End of 2020, Part 2: Highlights

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am writing this to you on Christmas Eve. The soundtrack is a heavy rain pummeling the outside of the apartment building, the occasional howl of wind, and faint sounds of the family in one of the neighboring apartments. The voices, when I can make them out, are usually in Spanish. I think, in this case, my limited knowledge of Spanish is beneficial, as it makes it easier for the brain to tune out the voices as background noise. One’s mind is less likely to latch onto fragments of a conversation that one can’t comprehend. If they were in English, I think that I would find it more difficult for me to concentrate.

I’m drinking a bit of coffee, and thinking about what the good things are from this year. I had said in the last entry, that I would write some positive things that happened this year, so these are in the order that I think of them.

ENTRE VIFS x L’ECLIPSE NUE – “L’eclipse Vive”
This is probably my favorite thing of this year, and it is deserving of its own entry at some point in the future. This was released in the middle of the year on the Aussaat label in Germany, and I am very pleased with how it came out. I think that 2020 was not the easiest time to release new artwork in a physical format, given how disrupted the international post has become, but I really hope that over time the album will fall into more people’s hands. I am very grateful both to Aussaat and to Entre Vifs for collaborating with me on this.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – “Tormentum Volume I”
I am very glad to be among such wonderful artists as those that appear on this compilation by TORM Ent in Austria. I won’t single out any one artist to elevate above others, but I am pleased that L’eclipse Nue appears here among some friends and respected artists.

Things I Didn’t Lose
I am fortunate that no one that I know died, of COVID-19 or of anything else. I am lucky that somehow I haven’t gotten fired yet (though the year isn’t quite over). And I am quite grateful that my car is still running.

Slight Improvement In Living Situation
I moved out of the building I was in in Hartford, and moved into basically the only other place that I could afford, which is in Meriden. There are still some problems here, but my neighbors are much more peaceful, and the building seems calmer and less dangerous. I have been receiving most of my mail here, unlike the apartment in Hartford in which many of my packages went missing. I can hear the sounds of my neighbors, but the sounds have a lighter energy, and somehow it doesn’t really bother me as much. If I am trying to sleep, I simply turn on the white noise machine that I keep next to my bed.

Wild Turkeys
For the first time that I can remember, I saw many wild turkeys walking about this year. Mainly I see them near the woods where I work. Since I didn’t grow up seeing them around, I find them really fascinating. One morning, I was sitting in my car before work, and I actually saw about a dozen of them fly down from the tree tops and land at the other end of the parking lot. That was the first and only time that I saw them fly.

L’ECLIPSE NUE – 2020 Recordings - Unreleased
I don’t know how, given all that has been going on, and the continuous 50-hour work weeks (my work has not stopped during the pandemic – I am “essential”), but L’eclipse Nue has recorded four albums of new (as yet unreleased) material. The albums are: “A Defective Man”; “Touch”; “Shatter The Reflecting I”; “Faces From Dreams”. I’m not sure if I am supposed to be talking publicly about the one which has a planned release in 2021, so I will only say that one of these albums will be released, and the others possibly I will just keep for myself.

L’ECLIPSE NUE – “Songs From Steel And Gasoline” (never to be released)
That unreleased material does not include an album I made by attaching metal probes and contact mics to my car, and running this through effects pedals and an amp in the passenger seat while driving to and from work; that album was called “Songs From Steel And Gasoline”. It is probably stupid to distract oneself with twiddling knobs and recording while careening down the highway, but for some reason I had a strong compulsion to do so, and I am glad that I created it. The end result, however, I consider a failed experiment. I created cover art, shared this album with a couple of friends, and that was that.
 
There are probably some other things that I simply can’t recall right now. But if you’ve read this far, then you’ll probably agree that it’s enough for now. Thank you sincerely to the friends who have stood by me this year.

I hope that all of you are staying safe and warm, and I hope that this storm doesn’t knock out my electricity.
Good night until next time.

Yours truly,
Daniel