Suite: Culotte

Written and Recorded in 1994

'Culotte' was the name of a band, where I played the guitar / keyboard and wrote many compositions for between 1992 and 1995. During the heyday of the band, after we decided to play as a trio in the end of 1993 until the drummer's departure from the band due to his illness in mid 1995, I really enjoyed indulging into playing and sharing music by three of us, Despite the fact that being a member of Culotte didn't earn any money at all, I took that part of my life more important than my real life, which was filled with uncomfortable work career, low wages and stressful relationship with then my girl friend. While I was playing in Culotte, I could escape from concerns rooted in my real life and we didn't only get on with while playing music but also a good team of drinking buddies. In other words, being a member of Culotte allowed me to live in a fantasy life.

Though this long instrumental tune was a collection of ideas and parts being put together in not a fully thought-out manner, when the demo recording was completed, I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate this suite of music, not to Culotte in the real life but to Culotte in my fantasy world.

The suite consists of following parts:

Part One (0:00 - 1:09): Inro played by the programmed synthesizer. The making of the programme, especially its stereo panning effect with the organ tone, was heavily influenced by Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air. Needless to say, the idea for introducing such piece into basically a Rock tune owed to Pete Townshend's Who's Next album as well.

Part Two(1:09 - 4:40): A reconstruction of typical one chord jam Culotte usually played. I gave a room for bass solo in the beginning though in this demo version, it was also played by myself. This part is specially written to be played by Culotte, a three piece band, until the second guitar joins the ensemble for closing this part.

Part Three (4:41 - 8:38): Mainly written for the solo guitar with stereo punning effect, similar as Part One, set by a digital delay pedal. While I was writing this tune, I often stayed at my girl friend's place, where I could listen to her collection of Queen albums. If my memory serves well, I heard similar guitar solo material by Brian May in one of their albums from relatively early years. Either bass guitar and/or organ bass join(s) the ensemble after 7:00ish in the video counter to give a clearer flow of the chord progression there.

Part Four (8:38 - 9:27): A brief bridging section consists of a couple of key themes. The digital delay effect of the guitar still provides the rhythm whilst organ and bass join in the second half for taking over the role for forming the harmony.

Part Five (9:27 - 11:09): The drums come back, substituted by the rhythm machine here, and the ensemble goes back to a three piece band, featuring me on the organ. Soon a couple of guitar parts join one after another to complete the ideal form of my band Culotte, only available at recorded materials.

Part Six (11:10 - 14:37): My personal indulgence into Psychedelic Rock, especially inspired from Calvary by Quicksilver Messenger Service. Despite I didn't have no reason to rush for making this demo recording, obviously I have omitted taking time for having the rhythm machine section programmed, which is played manually. Listening back to this part still makes me feel a bit sad for it reminds me of an unfortunate girl within my business circle back then.

Part Seven (14:37 - 16:15): Technically written for a three piece band to play; one keyboard and two guitars. This part is a reprise of themes already played in previous parts reconstructed in a different arrangement, where I am saying goodbye to the rest of the band and am back to fly solo.

Part Eight (16:15 - 17:44): The suite returns back to where it came from - the programmed organ with stereo panning effect. It starts with a solo, whose programmes is based on what I manually played. After that, there's no longer human elements but digital music loyally reconstruct what I have programmed into the sequencer. Thus, my tribute to my own band ends in professional but a bit inhumane way.