Bog Songs I, by Nicholas Saia

Bog Songs I

by Nicholas Saia

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briankeena Nick continues to push the boundaries of his instrument and amaze me. Favorite track: Improvisation III - Bells and Scraping.

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	1.	Places of Origin 03:41
	2.	Improvisation I - Swamp Romp 03:18
	3.	Not Quite a Bullfrog 02:52
	4.	Improvisation II - Unintentionally Dedicated To Blind Willie Johnson 03:47
	5.	Improvisation III - Bells and Scraping 03:11
	6.	Arrival (Live at Spectrum NYC 2018) 04:29
	7.	Tessier 04:41
	8.	Improvisation IV - Short Daydream 00:39
	9.	Temporary Waltz 04:07
	10.	Improvisation V 01:12

about

This is a collection of songs and song-like improvisations that I’ve been working on in some way, shape, or form for about three years now. In most of my ensemble writing, I strive to create a precipitous energy - I like things that are frenetic and defined mostly by movement. Layers tip over onto each other and create new washes of sound that collide and trigger parallel pathways that drive forward with reckless abandon.

These solo works are much slower and smaller and while there is certainly frenetic energy on display at times, I wanted this to be more prescient and more careful. In the past two years I spent a lot of time in a large bog behind my parents’ home in the Hudson Valley. I also spent a significant portion of my childhood there - running around, hopping between small tussocks and climbing the trees that grew straight out of the still water. I used to have dreams that the bog was two or three times as deep as it really was and extended infinitely. In these dreams I was always paddling a canoe slowly and ducking under low hanging branches, occasionally feeling a leaf or a soft spiderweb brush against my ear. Late last summer the bog flooded and looked quite like my recurring dream. Not deep enough for a canoe, but all the old trails disappeared and after a certain point, I was the only person who wanted to go back there since getting anywhere meant being waist deep in icy water. It felt like a new world that I had to myself that could radically change or disappear entirely at any moment.

The word bog itself has a beautiful, convoluted and ancient etymology - from the Sanskrit “bhujati”, meaning “to bend,” to the East Germanic “boga” or “biugan,” meaning to bow or flex. In Old English there are several more related sounds bearing meanings of curving, flexing, submitting or arching. I don’t quite know what to do with all that information but I think those notions layer well on top of the ever-shifting watery landscape behind my parents’ home. As I watch the thin trees sway over the deep muskeg and morass from which they emerge it seems fitting.

All this is to say, these sounds are dedicated to this very beautiful and weird place that I love very much and I hope you enjoy them.

credits

released May 20, 2020

All tracks written and performed by Nick Saia

Mastering by Edwin Huet
Photo by Ledah Finck

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about

Nicholas Saia New York, New York

Composer and guitarist from NYC. Also spends a lot of time in Baltimore, MD. Likes to put small sticks in his guitar.
Also plays in UHHM and Ephemera Quartet

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