On Behind Bars, I went for a pretty minimalistic approach.
The scarce instrumentation can sometimes make a song harder to manage, since every nuance of the instruments (and voice) is so exposed. Another thing is that the limited dynamics of an acoustic guitar, often crashes with my "unlimited dynamic" approach (in my composing). But this is a constant battle deliberately taken in my music, and something that I find interesting
All songs are challenging to the point of maddening, anyways. Actually «Behind Bars» went pretty well. It only took 7 months to finish, which is very fast indeed.
In the middle section, there is a vocal improvisation, where I'm (ever so slightly) referring to; two other songs I've composed earlier. One of them will be a part of this project, so watch this space (but not before 2017 ;)
As usual, I tried several acoustic guitars, rooms and occasions. Also several tempos (the tempo is seldom fixed to a beat) it floats from sequence to sequence. Which I put quite some time and effort into getting right. I also tried several key signatures.
The artwork is a painting by the brilliant artist Tom Kosmo. He’s currently having an exhibition at Gallery Langegården, here in Bergen. I highly recommend it.