Going Home / Back to Portland This is a two-cut release from James Keith Norman and his creative and life partner Beck Norman. 

In "Going Home", you'll hear a woman declaring, "She moved back home. She loves Portland.” This comment had captured Beck's attention from the moment she overheard it. These two women were discussing a friend’s recent departure from a midwest city, and the conversation was quickly summed up in those two sentences, yet Beck wondered what they really meant. Was it Portland the city that she missed? Was it her family, her friends, a park or coffee shop? Or was it something more: was it the feeling of belonging, of being displaced and wanting to feel grounded again? Beck chose to explore these themes in the form of a first-person account, one side of a fictional interview. Imagine that Beck, playing the part of the woman about whom the two other women overheard earlier could have been discussing, has been asked, “What does it really mean to go home?” And she shares exactly what home means to her.

Wanting to give the piece a documentary feel, Beck and James recorded it outside on a walk between two houses. It was originally recorded on an iPhone and then transferred in James's studio for minimal editing.

The second cut, "Back to Portland", is a prime example of Composite Music, because it uses not just music, but also sounds to tell a story. Representing the "interviewed" woman's journey home, the cut begins with sounds recorded in Percy Warner Park in Nashville: first, there are birds and then, from a distance, come two trains, as if from opposite directions. Listen closely and you'll hear the second train's horn is very nearly the same note as the first note played on the nylon guitar. Later, the clickety-clack of another train making its way to its destination can be heard. Later still, a heartbeat emerges, signifying the excitement and contentment associated with having arrived  home. 

Cover art: Beck Norman.

About the Cover:

This began as a photo taken by Beck Norman. Its location is just outside of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. In order to give the cover a wistful, sentimental, memory-like quality to convey the feeling of all we hold dear about the destinations that matter most to us, the photo was transformed by Beck to have a watercolour affect.