Rays in the Garden is a short, pastoral instrumental, conveying the mood of blissfully roving gentle hills, on ancient tracks, as the summer’s day dawns.
My grandfather’s family on my mother’s side hailed from Cumnor, Oxfordshire. Mostly they seem to have been agricultural workers. Many reaching a good age, but dying on poor relief, or in the workhouse. I’ve found records online going back 300 years to 1720, the year Bonnie Prince Charlie was born. I like to think Rays in the Garden draws on the influence of this genealogy – a halcyon morn spent traversing field, lovers laid in a glade, dilly dallying in the gloaming.
During the recording of Rays in the Garden, The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek passed away, so the title is a nod to him.
The song features just three instruments. Acoustic and electric guitars, and a vintage Lorenzo organ that features heavily on the Waking Up in Eden LP, of which Rays in the Garden is the 11th track.
Though busy with melody there’s still lots of space in the tune.
I have little knowledge or need of music theory, being fundamentally a self-taught, feel player, but I’ll have a go. Andante moderato, the ditty rises, glissando, in the key of E with mixolydian triads and descends, arpeggioed, with tetrachords in A major. I’m happy for anyone to dispute this.
Supporting music is life support:
Buy 24-bit/44.1kHz .WAV of Rays in the Garden for £0.75 on Bandcamp
Written, produced and recorded by The Suns Of Albert in a Seafield flat on a Mac Book Pro (2012), an Mbox 2 Pro A/D, and Adobe Audition CS6.