Songs My Mother Taught Me, No. 108

Songs My Mother Taught Me, No. 108 from 114 Songs - Charles Ives, text by Alfred Heyduk

Piano - Nicole Wakabayashi

Vocals - Lou Roy

Bass - John Snow

Production/Engineering - Casey Barth at Arches Studio and Gardens

Mastering - Tess Greenham

How Long Will I Long

Piano / Synthesizer / Production - Nicole Wakabayashi

Production / Engineering - Casey Barth at Arches Highland Park

Saxophone - Patrick Sargent

Mastering - Tess Greenham

It’s been 2 years to the day since moving to London from New York. In those first months of restarting my life across the ocean, I had time to reexamine the intent, the sources, and the habits of my creative focus—noticing where I had nourished certain aspects of it and where other parts had grown stale.  It was a weird and unfamiliar time of being lost within myself as I grappled with the daunting task of starting over. 

The outline of this improvisation was recorded in October 2024 on my Korg and on a rented upright piano (out-of-tune F# and all). Something about it floating around B minor, the key of quiet melancholy and gentle suffering, felt right. ‘How Long’ became the essence of my own longing for a question to which only I held the answer to.

I think we all are familiar to this deep impatience — continually searching for a feeling or part of ourselves we lost along the way, chasing newness, or longing for the nearness of someone who’s not with us anymore. I hope your longing isn’t for too long.