Learning from Covering a Song

Covering a song you love is a way to go farther into it, to find out what it is about. For a while I have had a thought of covering Platon Karataev’s “Lombkoronaszint” (“Canopy Layer”) and a few ideas of how I would do it. About a week ago I set down the underlying track. Then yesterday I recorded the rest. The recording is far from perfect, but I learned a lot about the song while making it. Here it is (available only in this post; I am not turning it into a video or sharing it elsewhere).

When you first listen to “Lombkoronaszint,” it might seem very simple to play: a melody repeating over and over, a refrain that slowly takes over. But then when you try to play it, you find a hidden intricacy: the pattern varies, the syllables match differently with the beats of the measure. It takes intense concentration to get it right (and I still only got it right up to a point). As I worked on it, I was taken into a different level of the song, and I think that comes through.

The lyrics can be translated roughly as follows (I might edit or correct this later):

now the boat left behind
for the last one
floats entirely on its own,
look, we have crossed over,
the tired capillary
slowly pushes
my blood forth;
all the water
is just now reaching the other shore.

do you ask where god is?
on the canopy layer,
in a shivering child.

see, how magic hides in each setting forth,
the slow water sets you on your way,
let’s row back all over again.

do you ask where god is?
on the canopy layer,
in an opening flower,
on the canopy layer,
do you ask where god is?
on the canopy layer,
do you ask where god is?

Here, below, is a beautiful live recording and video of Gergő and Sebő playing the song. And you can hear the album version here.

Update: I re-recorded the later part of the vocals and uploaded the new version here.

Posted by Diana Senechal on June 13, 2022

https://dianasenechal.wordpress.com/2022/06/13/learning-from-covering-a-song/