field recordings.

For as long as I can remember I have been recording soundscapes of places I travel to, while walking, while sitting at train stations, while in a mall or under a bridge, places I would photograph or simply admire for their tone and audible depth.

I remember, wow has it been this long, maybe 15 or so years ago wanting to start a podcast of nothing but field recordings and seek out people from around the world to help build a collection of sound for others to explore. A feed of recordings to discover somewhere new, largely in our imagination and discover similarities and differences in our lives from afar. Could have been fun right? (*Folds up that note and places it in back pocket).

Then there is the music. I have been noodling with electronic music for nearly half of my life at this point. I will admit it’s partially because I never managed to learn to play a proper instrument. I was always drawn to its infinite scope. There are no rules to define what it can be or what it sets out to accomplish. Exploring sound, texture, rhythm, and experimenting with how these things can connect us to an emotional space outside of traditional means has always interested and inspired me.

One idea that I have long gravitated toward is creating music to pair with my field recordings. Ideally in a way that the music becomes part of the landscape of that recording or perhaps amplifies the memory of them in some way. I have long ruminated on ways to do this and never had the time or maybe the skill to dedicate to the idea fully.

Once I started to build this album I realized that it was telling the story of an important part of my life so I started to play the album as it was at the time with an empty page in front of me and write. Memories poured out as I heard these sounds and the days in which they were recorded came back to me as I wrote. The result is a short story of sorts about love, the beauty of bright moments, and the way memory rearranges our own interpretation of time.

The whole project has been more or less finished for well over two years now yet I have been tripping over my own feet trying to find the right time to release it, probably as an excuse NOT to. It gives me nothing but anxiety to even think about sharing it for whatever reason. It feels like it’s mine as it is and I kind of like that, but sharing it feels inevitable. It was tailored more or less specifically for me so releasing it out into the world feels kind of weird.

I can’t count how many times I have put this album on and listened to it in its entirety as a means of personal escape. It’s naturally ambient in nature so it suits moments of reflection and work. I have listened through in quiet spaces on headphones as well as isolated on a nice set of speakers and it always manages to help bring me a little bit of solace.

Now, onto the physical release. I have notes from years back on design ideas and mock ups. Most of what I ended up with fell into place a couple years back during those surreal weeks at home with family as the world tried to figure out how to live with this new viral threat.

As soon as the story started to take shape I knew that I would be making a zine to pair with the album full of photos and the writing. At first it was just the zine and a digital file but eventually that turned into lathe cuts and cassette tapes as well.

After prototyping the physical booklet at home, I discovered that I could save a significant amount of what would have been a bigger investment than I could justify for a personal project by more or less ordering all the pieces for its release then assembling it at home (Collated printing for the win). I also bought custom length blank cassettes and blank o-ring covers for them thinking, “oh I’ll just dub these myself!” Somehow forgetting that I would be dubbing them in real time, one by one. Not to mention the design of the sleeves which thanks to YoungDoo and her brilliance we found a unique and beautiful solution for but maybe more on that later.

OK, OK, OK. I did warn you I would ramble. This whole thing has just been such a long time coming.

The whole project is sitting here next to me, zines are printed and bound, they just need folding and trimming. The cassette tapes are half way finished, still have a number of them to copy. The covers for them are done. The lathe cut 7” vinyls containing two of the tracks are ready to roll with clear sleeves and accompanying double sided print. The digital copy is already uploaded, PDF version of the zine ready. Heck, I even released a “teaser” music video for one of the tracks! Remember that? kind of feels like I should just get these things out into the world right? Right.

I will either put these up for order here on my site or maybe just on bandcamp though they take a much bigger cut than Gumroad does. I may or may not look into publishing on streaming platforms but it feels rather silly do bother. I’d rather just make the digital version available at a low cost. What do you think? Either way, I am publishing this now as a way to break the ice, move on, and get these things ready to ship out the door. Finally.