Music by Ben Barden
Twice Midnight > Sleeve notes
This page includes the original sleeve notes from Twice Midnight. Due to the costs associated with producing CD booklets, this album has only ever been released as a slimline CD, with the sleeve notes available online.
The concept album
Originally, I wanted to create an album that ran from midnight to midnight, with a series of events happening through the day. That isn't quite how it ended up, but there are some pieces that still fit the theme.
What's more important about this album is the number of running themes along with a couple of links to other albums.
Numerous changes
This album has taken a lot longer to put together than I expected. Tracks have been added, removed, retitled and reordered. The album title has also changed a few times.
My original idea was to have 20 tracks on the album, but tracks 12-16 were very difficult to pin down without including "filler" tracks. So I decided to go for a 16 track album instead.
Bonus tracks and a late change
For the first time ever, I've included some bonus tracks on this album. Gravity (Ben's Low Gravity Remix) is a new version of Gravity from my 2nd album. Circumference is the original version of Radial Circumference from earlier in the album. Night Lights is new, but it's very short. These tracks didn't fit anywhere else, so it seemed logical to include them as bonus tracks.
And just as we finalised the artwork, I made a last minute change and replaced Stepping Stones with To the ends of the earth. Stepping Stones will appear on a subsequent album.
Overlapping with other albums
Several of the tracks were composed immediately after I completed Besidewalk Plight. Waiting for the Sun was written a long time before that.
I re-released my first album as this album was taking so long to complete. Then FAWM came along and that became my third album, while this became my fourth.
A gradual release schedule
Somehow I managed to complete both albums 3 and 4 in early 2008. This was certainly helped due to the way I started putting the tracks online, one at a time, as I completed them. This stopped me from going back and changing the earlier tracks and forced me to keep moving forward.
The beauty of the Internet is that I can share tracks before I have completed a full album. The downside is that it's easy to put lots of tracks online without making a coherent album.
I do still send out CDs to a few friends and family but most people find my music online, so they expect to be able to download it easily. That's why I have put all of my tracks online - it means more people will be able to listen to them.
March 2008