The Making of Whirlpools

Spanning Time

Recordings for Whirlpools started with the song High Heels & Highballs in January 2015, and concluded with You & Me Both in January 2018. Mastering the album was completed February 2, 2018 followed by its digital release on February 4, 2018. Recorded exclusively in the Laue's home studio, although productive, the sessions had a latent internal energy, and took place at times when they really should have been catching up on chores.

Concurrent with the recording of this album, David was learning the art of digital animation and creating videos to accompany selected songs. This proved to be a source of significant creativity for the duo, of which sparked the multi-media video My New Found Friend, using green screen effects, released via YouTube on March 12, 2017.

The sessions for Whirlpools marked the first appearance in the studio of their adopted family member Seven, a cute and lovable Jack Russel mix, who would thereafter be a more or less constant presence at all the Laue's sessions. Prior to Seven's appearance on the scene, pets were not allowed in the studio space, that is after their dearly departed cat Yoshi peed on their keyboard. But being that Seven was more or less house trained they would entrust him with their instruments and equipment. Although his presence has brought a stabilizing effect on the recording climate, it hasn't been reciprocated by Cleo, their famous fetching feline, who previously stared in the adored video production of "Play". Tension and jealousy between the pets are a constant source of consternation among the players.

Other Contributors

While their song Anchor Me Down was in production, David's brother Ric Laue was in the house. An inevitable spontaneous jam occurred in the studio, giving way to an impromptu performance by this accomplished guitarist. Luckily a recording was captured and was later laced into the production much like a golden thread. Ric was not the only family member to sit in on the sessions, Ashley Laue-Halstead, an underground chanteuse, and David's beautiful daughter, became a proponent voice in the mix of My New Found Friend and an entrancing echo in Bring Her Back.

Making the video for My New Found Friend, co-staring Ashley, was another family endeavor, and featured the creative production and cinematic support of Charlie Halstead and Nancy Beswick. (Ashley's husband and Loren's mother). Wishing not to appear like just another cheesy family pop group, David and Loren paid their session players with only homemade wine and bread.

Technical Advances and Explorations

The sessions for Whirlpools were notable for the duo's formal transition from a solid state to a tube vocal mic. As work on this album progressed, their studio acquired a MA-300, becoming the sound we hear on tracks best exemplified by Gotta Be a Train and Ash & Stone. The resulting tracks have a richer and deeper sound than their predecessors.

Instrumentally the album holds true to tradition, utilizing their relative strengths: Loren on cello, violin and piano; David on guitar, mandolin and banjo, but they also explore new sounds. Loren takes a chance playing snare drum with egg beaters on Gotta Be a Train, and David plays a wine glass and slide whistle on One More Spoonful, as if possessed by the very snake oil salesman that inspired the ballad.

The Laue's never won the "loudness wars", although they tried. Unfortunate for them, Spotify and other on-line streaming services changed the rules just before the digital release and penalized masters with levels above -14 LUFS. So the album plays about 3 to 5 decibels quieter than intended. You have the choice to hear the music as they intended by disabling normalization, or just turn up the volumn knob. There are still plenty of dynamics in the mixes. For example, in the song Please Come Down, a mix intentionally similar to productions by T Bone Burnett, listeners will hear air, breathe and noise; the headphone mix reveals sonic nuances and acoustic warmth.

For contrast, they included an older recording Eternal & Beyond, remastered for the collection. Stylistically this track is more electronic than the more resent "Baroque Folk" type arrangements, but has just the right amount of tension to set up the final track Bowl of Mixed Emotion, a song which celebrates vulnerability both lyrically and vocally, and leaves the listeners lingering, resolving, and exhaling all at once.

Paradox of Duality

Despite the album’s official title, derived from the emotional turmoil of the lyrical content, studio efforts of the Laue's captured the work of two increasingly homogenized artists who frequently found themselves finishing each other's sentences. The duo's work pattern became honed with this album, of which their extraordinary synergy became most apparent on the track One More Spoonful. Lending to each other's talents, a harmonic expression of symbiosis, so much so that the album has become the paradox of duality.

When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so the male will not be male and the female will not be female… then you will enter…{the Kingdom}

– Jesus, Gospel of Thomas 22