Ithaca - Commentary
442 words across 5 entries.
Ithaca Ithaca (album commentary) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube (playlist), Spotify, Apple Music
Experimental aircraft, lost civilizations, mythic quests, the Philippines, true love, utter loss, and the transience of life - the many subjects of Ithaca, the first independently released Bowman album. Scattergun in its genre and chaotically retro in its fashion, Ithaca is an eclectic mix of songs both personal and abstract. Bowman once again brings his familiar voice and ever-changing production style along with several friends from the Homestuck music project and elsewhere. Ithaca is calling.
After spending years making music exclusively for Homestuck, I branched out with 2012's Ithaca, my first independently released album. Following up on my album-within-a-web-comic Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, I moved away from my palette of digital synths to focus on a classic rock style. Out come the guitars, the bass, the little toy harp. Shades of Eno, Bowie, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, even a swing tune. It's a freaky affair.
The ideas came from everywhere. There's a song based on something I heard in a dream when I was eight years old, (Old Buggy Now). There's one about an engineer who falls in love with an experimental aircraft (Tacit Blue). There's a carriage ride through a Manila's Chinatown district (Kalesa In Binondo). The title track Ithaca recalls Odysseus, a bowman himself. All of it is peppered with guest contributions from Internet friends.
Old Buggy Now Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music
Michael Guy Bowman: (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt)
this song i heard the chorus of in a dream when i was probably like 7 or 8
so i wrote around it
Ucklin: (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt)
wow, that's really neat!
Was it just the words in the dream, or a melody with it?
Michael Guy Bowman: (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt)
melody and words i remember, and the idea that it was like a big synthpop song. i think maybe i'd just seen "a goofy movie" so powerline is swimming around in my psyche at that age. in this dream i'm watching this guy sing this song, and then i'm literally being lifted in the air by the singer (being a small kid) and the song is being delivered to me. in the morning he's exhausted from singing his heart out and sleeping in the garage. before we get a chance to talk to him he sneaks away in a golf cart. i interpret this as being a meeting between myself as a child and myself as an adult. like a self-fulfilling thing
Noun Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music
Michael Guy Bowman: (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt)
i'm surprised riki saw the potential for a club track in noun but he has always been very sensitive to the remix as a format. i think that's how i relate to him best, he understands the intrigue of how a concept can be developed in alternative directions. you're sort of remixing the work already as you write it anyway, going through revisions. that's why it takes me a while
Ithaca
Track list (1–12)