The third curious piece of music to arise from my attempt to create a piece each month is even later than the second. But better late than cliché, eh?

This piece is entitled, ‘January (indifference)’ and the name reveals firstly that I began working on the piece some four months ago, and secondly that, in contrast to my ‘October’ and ‘November’ pieces, its subject matter is unambiguous.

To explain. The music existed for a while without words, but I had a nagging feeling that a spoken addition might really suit its vibe. So I started casting around for something that would fit, and quite quickly came upon a powerful, and continually relevant, 1990s speech by Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. I picked some phrases and dropped them into the piece, and it worked (well, I think it did). If you want to hear the full speech, and I would heartily recommend that, it can be found here. You can also find out more about Elie Wiesel, who was clearly quite something, here. In the meantime, here’s the piece.

For those interested in such muso-geekery, January was created in Pro Tools using parts played on fretted and fretless basses combined with a bunch of programmed MIDI instrument plug-ins from Spitfire Labs, Avid (Strike and Xpand 2) and AIR Music Technology (Loom).

And if you’re wondering, the photo is of a mysterious old pipeline that carries, who know what, across the the salt marsh at Stiffkey on the North Norfolk coast. It’s a place I love and about which, ironically, I am anything but indifferent.