Chorus of Echoes

February 2011 – Frozen Taco has released it’s 18th album, “Chorus of Echoes”.  This long overdue collection is FT’s shortest ever.  With six songs on the album, the total running time clocks in at just over fifteen minutes.

“Chorus of Echoes” is a simple and consistent album.  The songs only contain acoustic guitar and voice.  Each song is minimal in it’s expression of the idea presented.  There are no long, drawn-out sections; each note and each word has a specific purpose, the absence of which would be noticed.

This album was developed slowly, starting around 2006, when the main idea of “A Small Life” was first developed.  Each time we got together, we worked a little more on the existing songs and maybe even began developing a new one.  Finally, in 2009, we began recording the songs, but it wasn’t until Christmas of 2010 when we set a goal to complete the album.

You can listen to the entire album here:

Or, you can listen to each song individually while you read some background information on each song:

A Small Life

The first song on the “Chorus of Echoes” album is called “A Small Life”.  This song follows closely in the footsteps of Relic‘s “Living in the Now”, which is, in many ways, an inspiration for the new album.  The guitar follows the same style by placing the chords in the higher notes and the melody in the bass.

“A Small Life” is about the passing of a sweet Scottish Terrier named Jackie. She was the first pet for whom Matthew was responsible as an adult. He adopted her at age six, and there was always an innate sadness in her eyes.

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Don’t Let it End

The second song on the new album is “Don’t Let it End”.  This song features the oldest, at at least fifteen years, melodic idea on the album.  Matthew re-discovered this idea in an old tape that Theron had sent him years before and decided it would work nicely for the song.

Matthew wrote the lyrics for “Don’t Let it End” after a visit to Chicago, little knowing he would be moving there a year later. In fact, Navy Pier is visible from the window of his apartment. The song was originally written about aging, but has multiple meanings now.

This was the first song recorded on the album – in the summer of 2009, in Chicago overlooking Navy Pier.

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Elegant Fiction

Starting with the third song, “Elegant Fiction”, the remaining songs on the album were created in old-school FT style – Matthew presented the lyrics to Theron and the duo then immediately worked through several ideas before settling on the direction of the song. “Elegant Fiction” is similar to Relic’s “The Hawk’s Well”. The songs are in the same key and both the chorus and the verse follow similar patterns. “Elegant Fiction” is more upbeat and is likewise a simpler song. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that each verse features slightly different chord progressions.

The first half of the “Elegant Fiction” lyrics were written three years ago; the second half, just before the final recording. Like “Don’t Let it End,” the song originally had one meaning, and it was a challenge to stay true to the original intention of the lyrics. It’s an observation of the lives we live in cyberspace.

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Change is my Guest

The fourth offering on the new album is called “Change if my Guest” and is, surprisingly, the first guitar finger-picking song.  This song took longer than the other songs to create in one sitting.  It’s also the only song on the album that’s in a minor key.  Following the nature of the lyrics, each verse and chorus introduces more change from the last, with the culmination in the completely shuffled final verse.

Matthew didn’t write the lyrics to “Change is My Guest” with the intention of ever singing them. It was just a poem in a notebook.

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Nothing to See

The fifth song on the new album is called “Nothing to See” and is one of the shortest FT songs of all time. “Nothing to See” was created very quickly, in just a couple of hours. Though it was ultimately inspired from a song by Ralph Vaughn Williams’ song cycle “On Wenlock Edge” titled, “From Far, From Eve And Morning”, it bears no resemblance it. It’s raw and unpolished. The final recording was made back in the summer of 2009 along with “Don’t Let it End”, and has since topped Matthew’s “Top 25 Most Played” list on iPod for months.

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The Walk

The sixth and final song on the “Chorus of Echoes” album is called “The Walk”. It was first created during Christmas vaction 2008 although the middle section wasn’t finalized until the summer of 2009. The final recording was made during Christmas 2010. The song also roughly follows roughly in the style of “Living in the Now” and “A Small Life” and features a simple structure of two verses, a middle instrumental section, and two final verses.  Like “A Small Life”, it’s another somber song that’s written in a major key.  The verse features a section of two measures of 3/4, giving a sense of urgency to the lyrics.

“The Walk” features the most personal lyrics that Matthew has ever written. He sang this song almost daily for three years before recording it.

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Downloads

All songs in this collection are, of course, free for download and listening.

We’ve even got some sheet music available for download.  Enjoy!

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