Liner Notes

 

When I pick up an album of an artist I like and there are liner notes, I'm always excited to read them.  I think it helps illustrate their thoughts, provides shared information regarding the concept or direction of the album, and creates a portal or entry into the world created by that album.  For me, it is always a welcome addition, an enhancement, and a learning experience.

I'll often re-read the liner notes over the course of several years.

However, I've come to question liner notes in my work.  Many of my earlier albums had them.  Over time, I began to wonder if liner notes added to or subtracted from the overall listening experience of my albums.  

The ongoing dichotomy is: how do I tell listeners what the music is about without telling listeners what the music is about?  

In other words, I might want to provide a point of reference; an entry, perhaps an explanatory introduction, for an album without providing too much information.  I'd want to provide a microcosm of an explanation, but not reveal details such as what I was thinking when I composed or recorded the piece, what I think the piece may be about, the direction or goal of the piece, inner content and structures, or to reveal too much in any manner about the piece or pieces.

Ideally, this enables listeners to make their own interpretations, to assign personal meanings, or to create their own mental images of the music.  Hence, listeners become partners in the music instead of observers.

Of late, I've started to rethink the use of liner notes in my albums.  I've not done them in years, but I there are albums in the works that I think could benefit from and be enhanced by liner notes.  

Trying to achieve that perfect balance of an introduction or a portal into the music while not revealing too much will be a challenge, but worth it.

 -kk