voice: Ella Jones
cello, electronics: Stuart Jones

I recorded the song when Ella was four - she came home from nursery singing it and I just put the mike in front of her. She has always been a great performer. I then put the recording through a process similar to that used by Alvin Lucier in I am sitting in a room, progressively re-recording it until the voice had disappeared in a haze of partials. Years later, when Ella was just entering puberty, I used it to make this piece for the Vilnius Festival. Although I didn't think about it at the time, in some way it represents a parent's inevitable (and necessary and welcome) grief as they watch their child walk away into their own life.
This is a live recording of a performance in Leningrad, and the sound isn't great but...

aged about 8