As Powder Falls | Frank Horvat

2012 – for The Frank Horvat Band – 11:01

Music by Frank Horvat
Words by Lisa Horvat

Performances

World Premiere:
January 21, 2014
The Frank Horvat Band
I Can See You CD Release
@ Creatures:Collective Gallery, Toronto Canada

Other Performances:
January 31, 2014 (8am); January 31, 2014 (midnight); February 15, 2014 (3pm); February 15, 2014 (9pm)
The Frank Horvat Band
@ Creatures:Collective Gallery, Toronto Canada

As Powder Falls The Frank Horvat Band - Frank Horvat (keys), Felicity Williams (vocals), Michael Davidson (marimba), Joseph Phillips (bass), Jean Martin (percussion) Buy on iTunes 11:01

Recording

Album: I Can See You
Buy Song: iTunes or CDBaby
Date: March-June 2013
Location: THE FARM, Toronto
Musicians: Frank Horvat (keys), Felicity Williams (vocals), Michael Davidson (marimba), Joseph Phillips (bass), Jean Martin (percussion)
Producer: Frank Horvat and Jean Martin

Programme Notes

I wrote As Powder Falls after I discovered an old notebook which contained angst-filled poetry that my now wife, Lisa, had written as a teenager. The words really jumped out at me as something that would work well in a musical context. This is one of many poems that I used when writing my two band albums, I Can See You and Strange Machine.

This piece is really about my vision of what Lisa’s life was like as a child before her and I ever met. The two main sources being the words of the poem itself along with her various first-hand accounts that she’s shared with me over the years that have stuck in my memory.

The various speaking phrases are symbols of conformity that as children we’re all expected to adhere to. Other phrases like “you’re going to be okay, kid” are in essence me talking to Lisa from the future that soon we would be together. Certain sound effects of everyday life are related to painful memories and episodes within Lisa’s childhood.

Mostly the piece is about feeling isolated and alone as a child and yearning for something more with the dream that fulfillment and happiness will come once one is an adult.

Compositionally, I was intrigued in composing a “pop” piece with a very extended duration with parts gradually layering in and out. In doing this, my goal was to create as reflective and surreal a state as possible.

– Frank Horvat