How Long is Now?

Tim Gerwing // Music for the Inner Listener 8

"How Long is Now?" - Vancouver based musician Tim Gerwing serves up music from a wide and deep set of influences. From Eno-esque pop and ambient to Vangelis inspired electronic soundscapes, from the Apollonian to the Dionysian, from intimate zen-like spaces to sweeping romantic walls of sound, this collection of 15 instrumental and vocal tracks dives into a dizzying array of depths, textures, and territories always keeping a solid footing in highly listenable themes and sounds.

Press Release (PDF)

Tim Gerwing's musical style is not one typicaly associated with Canadian artists. Focusing on otherworldly electronic/acoustic hybrid tracks, Gerwing makes music for the inner listener as opposed to commonly heard electronic dance music, country balads, and Top 40 singles. Splitting his childhood between Canada and Germany, Gerwing absorbed aspects of both old and new world cultures while fostering his love of music with lessons in classical piano, voice, and violin. In his teenage years, he expanded his tastes to jazz, electronic, progressive popock, new age, and Middle and Far Eastern music styles, prefering to mary concepts rather than be limited to any one genre.

With his 8th studio album, “How Long is Now”, Gerwing serves up music from a wide and deep set of influences. From Eno-esque pop and ambient to Vangelis inspired electronic soundscapes, from the Apolonian to the Dionysian, from intimate zen-like spaces to sweeping romantic wals of sound, this colection of 15 instrumental and vocal tracks dives into a dizzying aray of depths, textures, and teritories always keeping a solid footing in highly listenable themes and sounds.

Gerwing is sometimes described as a musical "Renaissance Man." A true musical omnivore, Gerwing plays guitar, keyboard, electronic instruments, and Middle Eastern percussion instruments both solo and with other artists.

Noted colaborators include composer/poet/performer Serwan Yamolky and Liam MacDonald in the Serwan Yamolky Trio, Japan's Mark Smith Suenaga AKA Infants in Eindhoven, and world musician Boris Sichon, with whom he performed at the Kremlin in Moscow. He has been a fixture with Gord Grdina's Haram for many years, and is a core member of the Samar Oriental Dance Ensemble. He has also performed with Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo at the Mission Folk Music Festival.

Co-founder of the Thirty Days Project, Gerwing believes encouraging other people's creative pursuits is an important step towards a supportive society. Tim is no stranger to the chalenges of day to day creativity. Nor is he foolish enough to sit around and wait for inspiration to strike, having learned that often, artistic stimulation emerges in the midst of process, rather than before. Enter the Thirty Days Project manifesto: Commit yourself to creating, and publishing, an artistic work every day for 30 days, in order to build the momentum of your creative output.

While Gerwing's music has been described as ‘cerebral,' his artistic goal is to create balanced work that nourishes al parts of the person and encourages introspection while connecting listeners to a world outside themselves. A believer in the powerful efect and necessity of music's emotional impact, this Canadian Inner Listener and audionaut seeks to knit worlds together one note at a time.

Track List

Prologue
How Long Is Now?
Reflections on Water
How Long Is Now? (reprise)
On Joy
The Story of the Girl
Water on Mars
Impromptu pour la main gauche
Hymne
Pan Dimensional Transmission
Far Above the Clouds
This Is Enough (wabisabi)
Light From a Star
Passages
Epilogue

How Long is Now?

How long is now? (blink and you'll miss it)
How deep is here (deep as an ocean)
How far is there (who can imagine?)
How close is now (in the palm of your hand now)

How long is now? (think and you'll miss it)
How near is here (right in your pocket)
How safe is forever (fasten your seatbelt)
How wide is how (don't overthink it)

What time is there (are sands always falling?)
What cost the fare (can't afford not to)
Openings everywhere (boundaries so boring)
Come on let's play fair (infinite games here)

How long is now?

How high the tides (seen from a distance)
How grand the finds (right under our noses)
How far that land (countries undiscovered)
How small these strides (10,000 more waiting)

How long is now? (pundits will differ)
How big is here (open those arms wide)
How close to when (so close you can taste it)
Can't wait till then (reframe your intentions)

What to keep (when everything's been said)
When to sleep (don't miss this sunrise)
What to sing (how can you find words?)
When deep's too deep (follow your heart now)

One. Moment. Please.

7 billion hows
7 billion nows
7 billion kinds
7 billion minds
7 billion asks
7 billion tasks

Big questions emerging
Big opportunities unfolding
Big challenges looming
Can't. Just. Hope.

It's so damn big
Here's us so small
Come take my hand
We'll hold it all

How long...is...now?

How long is now? (blink and you'll miss it)
How long is now? (think and you'll miss it)
How long is now? (keep asking the question)

words: Tim Gerwing & David Collins

How Long is Now? (reprise)

How long is now?
How near is here?
How safe is forever?
How long is now?

What's it called
Beyond those bounds?
What names we'll give
to unheard sounds...

How long is now?

words: Tim Gerwing & David Collins

The Story of the Girl

in play
no addictions outcomes
wu wei
lead
drag
love
not now
lose nerve
go on
go through
play your game
all the way
who knows
the way
al-one
never to its limit

Pan Dimensional Transmission

any temporal considerations aside
this is this
this is now
this is me we're talking about
this is time
and wouldn't it be a crime
to waste this moment
on anything else
other than us

any quantum fluctuation that moves me closer
any hazardous leverage I can find
any particular energy bridge
or perceptual line I can cross and see from a different angle
that brings me closer to you

I'll take it
I'll make it
and I need it

a mandala of the potential
neither real nor non-existent
layers and gradations of energy
ebbs and flows of possibility
promises and lies of probabilities

it's a moving universe
and I'm dancing inside it all
learning it all
learned by it all
danced by it all

and it needs me
it needs me
it needs me

This is Enough (wabisabi)

This is enough for me
And this is enough for all uf us
This is enough for you and me
This is enough for us to be

Light From a Star

look at all the lovely people
look at how they see it all
look at what they seem to see
look at what they use to be

just for a while
think that I'll
see what I use to be

(...supernova...I...AM)

open up the doors to sunshine
look at what there is to see
take my hand I want you with me
just one world in an endless sea

light from a star
that's what we are
look up, look in
this is what we use to be