Midsummer Night Dancers was completed just as I released Beauty of the Darkness which circumstances had held up. I didn’t want to put the albums out on top of each other, but such is how things worked out.
I wanted a Victorian-style painting for the cover to portray the undertone of a slightly Shakespearian fantasy of fairies, satyrs, etc. After some looking about I thought I would see what Herbert Draper had to offer seeing he delivered such a great match for Triumph & Tragedy. So many of his paintings have such depth. I picked two to try: “Art & The Jade” really grabbed me, “The Vintage Morn” seemed really obvious. In the end, Art & The Jade won as it better fitted the feel I wanted. The Vintage Morn is just too obvious. If you prefer you may download and replace the cover image.
Tracks
- Enter the Fae Prince – Spring is begun once the Green Man arrives. Not noted in the title is his partner who is alluded to by the brighter “organ” lead. They work around each other as do all systems that require two polarities to function.
- Spring Gardens – once spring arrives, everything rises into its fullness.
- Midsummer Night Dancers – is that fantasy of semi-human nature spirits who revel in summer growth every night once we have left the garden.
- Foxglove – the flower that is so enticing but not safe.
- Rowan & Alder – these very Northern European trees seem to offer a nobility and solidity whilst helping make our lives work.
- Dandelion – the plant that grows in the hardest of places and reminds us of change.
- Afternoon with the Faun – often the Faun is confused with the Satyr. Either way this is a creature who is somewhat like us, but has a different life and values. Not wrong, merely different. We need to accept.
- Memories of Dark Days – Winter is always coming again. We remember hard times even as they are good.
- Visitors on the Wind – the Dandelion blows its seeds away. Equally seeds from other places are carried in on the wind or by travelers (like birds or the Crusaders who brought a lot of things back from the Middle East).
- Radio Nights – seemingly not thematically related but the image is of nights listening to the radio which brought such life & beauty into the lives of people, particularly the teen, from the ’50s to the ’80s. Sadly a thing now all but gone.
- Glass Wings – was the first track written with no real sense of what the theme would be. I just knew I wanted melodies and a feel that bordered on New Age whilst not being that exactly.