After the 8 concert mini-tour, llhaesa settled in to do her first actual recording for public distribution.
There were bootleg recordings of her N’rellia graduation performance already circulating on the athenaeum, along with recordings of each of the eight recent shows. Llhaesa was an artist, and knew this as a fact of an artist’s life – your work will be circulated, whether or not you actually played a role in and sanctioned the development of your work for distribution.
For llhaesa, playing live versus studio recording was akin to a well prepared home dinner versus food on the run take away. Nonetheless, studio recording had advantages when writing music, she could set and see what worked and what did not, make changes, and continue with this process until the music was just as she wished it to be.
Llhaesa desired to have a studio in her own home; that way when inspiration came, she could act upon it quickly, before the thought and idea was lost. She had not spoken much on her dreams in this regard, but llhaesa was rather enamoured with the Old City area of the city, and hoped to earn enough to live there. She was off to a good start, but recording would help greatly towards that little goal. Beyond this, a significant part of her growing income would flow to EREGS.
And unbeknownst to the young artist – who in this moment was focusing forward into a limitless dream we all like to fashion at times – a few of her very last recordings made in that dream-studio would be assembled with and accompanied by the story of her life. It would be this time-planned release which would in fact one day change the world – after llhaesa was gone.
In order to complete the first task of the recording process, llhaesa chose work with a producer at one the N’rellia studios. All students and alumni are welcome to make use of the facilities there, and so llhaesa arranged for a block of time over a two week period. This was scheduled for three months out, and so she had those three months in which to write a sufficient amount of music for the recording sessions.
There was nothing like putting pressure on oneself to stir the senses and creative juices within towards a task. Llhaesa wished to have 20 songs ready to go for the recording sessions, which meant a rather committed and brisk pace of writing and refining.
Although she had been banned from government facilities, llhaesa was still free to pursue her career outside this framework. The recording arrangements made, llhaesa turned towards arranging time in a location where she would be free to create without running into daily distractions.
Llhaesa knew just the place. When arranging the time at N’rellia, Aalon had called to suggest she spend time at E’sphara Artists Colony. If llhaesa wished to do so, Aalon kindly offered, he would make the arrangements for her.
And so llhaesa called Aalon and outlined her schedule. Within minutes he called back to say she could head for E’sphara at the beginning of the following week. Things were falling into place quite nicely.
Excited and unwilling to wait the five days until it was time to head for EAC, llhaesa sat down at her keyboard, scribble pad at the ready, and gave her soul over to composition.
By the time llhaesa broke for lunch, she had created a workable underlying melody for a new song. Moving into the kitchen, she searched out foods that were ready to go, the better to get back to the song now burning within her. As she went about putting together her lunch, the old guest greeting tone signalled someone was at her door.
Putting down the jar and knife in her hands, llhaesa moved to the door, there to find Khahishra and 3 other former schoolmates arriving for an unexpected visit. While llhaesa was glad to see them in one way, she knew the Artist Colony and all of its seclusion was necessary to make her self-imposed deadline.
