Clay Chords of Throwing

Liner Notes and Listening Room

Well, it seems a bit odd to write or recompile liner notes for each track as they already exist on this site in the original appearance of each track. So maybe this is a good place to really deal with what this project was. As you have gathered if you have read through the other material - I used to write songs, when I was young. At that time, I was rather unbounded by troubles and responsibilities. Of course, I had the basic ones which involve care for the self, working for my rent and food. But I mean aside from that.

I am not someone who looks back on the changes with regret, but I did end up giving up music for a good while after I got married and accepted the role of being a step-parent (and eventually a parent). I gave up other things too - all in the honor of embracing what responsibility is and was - and to try to treat it with the respect it deserves. I think, oddly, this applies doubly in the service of being a step-parent in which my wife to be would entrust to me the care of her son.

Time passes, though, without our control. As I was writing the Anthology's baseline (yes, there will be more), I found within me an understanding that my step-son is now several years removed from living here, and my son is almost the man he will be. He is 14. There are no more bottles after midnight. No more plug protectors. There isn't the need for monitoring or guidence in the same way that I have grown accustomed to providing for the past 20 years. In that realization, the "me" that was paused has decided to awaken. I think that version of me enjoyed the rest, even.

Now I find my responsibilities far more limited in scope. I seek to do good work when working. I accept a fair compensation for that. I use that to pay bills for the family. And I know the last 4 years with my son will have it's moments - but from my own experience at that age, and with my step-son... the needs are held until they are dire. I can imagine smooth sailing for months and then a sudden need for a while.

That seems to me to be a prime time to become engaged again to my first love - music. And so this concept was built. My unfamiliarity with the home recording world made me feel new again, and of course the callouses and skills learned were long gone. The idea of this practice was, well, to practice.

I can honestly say I am happy with this compilation, or album, built from this process. Like an exhibition, you will see the works are now presented with names. This was a bit of a holy practice. Naming songs is a bit like naming children. And like naming children, some of them seem obvious, and some of them seem difficult to pin down. I am sure you have met someone who suits their name perfectly, and also met the opposite. It's like that.

The other part of this was finding the order of the songs - the layout for the exhibition space. There were many possibilities. If you are in a seed mode (ahem, Pinecone) - it's worth noting there are 20 trillion or so ways to arrange the tracks, and I didn't go through all those (like I didn't go through all the SEEDs for the Anthology). Here, though, I didn't just let them fall. I did build them with some intent for both emotional and tonal flow.

That's a lot of words to say I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Update (02/07/2026): Please download this zip file if you would like to have Upon The Studio Floor. This is an mp3 compilation of various work-in-progess versions of tracks that were ultimately a part of this project. It also includes a couple songs that were from before, but not all the way before, rather just before. When the faucet trickled for a moment. This is "officially" the 5th Athanari release.