Parc de la Tête d'Or (II)

LYON-TRAILS-04-Parc de la Tête d'Or (II)

In wandering years, parks were portals.  In Korea, I would tell myself if I could just hike the next ridge line, I would be home.  As if parks were points of teleportation, all connected in the same grand spirit park.  Hampstead Heath in London, Yogogi Park in Tokyo, Lincoln Park in Chicago, Boston Common, Griffith Park, Central Park, even little Marvin Grove in Lawrence, Kansas where my parents would take us on fall Saturdays – all connected. Parc de la Tiete d’Or in Lyon was no different.  On my first visit, I stayed past dark and thought I was losing my mind when I became frightened by the sounds of wild birds and animals.  I didn’t yet know that the park contained a zoo – the Jadin zoolólogic de Lyon – so I wondered if it was somehow a close spirit connection of a park in Africa.  On my many subsequent visits I would stay late to hear the wildlife welcome the darkness and pretend that I had still not solved the mystery of the zoo.

Audrey Herren - Cello
Andra Kulan - Violin / Viola

Recorded spring 2015, Chicago, Illinois / Lawrence, Kansas.
Mixed and Mastered by Matt LaPoint.
Release Date: 22 September 2017.

Image: Heidelburg Castle, Germany (viewfinder card from Morgan family archives).

Fourvière (II)

LYON-TRAILS-03-Fourvière (II)

     Atop Lyon sits La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière  – a 19th century cathedral of white marble and stained glass.  More magical than even views from its terrace that on a clear day reach the Alps beyond Lyon's edges is the tumble of subtle wonders from the basilica down to the Saône.  A long road winds around Parc des Hauters and the Jardin de Rosaire, offering glimpses of city lights through the branches of trees.  Slopes of stone descend to narrow cobblestone streets that flow away from Place St. Jean, spilling out onto Quai Romaine Rolland and its curve along the river.  An ethereal cascade, unfurling sight upon sight from the tallest spire.

Audrey Herren - Cello
Andra Kulan - Violin / Viola
Andrew Morgan - Guitar / Piano

Recorded summer 2012 and spring 2014, Chicago, Illinois / spring 2015, Lawrence, Kansas.
Mixed and Mastered by Matt LaPoint.
Release Date: 22 September 2017.

Image: Place de la Concorde, Paris, France (viewfinder card from Morgan family archives).

Prologue

LYON-TRAILS-02-Prologue

When it was all over, I would walk down 57th Street, cut down Blackstone Avenue to 55th, and make my way to Promontory Point – known simply as “The Point” to Hyde Parkers, and something of a secret spot where the children of university professors were rumored to take LSD, a drug no longer particularly fashionable in the early 2000’s but perhaps of enduring local interest for sharing an acronym with the very Lake Shore Drive that separated the “The Point” from the rest of the neighborhood.  LSD on LSD.  Layers of meaning – a penchant shared with academic parents educated in the 1960s.

I went to “The Point” to look out across Lake Michigan, its vastness so incomprehensible to my Kansas eyes that I would sometimes refer to it as “the ocean” in conversation, eliciting the ridicule of Chicagoans and outing myself as an outsider.  But that was what I loved most of all about the lake – that it could alter perspective, play tricks on the mind, conjure the California coast on an Illinois plain.  And I needed a portal to California, a way to access all that had happened in the preceding eleven months.

Jesse Henkensiefken - Cello
Michalis Koutsoupides - Violin / Viola

Recorded spring 2003, Lawrence, Kansas.
Mixed and Mastered by Matt LaPoint.
Original Release Date: 6 June 2004 (Broken Horse).

Image: unknown (viewfinder card from Morgan family archives).

William's Song

LYON-TRAILS-01-William's Song

1970's kitchen linoleum at sunrise, peering out into the meadow through the screen door, John Coltrane's "Wise One" on repeat.  William came into our lives in the springtime, a sprawling sphinx among smaller creatures, spanning city centers.  Shimmies, scrambles, spontaneous rises into aerial displays of happiness, reminding us that there are galaxies, however vast or infinitesimal.

Alex Doolittle - Drums / Congas
Audrey Herren - Cello (support)
John McMahon - Cello (main)
Andrew Morgan - Guitar / Piano / Harpsichord / Harmonium / Mellotron / Triangle / Feedback
Anne Schneller - Violin
Chris Shaw - Upright Bass
Erin Wood - Harp

Recorded spring and summer 2016, Lawrence, Kansas // Boise, Idaho.
Mixed and Mastered by Matt LaPoint.
Released 22 September 2017.

Image: "Pike's Peak through the Gateway of the Garden of the Gods, Colorado" (viewfinder card from Morgan family archives).

LYON - TRAILS

Coming on the 2017 autumnal equinox: LYON - TRAILS.  

01. William's Song

02. Prologue

03. Fourvière (II)

04. Parc de la Tête d'Or (II)

05. Leaves (III)

06. For a Little While

07. Granville

08. Rising

09. Portent

10. First Light, Stoneback Drive

11. Darkening 

Preview the album here.

Nocturama

Released on the 2017 summer solstice, Nocturama is a split EP featuring two Andrew Morgan pop songs and two LYON instrumentals.  

Listen to opening track "Solarium," which features lyrics by poet Candice Wuehle and has twice been aired on Gideon Coe's BBC Radio 6 Music show.  

For more on LYON, read a write-up by Tired Sounds on the instrumental music project's debut.

Listening: Art Farmer - To Sweden With Love (1964).

Solarium on BBC Radio 6 Music

"Solarium," the opening track from the Andrew Morgan // LYON summer solstice split EP Nocturama was played by Gideon Coe on his BBC Radio 6 Music show on Thursday June 22 and Tuesday July 18.  Listen to the song -- music by Andrew & lyrics by poet Candice Wuehle -- here.