FF-056 – April 13, 2011 – Lily Pond Orchestra

This week’s show was a tribute to the music of Lily Pond Orchestra.  Doug Lee, the man behind LPO, passed away unexpectedly last week.

I first discovered Doug’s music with his initial release on Earth Mantra in June 2010, Tabernacle.  While I was definitely impressed with Tabernacle, I was completely blown away by the serene beauty of his second EM release, Beautiful Day.  It’s a brilliant collection of two long-form pieces.  The first of which, It’s A Beautiful Day, is my favorite piece of Doug’s (and, indeed, one of my favorite pieces of ambient music).  Listen:

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Now I have a confession to make here….  I have to admit that I had a problem with some of Doug’s releases.  I didn’t feel that the cover art that he made fit the music.  So I made for myself some cover art that I used for his releases.  I based them on the themes and ideas from his covers, but opted for a more simple and modern presentation.  Here are a couple of examples:

Doug’s Art	My Art

I hope that my covers are a tribute to the simple majesty of Doug’s music.  (If anybody else is interested in them I may publish them later at some point.)

Well, Doug became a regular fixture of the Stillstream chat rooms.  We were all taken with the sly and irreverent humor and compassionate enthusiasm of LPO-391.  He was extremely humble about his own music while effusive with praise for other artists.  His presence was a light that illuminated all who interacted with him.

His music progressed and grew in subtlety and depth over the course of his composing.  His latest music, including his most recent Earth Mantra offering Suite for New England, demonstrated some of his best work.  It provides a wonderful window on where he was headed musically.

Several of the pieces from this week’s show were released on Doug’s site as odds and ends.  I think that they are some works of extreme beauty and vision.  I hope to see them released more widely in the future.

Alas, Doug will make music no more.  But he has left us a legacy full of beauty and wonder.  And as much as we may grieve at the music he will not make, more than that we will miss our friend and a great, great man.

1	Sleeping Lotus from Odds, Ends and Unreleased Lily Pond Orchestra Self released DOWNLOAD
2	Incidents of Ascension from Odds, Ends and Unreleased Lily Pond Orchestra Self released DOWNLOAD
3	Sounding Silence from Odds, Ends and Unreleased Lily Pond Orchestra Self released DOWNLOAD
4	Twilight Fires from Suite for New England Lily Pond Orchestra Earth Mantra DOWNLOAD

The links for the first three downloads go to 4shared, which is the site Doug used to store his music.  It’s cumbersome and slow.  I hope to be working with some folks to find a proper place for Doug’s musical legacy.