Morston Music

Morston is a small natural, tidal quay on the North Norfolk coast, between Stiffkey to the West and Blakeney to the East. Morston is a popular starting point for boat trips out to see the Seals on Blakeney point, a long spit of land protruding westward into the North Sea.

Morston was my first stop on the day of recording, with few people around when i arrived, just a few people getting their small sail boats ready, some dog walkers, and some people who i assume run some of the Seal watching boats having a chat, with one particular loud voiced fellow seeming to hold court, that man in particular can be heard in the outro of the song where i decided to combine a number of different recordings of the group talking into one.

The main bits of field recording that i used is just the ambient nature sounds of the birds and some bees that populate the quay, I decided to use the people talking at the end becuase it was such a striking sound amongst the piece and tranquility of the quay at early-mid morning.

The writing of the music started off with this simple ascending line that forms the intro. I then played around with coming up with a simple melody line, which isn't the normal way for me to write a piece of music, i usually start with chords. Once i came up with the simple melody line, which i played on a mellotron virtual instrument, i then wrote some chords to underpin it. I also added in a slow moving Viola and Bassoon part to add some interest as the song developed, theres something about the bassoon that for me is evocative of nature, maybe its something to do with the reed?

After finishing the initial structure i felt like it needed an extra part to break things up, so came up with the part that comes in around 2:27, which in my mind evokes some sort of nautical folk/shanty vibe, before then seguing to the next section. Maybe the boats influenced me in some way?

I wanted the music to have a laid back vibe, so i introduced a laidback drum part, which i finger drummed on my keyboard. I'm not great at programming/playing natural sounding drum parts but am pretty pleased with how this one came out. I then added a loping, plodding bass part using my cheap as chips Fender Squier Jaguar bass.

Below is the original field recording video/audio, can you hear what made it into the song?