Piece Comment

Review of Have You Ever Been Waiting


A beautiful collection of stories that are short and simple, beautifully written, and accompanied by expertly curated music to match each story's tone. I can picture each of these in my mind perfectly -- the kind face of a grandmother, the Canadian coastline, the little girls flitting about in their tutus, and a lone picture on a wall. The descriptions are not too lengthy, the stories are not too earnest, and the narration (though the fuzziness of the recording is a distraction) holds my attention and pauses at the right moments. The answer -- yes, we've all been waiting for something -- but maybe not for moments as profound as these.

Other producers can learn from many of the timing decisions made in this story. Each of the four segments last just around a minute, the pauses between them aren't distractingly long, and the music fades are artful. It's also important to note that when pieces like these rely almost entirely on the narration, it's key that the recording of the narration is the best it can be, so the listener can focus on the words, not the audio quality. It may be difficult to fit this piece in anywhere but arts and culture or poetry programming, but it stands very well on it's own.