process - summertime

Gershwin's 'Summertime' is probably one of my all-time favourite songs. When arranging recordings for this project, I realized that this piece of music would fit perfectly to capture my experiences this past summer. 

The 'Summertime' duet featured in this project is a little improv performance my friend and I played at the beginning of summer (I played the piano and my friend sang). The opening vocals ascend into a stretched space, acting as a flat wash for the events of Summer 2021 to hold place. In that expanse, we enter the hiking trails I visited daily at home-- alone and with friends. We joke and laugh; one friend mentions how these moments feel like they come straight from a movie, a carefree environment unrestricted by time. 

Not long after, we hear clinking, a nod to my detachment from my friends just at the beginning of July. From then on. "the cotton grows high" and obscures most of the summer. A jarring drop cues the coming confusion and numbness. Smoke, fog and hail sounds cloud the landscape. Perhaps my little sister's words serve as some kind of hope, but we still aren't sure.

There isn't time to ponder these thoughts. as time moves on. The confusing summer ends almost abruptly and we're left to "hush, [...] don't [...] cry" and move on.