Manafonistas Head Quarter: Steve Tibbetts, why did you decide to eleminate electric guitars from this record?
Steve Tibbetts: I just thought about rehearsing with it and figured that my neighbors downstairs would probably run up and shoot off my fingers.
M.H.Q.: Northern Song is a transition of music into silence.
S.T.: I thought if iI´d ever use silence as a color, now was the time.
M.H.Q.: The album´s cover is unforgettable. Whose idea was it to work with these amazing vintage effects?
S.T.: First there was this more or less normal picture of a street scene of the northern outskirts of Minneapolis. We liked the atmosphere, but we knew the final kick would still miss. We discussed for hours or so and then made a break. We went to a small coffee bar next corner and had some sandwiches and tea. Suddenly this girl entered the room with her mother. They sat at the table next to ours, the girl who was around twelve years old and showed her school stuff to her mother. The homework in her art class was to invent different kinds of countries as outlines and to put it on fotos to create an irritating effect. Her name war Nikita, she had short black hair and a pale face and wore a black t-shirt. She seemed to be very ambitious, as she talked about it. As her mother did not seem interested, she had a look at us, Marc Anderson, Manfred Eicher and me. Then she discovered the foto on the table we sat around. It´s great, she said. She came to our table. What are your plans with this? We told it to her. She said, „I love music, I don´t know yours, but „Trouble in Paradiese“ by Randy Newman which was just released. Is it similar?“ She laid some of her countries on our foto trying how it would look best. „This is a kind of Canada,“ she said and put it in the middle of the road. „This is where you get when you drive ahead this street, to the north, the horizon. But there is this vision of Italy I´ve never been to. And something torn in the sky. These are my dreams. Do you like it?“ „I do,“ I said, „it would perfectly fit.“ „I´ll give it to you as a present,“ she said. Marc and Manfred were enthusiastic about it as well. So, that´s the story behind. Never told it before.
M.H.Q.: Thanks so much. Our readers will appreciate it.
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Steve Tibbetts / Marc Anderson: Northern Song, ECM 1982
Side A:
The Big Wind
Form
Walking
Aerial View
Side B:
Nine Doors/Breathing Space