We Are All One | gilgamesh

The Recording Process:

First Unit Production and Recording:
Tony Garone - vocal, acoustic guitars, Arabian percussion loop, keyboards
Recorded, engineered and mixed at Cow Pilot Studios, Arizona by Tony Garone

Second Unit Production and Recording:
William Brown - electric guitars, vocals
Kenny Garone - bass guitar
Casey Carney - drums, vocals
Mike Carr - vocals
LisaSmith - vocals
Recorded at Outpost Productions and Stomp Box Studios, New York.

This was one of many long distance recording songs. I recorded the lead vocal, acoustic guitar, keyboards (the sitar melodies and tambura drones are keyboards), and Arabian percussion loop at Cow Pilot Studios in Arizona. I sent the tape to William, who has explained in detail what happened at his end across the country:

William Brown at Outpost Studio

Accessories To The Crime

(commentaries on the recording process by William Brown)

It is a great time within our human evolution to be alive as a working musician. The tools that are available now have made possible production scenarios never before imagined. Having said that, I can outline the process through which our New York contingent has been able to participate in this work. The songs originate from the recesses of Tony’s mind in Arizona and then are delivered to me in 8 tracks, ADAT format. At Outpost Productions, I am equipped with one ADAT synced to a MIDI network driven by Performer 6.03, I have available to me a second studio equipped with Digital Performer. It is there, at Stomp Box studios, that I transfer Tony’s original 8 tracks to hard drive. I then make 2 stereo mixes to 2 tracks on 2 ADATs. These tapes go with me back to Outpost where I am met with the task of syncing a Performer file to the rhythm of Tony’s song. This entails finding the exact start point on the tape to lock the MIDI file to as well as determining the BPM ( beats per minute).

Casey at the kit at Stomp Box Studios

Having done this we can then have some fun. Currently, I have a Roland TD-10 V-drum kit in my studio played by the talented lance man, Casey Carney. Casey must then play in time to Tony’s rhythms as I record the V-drums to a MIDI file. Since the file is synced to the song we could quantize the parts if we wanted to but in the interest of maintaining the integrity of Casey’s performance, we try not to do that. I can then produce the keyboard arrangements (if any are needed) to the file to run with the drum parts. The next step is to master the file to ADAT. Usually each part exists in stereo, therefore, requiring 2 tracks. Any analog production needed can then be recorded directly to track. This would include analog drums, guitars, or the vocal stylings of Mike Carr, Lisasmith, and Casey.

Lisasmith (vocals) in the studio

Mike Carr (vocals) at Woodstock

"If the production calls for more than the 12 tracks available on the 2 ADATs, I make a third stereo mix to sync to. We are now headed back to Lisasmith at Stomp Box, ADATs in hand! Lisa and I sync the tapes to the original 8 track Performer file and transfer the parts across. Existing entirely in a non-linear digital environment, we do the master mix to DAT or disc. The final mix is returned to Tony with virtually zero sonic deterioration. The nicest part of this amazing technology is that we can continue to collaborate artistically despite being separated physically by thousands of miles."
William Brown – October, 2000

Lisasmith and Casey at Stomp Box Studios

Some additional thoughts by William after the project was finished...

"This was really the pilot piece for us to cut our teeth on. We ( Lisasmith, Mike, Casey, Kenny, & me) had not yet done a production with Tony in this way. I received the ADAT with Tony’s original 8 tracks and transfered them to Digital Performer to facilitate additional production. The initial challenge was put to Casey and I in syncing a timed MIDI file to Tony’s percussion track. Once this was accomplished we could lay Casey’s drums and my guitars. The title of this cut calls out for the unified “We”, hence many, many vocals. I think we burned a total of 14 tracks, Tony excluded. The initial final mix was done in New York but we have since sent Tony all of the isolated tracks on disc to incorporate into the mix. It must sound like a locomotive ripping through a blackboard factory at this point. (In the desert of course!)"

WJB

What is this song about?

This song really portrays Gilgamesh as the quintessential politician. Speaking to his people as if he were a great ruler, while raping their women and putting their men to hard labor building the walls of Uruk. According to almost all of the translations I've read, he wasn't exactly the, shephard of his people.

I took some liberties here, in that I felt that if Gilgamesh inflicted these terrible acts upon his kingdom without conscience but on the other hand he could have been a deranged sociopath.

Although Gilgamesh thought of himself as a god, his meditations on death were very human. These feelings were triggered largely by the eventual demise of Enkidu and were the driving force of his motivation; ultimately his search for immortality.

This song is of course, tongue in cheek, as the people were obligated to sing along with Gilgamesh for fear of their lives! Truly, no one in the kingdom felt they were "one" with Gilgamesh; they wanted no part of him.
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The Cuneiform for "We Are All One"

Dr. Pagan explains:

I've come up with an equivalent to the English statement "We are all one," but I had to compose it myself after researching some parallels in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. It reads: ni-nu ka-lu-ni lu pa-ah-ra-nu /ninu kaluni lu pahranu/. The language is Akkadian and the sentence in cuneiform begins with an independent personal pronoun for emphasis: ni-nu /ninu/, "we." The next three signs (again, from left to right) are ka-lu-ni /kaluni/, "all of us." This is the first line. The bottom line reads lu pa-ah-ra-nu /lu pahranu/, "we are (truly) united." The particle /lu/ ("truly, indeed") in this this line is emphatic. The sentence has a nominal predicate, a verbal adjective with 1st person plural suffix /pahr+anu/, from the root phr, infinitive paharu, "to come together." Literally, this sentence reads: "We, all of us, are (truly) united," but it can be accurately rendered as "We are all one."