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The Haunting of October Dreams

by Lisa Bella Donna

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about

This album was composed & conceived in the late September & early October of 2011.
Right after the arrival of my beautiful daughter I was filled with such inspiration I began to compose the many arrangements that would take shape within these compositions. Often times at all hours while just watching her sleep, or seeing her discovery of a new life, and witnessing the changing colors autumn all around us...

A few years before...
I was visiting the gravesite and area where my mother grew up and now resides. Making my way through many winding passages and old, grown over dirt roads and buildings.
In an old, abandoned country church in the woods of West Virginia I discovered about a half dozen early 20th century acetates. Big, thick Edison like discs. They had grooved "tracks" on each side, but not every cut had music or sound. A few of the cuts had some very faint recordings of what seemed to be country church chorus. Barely audible, but the sounds whistled and whispered through the grooves of my Mid-century diamond stylus record player. The other very interesting element to these discs was the surface noise coming from the silent tracks on each side. It was almost like a sort of code, some order or incantation, a very ghostly yet beautifully mesmerizing sonic tapestry. it was as they evoked voices themselves. it was a beautiful and rare discovery for me.

I then decided to compose a piece of music for each "track" on each of the discs. Every track varied in length drastically. So my piece of music for each cut would fit within each of those bookends of limitation.
I transferred each acetate to multi-track magnetic tape and began the recording of this record. Many of the arrangements I had been penning and contemplating ended up fitting almost perfectly within each chosen track. As if someone had been channeling through me. Like I had become a vessel of a person from those deep woods from where I discovered these acetates. it was one of my favorite recordings to produce.

Many of the Mellotrons and acoustic sounds on this recording were captured by routing the original signal through a wall of old stereos and speakers. picking and choosing the speaker that sounded best for the instrument. I would also mix between several different reel to reel tape recorders to animate these sounds even further. Often times using contrasts of brand new tape stock and extremely old & weathered as well. I wanted to try to realize the sounds from early 20th century backwoods America. It made for a very special transfiguration of these compositions for me.

Over the last 6 years and a few moves of my studio, I LOST the master tapes of this record. I don't know how. I really wanted to share this again. Everywhere I looked in my tape vault and retired hard drives I came up with nothing. I have now recently relocated to a extremely beautiful national forest in Southeast Ohio. Here I have re-installed my recording studio and couldn't be happier or more inspired. While unpacking my tape library here, I FOUND THE MASTER TAPES and 2 track mixes in a box I had somehow misplaced with other keepsakes over the last few years. So, I am very grateful to have them again and to hear this recording again. Especially during this beautiful and inspiring time of year for this Libra.

For those of you who've requested the re-issue of this record, Thank you for your patience. For those who've not yet heard this analog portrait, I hope it inspires in some way. If you made it this far... Thank you for your interest & support.

In Love & Music,
Lisa Bella Donna

- October 2018

Dedicated to Joni Maribronn & Tristan Whitney Weary

credits

released October 11, 2018

Nicole Sherburne: Saxophones & Flutes
Lisa Bella Donna: Mellotron Orchestrations
ARP & Moog Synthesizers, Farfisa Organ, Acoustic & Electric Instruments.
Percussion, Tapes & Vintage Electronic extrapolations.

Recording & Mixing all analog 16,8,4,2 track tape recorders.

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Lisa Bella Donna

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

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