The title for One Footprint comes from a quatrain by Ghalib -
In this world
of infinite possibility
I look around
for the
second step of desire
All I see is
one footprint
- Mirza Ghalib

During the period of lockdown/quarantine, artists throughout the world have had to find clever ways to produce their work. Many musicians have put out videos created with the performers in different locales at different times yet with each subsequent player responding to the musicians and music put on that medium before them. Mostly duos but also situations where, for example, a final choir resulted from the combination of many voices video'd separately. Now the art of overdubbing in recording goes back at least to the 50s but this new process is done in different locales and mostly in each artists' home. Drummer Tom Cabrera had pushed me for sometime to try some of this, going as far as sending me a digital recorder. Tom had already put out some exciting performances of himself solo and in duo with other musicians like Rocco Iacovone, Chris Forbes and Matt Lavelle, all Unseen Rain Artists. Tom's idea for us took more shape when I recorded guitar on two separate tracks from my home in northern New Jersey, Tom adding drums from his home in Long Island, New York and double-bassist Larry Hutter added his part at home in Orlando, Florida. What is most satisfying is the music retains the passion and subtlety of a recording done in the traditional manner. An advantage we have is that Larry Hutter is a world class audio engineer and he mixed and mastered the final product. Artists have had to add numerous new tasks to make things work in this environment and Tom Cabrera has developed techniques to create a final product of the video material, which is included with the download. This track, One Foot Print, is one of my earlier pieces and it reflects my attempts to ineluctably reflect musics of many different origins in a harmonious singularity. This is the first track we are releasing as a single, a co-production of Unseen Rain Records and Woodshedd Records that will ultimately comprise an album.
- Jack DeSalvo