New EP Out Today: “Travelogue”

Posted on October 30, 2023    Posted by John Scalzi      3 Comments

I went on book tour last month, and along the way I was inspired to make a little music to approximate some of the experience of it, and of some of the places I went. And thus, Travelogue, a collection of five (mostly) ambient electronic pieces, recording my state of mind on the road. Let me walk you through the tracks.

Where Am I Now? – This one’s about getting up early to catch a plane, and then being whisked away, over and over, to another airport, another flight connection, another city, another hotel.

Lake Monona – Actually recorded in Madison, Wisconsin, which sits on the titular lake’s shore. It’s meant to evoke a cool autumn day, with the wind making tiny waves in the water.

Bridge Over the Danube – Walking over the Margit Bridge in Budapest, with bridge traffic racing along while the Danube flows below.

Wichita Sunrise – the experience of a slow dawn brightening up the long wide horizon of Kansas.

Where Am I Now (I’m Home) – Coming back to where you belong after too much time away. This track uses elements of the first track of the EP, but in a different key, with a different tempo, some new instrumentation, and a different arrangement. Familiar, but different.

Travelogue is as of this writing available on YouTube/YouTube Music, Apple Music and TIDAL, with Spotify and Amazon Music (and other services) coming probably in the next couple of days. I’m not sure why it always takes Spotify a tiny bit longer to get stuff on its service, but it does. It’s not on Bandcamp, but I’m (probably) going to be updating my Bandcamp site in the next month or so, so please be patient if that’s your thing.

Also, as a minor technical note, I’m calling this an EP but on some services it’s listed as an LP. I think the reason for this is that it clocks in at 34 minutes long, and it seems that on some services, anything over 30 minutes gets classified as an LP. Does this matter? Since I’m not planning a physical release where I have to worry about how to split things up into sides, not really. But if these little details bug you like they bug me, now you have an explanation. I should probably just call them all “albums” and have done with it (several services just do this for any collection larger than a single already). But I like the feel of “EP” better.

With Travelogue out, I have recorded and released to streaming services four separate collections of original music this year, nineteen tracks clocking in at just cover two hours (this is not counting an EP of remastered tracks from my 2003 collection, and the various cover songs I’ve posted here). I feel pretty good about this. I am not yet where I want to be as a musician, but I also don’t feel like I’m just fumbling around with my musical equipment any more, and that feels pretty good. I know some of what I’m doing! Hooray for slowly getting more competent with hobbies!

In any event, please enjoy this memento of my time on the road this year. It’s good to be home now.

— JS