Hello Humans,
Today I’m releasing Marcelle on Patreon.
This EP is made up of three songs about my grandma’s life and her death: God of Neither, Enough and Roots.
As I've told you all before - she was Greek, Jewish, and a Holocaust survivor, and her personal history is an incredible collection of stories I'll never forget.
As a child she was fierce, kind, playful and strict all at the same time. Some of my earliest memories were of climbing into bed to cuddle with her on cold mornings, and of course - her playing the piano I now have in my home.
She played Chopin, Satie and some children's pieces - I recall that "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" was my favourite 🤣
The sound of the piano is inseparable from memories of being with her. It’s very old, slightly uneven, with creaky pedals - like all the pianos that have a good story to tell.
In the last months of her life, I started recording some of our conversations. I didn’t fully know why at the time, I just felt that I should.
I never wanted to forget the sound of her voice, she had a very distinct accent that couldn't really be placed - even though she redefined herself after the war as a proud British citizen, you could always hear the edge of another accent in there.
Some of those voice recordings now sit inside the EP. You’ll hear her a fragment of her story introduce each song.
These songs are now a musical memory of her life, death and for me - the grieving process. They hold the some of time I spent with her in a way that I can only express through song.
If you listen carefully, you'll hear some beautiful noises from the (126 year old!) piano strings, the breath of the pedals and some reversed vocal reverbs that were sung into the body of the piano.
I hope you enjoy the full EP. Credit to Garry for doing such a brilliant job on the mixing & production. The piano was not easy to tame!
Let me know if this resonates with you, I would love to know if you have any of your own family stories.
Love,
Mishkin