10,000 steps back to self

Today, my dear friend Sean Corcoran, posted a beautiful film about his work as a Sand Artist at Spittal Festival. He mentioned, should he put music with it (which I'm not sure he should because his voice is melody enough) but I offered to improvise some handpan for him and record it in our old studio tonight. I'm not sure why I offered, perhaps it was the first of many steps back to self on this healing path.

Truth is, it's a little dusty in our studio since I became deaf. But I figured, if I watched the film and played what I felt, we could record it. Jeff, my long suffering partner of 30 years, kindly offered to sound engineer, which these days means, be my ears.

Well, we've mixed the piece and already pinged it over to Sean. I'm not sure if he'll use it, it came out a bit trippy, especially because I could sense the wail of an aging mermaid, sat watching the 10,000 steps that Sean talks of in his piece and I think she was me, calling me back home ... so I put the vocals onto the track. I've said to Sean to edit it how he sees fit. Whatever happens, what a joy to make music again, to collaborate with such a fine artist and to feel myself tentatively climb back into the saddle.

Off course, it's not the first time Sean and I have worked together in this way ... here's a piece we did a few years back ...