Little Volcano by Veda Hille

In February 2018 I went to a composer’s residency in Scotland, a place called Cove Park about an hour out of Glasgow. There was a hut with grass on the roof and a little upright piano by the window overlooking Loch Long. It snowed a lot, it was very cold. I huddled up on the couch and watched the weather come in over the hills. You had to keep an eye out for the Highland cattle, they could get a little pushy.

I was there to write music, and also to try to be myself again after illness. At the last minute I picked up a copy of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, to get my hands working, and it seemed useful for the rest of me too. Preludes and fugues every day, relearning songs written years ago, walking in sheep fields, and collecting sea glass from the rocky beach. The other people making sounds and music were pretty great, and we hung out. I slept long hours and wrote a little handful of tunes. At the end of it all I thought I might write a book, but that was terrifying. So I went home and made a show instead, with my old friends Jamie and Maiko. Little Volcano. Here are the songs for you, plus some Bach practice and the Sounds Of Scotland. Perhaps this small natural disaster is useful.

Veda Hille July 2020

Tracklist

1.	Prelude in Fm	2:26

2.	Miracles	2:39

3.	Carnage Instructions	2:45

4.	Prelude in Em Plants	4:00

5.	Trophy	2:51

6.	Lover Hater	3:11

7.	Prelude in Cm	1:22

8.	Charismatic M.F.	4:20

9.	This Spring/Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most	3:23

10.	The Trees	3:02

11.	Noah's Ark	3:30

12.	Where am I from?	2:24

13.	Roam	2:57

14.	Prelude in D	2:27

15.	Titanic	4:34

Credits

released October 22, 2020

This album was recorded live at the PuSh Festival, co-presented by Music on Main, January 21-23 2020, and at the Cultch in quarantine times, June 24-27, 2020.

These songs were written over the last 25 years and assembled for Little Volcano, a theatre show written by Veda Hille, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, and James Long, originally produced by Theatre Replacement. The show was created in residencies with Cryptic UK and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the Hamber Foundation, and the McGrane-Pearson Endowment Fund in honour of Ted Keating.

Recorded and mixed by David Carswell
Mastered by Stuart McKillop at Raincity Recorders
Live sound at the PuSh Festival by Levi Pease
Live show produced by Corbin Murdoch
Assisted at the Cultch by Kaden O’Reilly
Cove Park field recordings by Kathy Hinde
Backing tracks on Titanic from the album Love Waves, played by Barry Mirochnick, John Collins, and David Carswell
Cover painting by Orra White Hitchcock, courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College
Design by Brian Morgan
Piano vocal scores by Alfredo Santa Ana
Represented by Jim Smith (Eponymous)

Love and thanks to all the volcanologists.
Maiko, Jamie, Corbin, Chelsea, and Lili at T/R
The live show crew: Diana Bartosh, Emily Cooper, the GNW scene shop, Andrew Pye, Sophie Tang, Jan Hodgson, Leah Weinstein, Heidi Wilkinson, Minoru Kofu Yamamoto
Cathie Boyd and all at Cryptic
SoundCoven
Jim Smith and everyone at Eponymous
David Pay and Brian Laberge and the gang at Music on Main
Joyce Rosario and all at PuSh
Cory Philley and the Shadbolt bunch
Heather Redfern and everyone at the Cultch
Drs Rachel Craggs, Karen Gelmon, Nancy VanLaeken, Rebecca Warburton, and all the excellent people at BC Cancer
Gary Cristall and Valdine Ciwko, who have stood on the lip of the volcano for over 20 years
Justin and Anders and Saoirse and Eyvan, such a fiery family
And the original scientists Rosanna and Lucas Hille, who brought me up and let me be

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

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