It’s not a secret to those who know me and my music a little bit that I have an ongoing obsession with and deep appreciation for the music of the late Danielle Baquet-Long of Chubby Wolf and Celer. Some even know that Chubby Wolf’s record Ornitheology has been kind of an awakening experience for me, because not only this music let my hear the entire genre of ambient with other ears but also let me feel the inner compulsion to start making my own music. No other music did anything comparable to me. And it is still unbelievable for me that it was ambient music after all that did this to me.

But there is another thing that I used to struggle with and that I admire in Danielle Baquet-Long, and this is the art of titling. I know that many composers have a title first and then write music relating to this title or use the title as a guide for their creative process. That’s not me. I usually have the music written and then I’m racking my brains for days, sometimes even for weeks to find a title which would fit the music in any way. Usually I fail.

Danielle Baquet-Long was not only a meteor who brought us some of the loveliest music ever heard, but also some of the most amazing titles. On the basis of what I have said above it will not be surprising that the title I can most easily relate to is the ironic title of a self-released CDr by Celer from 2008, containing some of the darkest music Celer ever did. This music is based on field recordings made by Danielle of choirs and a string quartet, performing the works of Samuel Barber, at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California, in late 2006. The witty title Danielle gave the CDr is:

I Love You So Much I Can’t Even Title This (The Light That Never Goes Out Went Out).

Sometimes her titles are little poems themselves including alliteration and rhyme like:

The depth of pores the reckless teems the leaks the spores (on Chubby Wolf’s album It’s a Small Place to Be) or the title of another Chubby Wolf record, one of my most beloved ones:

Days to Dismember​/​The Lows, the Sows.

Like the moniker Chubby Wolf many titles of pieces on her records half a self-ironic quality too, for example: If There’s An Elephant In The Room, Introduce It (on Turkey Decoy) or Pull my strings like you pull my hair (on Maudlin & Elusive). Maybe this self-irony is the secret of Danielle Baquet-Long’s art of titling, that she didn’t take too seriously although she must have known how brilliant she was.

After long and tiring pondering I finally titled my newest attempt to compose an ambient piece that even just gets close to the art of Chubby Wolf: An apparition of petals on cracked concrete. I don’t really think so, but I nevertheless hope she would have approved.

I will premiere An apparition of petals on cracked concrete on Friday, November 27 as a YouTube premiere part of the online event