Can’t read your mind

This song is a lighthearted look at the lighthearted business of passing flings that come and go, unexpectedly and unplanned. Maybe this is something that happens in the LifeCycle of most people, or not. Credit to the great genius of JS Bach and his magnificent music, here his Prelude in D major which provides the backdrop to the song. 

Check out the other songs in the LifeCycle playlist (click on the link up at the top ).

Mother

Written in 2015 during a time of personal upheaval and crisis, this song expresses a perennial and archetypal theme - "the motherless child" -  that may be familiar to some: that sense of feeling bereft, homeless or empty until we find that inner source, call it mother - or father - or home - with or without capital letters. 

The essential task of mothers, as I see it, may be to teach their children how to lovingly mother/ father/ parent themselves. My gratitude goes to my enigmatic mother who lived through her own losses and loves, and who still in her 90s radiates a sense of life and joy. 

The flip-side of mothering is turning it around and becoming a childless-mother. Empty nest is a common occurrence, and identity is or lost when children leave, or die, and a parent can be left an empty shell until there is a healing re-connection with their own inner self. 

JS Bach's Preludes and Fugues are my 'desert island' books of choice; Bach somehow makes every note matter, and each piece feels like a walking meditation. As the theme threads its way through modulations and ups-and-downs, it always finds a deeply satisfying and comforting resolution.

                    

Tshego Makube is an accomplished singer at Rhodes University, currently studying a Masters in music. The music is played and recorded by myself at my home studio. This song is part of the LifeCycle playlist.

Song: I had a dream

This song was written some years back during a time of trauma and loss. I experienced my dreams as vivid signposts at the time and happened to recall and record several of personal significance. In these verses, faint shadows from a handful of dreams are captured, rather like 'air-brushed' stories.

The simple, cyclical musical motif is a theme borrowed from african mbira music; wheeling and weaving around in endless ostinato form, it feels just right as gentle accompaniment to this recurring dreamy world.  I had to introduce the nocturnal bell-ringer, for me the archetypal (hooded) harbinger of change.

                        

As a footnote (excuse the pun, given the first dream recounted), my dreams have shifted and changed tenor as healing has come over the years. Feet are once again found, abundant grace flows in, and there's a simple freedom in just paying attention to the path wherever it is now. 

The artwork is generously supplied by Dan Wylie, eco-poet, author and artist www.netsoka.co.za