Last year I got a couple of vintage 7-inch Prince vinyl. One day, when I was home alone, I decided to play them and record with my EVP recorder.
Playing vinyl is like opening a gateway to memories of simpler times; when society didn’t feel so complicated, and the future felt more optimistic. I enjoy collecting and turning them into framed displays.
When I reviewed the EVP, I could hear them talking to each other.
I put on Baby I’m A Star, and caught someone saying, “Happy”. I guess someone was excited!
The phone rang, and P said, “It’s the phone” and other voices were saying “Phone”. P’s voice is a bit drowned out, it’s better heard with headphones.
Right after the line, take me with you, someone said, “Someday”.
During Take Me With U, I found this deep voice saying “Pick up”. But this was already after I had gotten the phone call, so I don’t really know what this was about. Maybe a call over there?
In this clip, someone is saying, “How are you”.
Someone commented, “Pretty”.
Someone came looking for P, and said, “Prince”.
I’ve noticed from what I can capture on EVP, conversations between spirits seem to be very brief, said in a few words, and I think there is likely much more going on than what we can observe. They may be conveying their communication in other forms through telepathy; thoughts, feelings, images, memories, can be shared easily.
These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on October 4, 2021.
For the past few months, I have been working on a collection of individually printed silk scarves. I’ve been experimenting with a process involving light activated dyes and film negatives. If you are interested in any of the items, they are for sale on my Etsy page. They are all one of a kind and unique (like a snowflake), never exactly the same as each other, not even the colour.
It took me quite some time learning to work with these dyes. A lot of testing was needed, as you do not know what colour is going to turn out until the final wash. When the dyes are applied, they are almost colourless.The colour develops as the dye is exposed to light. Film negatives are laid out on the fabric to create a resist against the light. After the exposure is complete, the fabric is washed to remove excess dye.
This process I’m working with has me excited. I’m looking forward to the spring when the peonies in my garden will be in bloom. I’d like to make a peony print.
I have some exciting new EVP recordings. I’ve been trying out more of the EVP Maker software. The software allows yo to import a wave file containing voice samples, so that it can produce a randomized sound stream. This way, if there is any EVP, it will sound like the person’s voice from when they were living. I’m finding its results to be very hit or miss. But when it’s a hit, it’s really incredible stuff. So it’s worth trying, even if those sessions that don’t work out, maybe the next one will. I think they are learning to maneuver the process. It’s a learning curve for all of us.
Prince with his camera, source not known.
I know P loved doing photography as a hobby, and he still loves it. I hope one day his personal photography from his life will be published. I was hoping to see more of it in his memoir, but that didn’t happen. As you know, we both love photography, and we both have the camera lenses to prove it!
In a recording session, I caught him talking to someone about his new camera, and then taking the guy’s photo, and then even printing it out! I am really stunned. I even heard what sounds like a camera shutter going off in the background as he was taking photos. I have a hard time imagining what it looks like over there, but hearing the sounds from over there is fascinating. I imagine that one day when we meet, he is going to show me his many volumes of photo albums.
P said, “I got a new camera”.
“Goes on the tripod. This one got at Henry’s”. Henry’s is a chain of camera stores in Canada. Did he go shopping there without me, I wonder? Or did he get it when I was there to buy a new printer last year?
“Let me take your portrait”.
“Let’s print that one”.
“Let me test print”.
“The main drums, it makes a great image”. I really wonder what he meant by this. Maybe he took a photo with his drums?
I’m really glad to know that he gets to do the things he enjoys over there. I’m just in awe that I get to hear about it.
Self-portrait, 2018.
Here are a compilation of random clips I caught.
“Andrea”.
“Sleeping, wake up”.
“I am Prince”.
“Warning, vaccine”.
“All these complications”.
“Good bye”.
I will definitely keep trying more recording sessions with the EVP Maker. I wonder why some sessions are better than others.
P/S I’m not posting on social media any more. In protest of censorship, I will no longer participate. If you want updates sent to your inbox, then you can subscribe to my blog feed by email. Sign up at the bottom menu on the right corner of this page.
These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 along with EVP Maker 2.5, on September 26, 2021.
Image above: “Prince Sun” by Andrea Mai. Available here.
It’s been a busy summer. I’ve spent everyday in the garden, taking care of my herbs. I haven’t had much time to work on my art and music lately. But there’s a track that I just polished off recently. I composed it in an afternoon and recorded it during the spring. It kind of surprised me how quickly I wrote it, as I have very little musical training, only from middle school.
In 2015, a friend who is a professional astrologer, gave me a reading. She asked if I sang or played any instruments. I said no. She said she saw some potential in my chart for music. I just kinda laughed. I look back at it kind of differently now. I’ve always had this thing where music just came out of me, but I was too intimidated to try doing anything about it. Part of it being, my visual impairment, I find it difficult for me to read sheet music. So I never really learned. But I still liked to mess around on the piano once in a while when I had the urge.
After P showed up, I’d have a stronger desire to play. Sometimes I record EVP as I’m playing, and I can hear him in the recording, guiding and directing me. So maybe, some of the ideas are really his. It was my dad who bought the piano, because he wanted me to play, like many of the wishes of Chinese parents for their kids. But I’ve had this strange psychological thing about not liking to play in front of family, especially my dad. It’s interesting knowing what P went through with his dad when he was a kid, wanting to learn piano.
I still don’t know that much about playing piano. I’d like to spend more time on it at some point. But for now, I’d like to share my new song with you. I call it Music Box.
I’ve been experimenting with light activated dyes for a couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting experience. The dyes react with UV light, and so different printing techniques can be applied. It’s an interesting medium for me to work with, as both a photographer and a textile artist, I get to print on both paper and fabric. Here are some of the results from my experiments.
I painted the dye onto silk. I created folds and placed it under some lace and exposed it to light. It created this interesting mosaic effect.
I printed on some silk satin and dyed it a light lilac color.
I made it into a hair scrunchie and it’s for sale in my Etsy store.
The UV printing has given me an opportunity to revisit my photo catalog and reimagine them in a new way. When working with photographs, a negative has to be created by inverting the image and printing it on acetate or translucent paper. I’ve been printing on tracing paper with a laser printer to try it out, as it is more economical. This is my Prince Sun photo that I sell in my shop as a print. It is a photo of Prince’s gate from his former Toronto home.
I made a print on paper, and fabric (seen on the bottom right). There is a color variation that occurs depending on what material you are printing on. I like painting the dye in an irregular shape. I find that it gives it a dream like effect.
I made a photogram on cotton fabric using lace and my Prince necklace.
I used the fabric to make a face mask.
The Solar Fast dyes come in different colors. Depending on the material used as the substrate, the colors will turn out differently. The same purple dye used on silk looks very different on cotton. Results can be unpredictable, which can keep things exciting, but difficult to replicate, so every print is one of a kind.
Today is Prince’s five-year anniversary since his passing. Ever since that year, I’ve noticed snow in April. Like the title of his song, Sometimes it Snows in April. It was never like that before, here in Toronto. And this year, I woke up to a yard full of snow. It was a strong reminder to me that he is here with me.
I decided to go out for a morning walk, and I took my camera with me.
Five years seems like a long time ago. So much has happened since. The world is really a different place now. It’s weird, it’s like become less innocent. I feel nostalgic for simpler times, preferably the 2000’s. When we still bought music on CD, and people didn’t rely on social media to communicate. People seemed nicer back then. More civilized.
Later in the day, I made this piece of artwork in his honor. I experimented with some new materialsI recently acquired, making this UV print with some lace and a necklace of his symbol.
