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Pilgrimage

by Lisa Bella Donna

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about

Lisa Bella Donna:
Moog Modular Synthesizers & Sequencers, ARP 2600, ARP Omni, Yamaha Organ, Minimoog, Mellotron, ARP String Ensemble.
Moog Tympani, Gongs, Chimes, & Bells..

Joni Mariabronn:
ARP String Ensemble

Written, recorded & mixed Summer 2020 at Appalachian Recording
Produced & conceived by Lisa Bella Donna with Joni Mariabronn
Mastered by Harold LaRue at haroldlaruemastering.com
Photography by Tristan Whitney Weary www.tristanwhitneyweary.com

Special Thanks to all at Moog Music Inc.
www.moogmusic.com

In loving memory of Kelly Perdue Weary 

credits

released July 31, 2020

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Further reading for those of interest..
Memoirs and impressions on the recording of "Pilgrimage"

"This recording is an electronic portrait of Summer at home with my daughter Joni. As we all have to adjust to living life beneath the confines of a global pandemic, My family has taken full advantage of living in the countryside. Which this year, has seemed to flourish with more blooms, growth, fragrance, birds, and wildlife more than any other year. 

This has been the most time I've had the privilege and pleasure to spend with my daughter than when she was first born. Feeling the turbulence of or world and times, we have all tried to immerse and make the very best of these times.
In doing so, we have set forth on many deep woods adventures. Exploring different areas of the forests, caves, rivers, and streams, of where we live. We find and purchase as many books as possible and read them together every evening. As well as immersing in films and documentaries like National Geographic and BBC Earth. Every morning after breakfast we write reflections and stories of the many books and films we have been experiencing and enjoying. 

Tristan, Joni, and I have enjoyed many long drives through the country to find secret waterfalls and streams to cool off in. Or peaceful backroads and farmlands to bicycle through together. As Tristan finds locations for his talented photography skills, Joni and I are always creating conceptions, scenarios, and games where we are different kinds of animals that we've read or watched films about. In the late evenings we will sit at the fireside outside our cottage and reflect on the days travels, explorations, and discoveries. 
So, when the time came to start recording another album I asked Joni if she'd like to help me with the compositions and conception of the recorded works. She agreed. We developed a daily, fun routine to help carve out the pieces you will hear on this album. This routine consisted of Joni creating these storyboards. Some simple and some very elaborate and specific. She would bring them to the recording studio and then I would start working on musical themes and programming sounds that would hopefully project Joni's wonderfully creative stories and illustrations.

After a few hours, Joni would return to listen and provide invaluable feedback and further creative direction. Once I'd get rolling in the right direction. I'd make us lunch and then we would return to the studio. She would stay with me during the recording process of many of the musical passages, sitting on my lap while I would record lines on the Mini Moog or ARP 2600. Offering creative direction and excitement when the orchestrations began to really correlate with her imaginative storyboards. During playbacks, she would often walk me through the beautiful scenes to the movie or novel in her mind's eye. Meanwhile, I would continue to make subtle changes and calibrations to the final recording and mixing. 

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A few personal impressions...
What a wonderful process it was making this record with my 8 yo daughter! It happened very naturally and comfortably. So much fun was had while realizing these compositions. I've always only offered music to Joni as something available to her. Nothing more or less. No forced piano lessons or any of that. She is already, very naturally a visual and conceptual artist. Since she was little, she would always sing while she would draw or paint or make crafts. I could always hear that she had very clear intonation. Sometimes she would make up her own language while really in the flow. 

Over the past New Years, we were baking in the kitchen together and she discovered my old Panasonic portable cassette recorder. The moment that she recorded a bit of her voice and heard it back she immediately wanted to "record some songs''. I grabbed my nylon string guitar and within minutes we were making up songs together. I would ask her "What would you like to sing about?" and she would come up with a concept, I'd find a key and a basic rhythm, and off we'd go. Free flow! She was making up amazing lyrics and melodies right on the spot. Before we knew it, we had filled up a 30 minute side of a cassette with her songs about a number of subjects. It was amazing to watch her just burst open with creative flow and freedom. Of course, this was a very special experience for me as her parent. I just want her to know that music is there for her. That is all. It's all part of a greater stream.
 
Since living out here, she has become much more in tune with sounds of our surroundings and sound in general. I hear her making more of her own sounds when we are playing or when she is outside exploring on her own. She also has become more interested in the electronic music I am making and curious about the process. She loves melody and sonic color. During the making of this record, she commented while listening: "You know, your music is very mythical and spacey, I like that, but I like when you include more melodies and of course more animal sounds". This is my 8 yo talking, I guess I better brush up! lol :)

I did include her in the process of creating the many bird sounds that are in the beginning of this album. We would take morning and evening walks, record certain bird sounds on my iPhone and then go back to the studio and I would try to carve them out the best I can on the ARP 2600 and Minimoog. Lots and Lots of Minimoog on this record. Joni also played much of the ARP String Ensemble on this record. 
In this season of my life, everything I do is in dedication to raising my child to the best of my abilities. There is no real written word. Only our own clarity and intuition. Our own self-work and perseverance of healing and balance in ourselves allows us the chance to reveal the best to the gardens of our child's growth and continuum. For soon they will all go their own way and it will no longer be our duty or within their safety to stand between them and the opening gates of the world we are leaving behind for them to flourish and weather the voyages they will experience.

As we witness a great unraveling of polarities throughout our changing world, we are now all Children of a New Age. On the threshold of a new dawn in this time. Mother Earth reminds us that we are merely passengers in time within the presence, power, and beauty of her image. Her circulation, credence, and nomenclature. If untouched by man, what trees, mountains, waters, and wildwoods we've come to know in this life will remain everlasting long after our modulations here have concluded. 

As the seasons of winter and wither approaches, I secretly wrangle in the wonders and worries of my own fears myopic with this time. If the shades of circumstance that my health and time with my precious daughter proves to be shorter than expected, I wanted to embrace and resonate in this summer with all of the love and light that is within me. To create a thread, a love-light, an eternal laughter, a moment, a memory, a story, and the melody of a song that lingers on... 

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Joni has evoked in me - my own efflorescence. From the moment she entered this world to each passing year, Her presence continues to bloom and blossom in my life and spirit. Far beyond my wildest dreams and aspirations. Hopefully, this recording will be the beginning of many chapters of creativity, celebration, and discovery that we playfully share together. What a difference she's made in my life. What a beautiful miracle it is to witness and experience life through the eyes of a child. Each and Every day. There is no greater truth than the sunlight and resonance through the clarification of your own child.
Such a revealing and everlasting pilgrimageIt has been and continues to be... Through the unfolding seasons of our eternal gardens...On to the Great Stream deep in the Wilderness of the Heart... 

It is with great appreciation and gratitude I dedicate this record to my lovely and wonderful daughter, Miss Joni Mariabronn. I love you."
 
Love to All ❤️
Thanks to each of you who have so kindly supported this music!
I truly appreciate you!
- Lisa Bella Donna / Summer 2O2O         Appalachian Mountains / USA 

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Lisa Bella Donna

Lisa Bella Donna is an internationally acclaimed composer, recording artist, modular synthesist & clinician.

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