In his downtime from All Tvvins, Lar Kaye undertook an ambitious creative process: to record a piece of music every day throughout the year of 2018, in order to document the year in sound.
Regardless of where he was physically, on tour, at home or elsewhere, he made time in his day to take a record of his musical creativity. There were no rules and no restrictions on instrumentation and on the resulting recordings, all heard in short bursts, loops or bits via larkaye.com, there is guitars, synths, piano, field recordings and effects. The total collection of music has an 8 hour 47 minute duration.
Click 2018 on the website to access all the audio.
Three Hundred and sixty five days – a year of life – my life and one I wanted to somehow capture. I wanted to connect back with music and understand where it has led me. The idea of recording a loop/ piece of music everyday happened, capturing the air, time and location of each day. A document for existing, proof of life and a process of understanding myself to some degree. No pressure for it to please anything or anyone else, no release date, no expectation, no judgement, no genre, no producer, no campaign, no other voice, just my output and a trust and wonder in myself to see if I could create in everyday life.
To complement the collection of audio, Kaye created a collection of photography to represent the music. Kaye intends for the music to be made freely available (all downloadable) for other people to use in their projects and you can contact him on Instagram with creations.
Here’s Lar’s full artist statement:
Three Hundred and sixty five days – a year of life – my life and one I wanted to somehow capture. I wanted to connect back with music and understand where it has led me. The idea of recording a loop/ piece of music everyday happened, capturing the air, time and location of each day. A document for existing, proof of life and a process of understanding myself to some degree. No pressure for it to please anything or anyone else, no release date, no expectation, no judgement, no genre, no producer, no campaign, no other voice, just my output and a trust and wonder in myself to see if I could create in everyday life.
I wanted to capture as much of that year as possible. The artwork for each month is compiled from images I shot on my phone each day. As the project continued finding new sounds /instruments, became more important involving the people that surrounded me each day, capturing conversations and atmosphere. Recording voice memos on my phone became a large part of it, the sound of a busy street, people in transport, a live gig, friends, other people in moments of creation, the sound of the world passing by. It felt right that some of the pieces had a connection with everyone rather than myself. Capturing the noise of people’s lives in a moment, knowing that few seconds of sound would be documented forever, made it more of a purpose rather than just playing guitar loops alone and isolated. Naming the time, place and what was used would remind me of each day and felt more personal rather than loops with numbers written beside them. Memory was a motivation, how we remember and filter our own past, what gets distorted and what remains true. I wondered if this document of audio could help me connect back differently in years to come, would I be able to hear myself in it, feel each day, could it contain more visual and truthful reactions.
This isn’t me trying to record and write sellable library music, it is a honest representation of each day. So much of it is recorded with cheap equipment, my phone, built-in laptop microphones. I can hear days of struggle, not inspired, busy working on other musical projects and barely able to make something happen at the end of the day. I can hear days of pure joy and excitement and bliss of creation, the ups and downs and battles we all face each day (but that is my own filter and possibly certain days could be more appealing to others… part of that is the appeal to me, documenting the flaws seems right and something we all can relate to). So many days of my life are spent working long isolated hours on ideas and tracks, a lot of this can lead to dead ends or not see the light of day. Mentally, it can be exhausting to try and keep faith in the process, pressure of wondering – are you wasting time – and throwing away days is always present. But like most musicians and people I know, it’s not an option to not create, we will find any way possible to make it happen even at the cost of our own health. This project would give me the comfort in knowing that something had been achieved each day -proof of being alive and making an attempt to soundtrack the daily workspace.
I’ve been lucky enough to play and record music most of my life. I’ve gotten to travel and meet incredible people through it. It’s something that has always been a comfort and a support since I can remember. Growing up and surrounding myself in the culture has made me. I also know the power it can take on a human. Like any job or art it can be a struggle, mentally and physically. Seeing how much people sacrifice of themselves to create, it’s something I’ve struggled with personally, wondering if I’m lying to myself – am I good enough – self-doubt, self-loathing, fear and anxiety. Creating something and putting it out to the world to be judged, trying to survive and live off it, touring schedules with no income, massive pressure to deliver consistently and keep everyone happy (while presenting a daily image of how well everything is doing), it’s an industry that can break a person. I’ve seen and felt its power.
This project felt like the right way of understanding my love of music from an early age. It was joyful, exciting and personal remembering the fun of creating for myself and not trying to figure out if everything was a single or sellable or take away from that moment in time. I can’t expect people to listen to this from start to finish, but I know I wanted to put it out for so many reasons: to document a year of life, to not be scared of sharing the final result, to see if others wanted to use this as a collaboration, for people to resample and use in whatever way they feel, to help start a musical idea, to soundtrack a video/film, to use with any form of art they want, to see what days connect, to try something different and to challenge myself in a different musical format, to share the experience and hope anyone can relate to it musically or emotionally. It feels like the right time to do this. Throughout the project I didn’t really know what I was going to do when it came to an end, maybe just keep it unreleased and know I achieved the goal, but as it came to a close I felt there were moments worth sharing and it didn’t feel right to have it sitting on a computer drive somewhere. It’s the most honest thing I could ever share. In an age where we are all sharing so much, this feels right. In any form of creation, no one has the power to say if it is good or not, has value or is right or wrong, no one can take away the act of it. So much value gets put on a like or a figure beside it. This project was an escape from the world. We all have two dates marked in our lives. Numbers and figures are all irrelevant to some degree. If what you create or say doesn’t receive mass approval and praise, does that devalue its importance or worth? This is one year sound tracked forever for all its highs and lows. I hope this makes sense in some way and can help someone through a day or moment in some small way.
My endless thanks to anyone that was involved in this project x
Massive thanks to Marcin Ciszczon for helping me master all the audio
Massive thanks to Chris Bubenzer for helping me put all the artwork together
Massive thanks to Faction Records for thinking differently about a release planHere is eight hours-forty seven minutes and seventeen seconds of life
All My love
Lar Kaye
This project is dedicated to the memory of Eddie McCreith
A hero who helped me along this journey, may he rest in Peace .x
