Castle in the Sky
lyrics by Lori Sanderson, music by Tom Sanderson

I can see my castle in the sky
Beautiful, spacious, free, an escape
I see my castle in the sky
Full of hope, aspirations shaped

Intentional creation time
A walking dream, the passion that I seek
A vision possibility
This is the place I want to be

Focus places me inbetween
where I am and where I want to be
Creating passion, igniting action
Becoming all I was meant to be

What is my castle in the sky?
Far above it floats without foundation
What is my castle in the sky?
Frequented place – a constant invitation

Lori wrote these lyrics in January, 2021. She was studying about the difference between dreams and goals. As I think I understand it, the main difference is the formation of a plan and steps in place to reach a desired accomplishment/destination.

About a month later I started to see what music seemed to match her words. I suppose one could describe it as reminiscent of 1980’s R&B. My music theory is a bit rusty, but I like having a major and minor variant in the chord sequence to the verses. The castle in the sky recurring lyric prompted me to choose a main synth voice that sounded airy. I actually dusted off my guitar and put down a funk line on this song (Alan is better at guitar, so I don’t play much of it these days).

Since there wasn’t any lyric for the chorus, I decided to add a couple vocorder tracks. Vocorder is a synthesizer effect where it is required to sing or talk while playing the keyboard. The synthesizer combines elements of both to make it sound sort of like a robot singing. This is different from a talkbox where you stick a tube in your mouth that is playing sound from a guitar or keyboard – you just form the words (not sing) with that effect. Similar effect is found with computer software that manipulates singing to smooth out pitch and phrasing defects/errors and also those that artificially generate harmonies. For all these effects, the end result is an unnatural sounding “vocal.” I am still refining my vocorder technique (any tips would be welcome). I would also like to try talkbox at some point.