This song was written for my dear friend Jenny when she turned 40. The main idea being that a feather is something that has virtually no weight, which creates a paradox with the "weight of time" as in the sum of all past events (maybe emphasised by the fact that time itself doesn't have any actual weight either...). Also the idea of wearing it in the hair is a symbol that came from native Americans to represent their past victories - in the present case it's much more peaceful but still represents some real personal fights.
Then I tried to find other images around time and the number 40:
- it took Jesus 40 days to walk across the desert, 40 days and 40 nights is also a biblical reference to mean a long time (meaning the end of a period of challenges, not old age!),
- a quarantine makes me think of the French work "quarantaine" which is basically the time to discover that you're free from the torment of an illness,
- Ali-Baba and the 40 thieves - maybe they took some treasures of your childhood or other past happiness but you can still find the secret to unlock the cave's door,
- finally 40 candles on a birthday cake, that's plenty of little lights with loved ones who celebrate with you to light up and warm up your heart.
All in all, it was a rather spontaneous creation and straight acoustic recording with my portable digital recorder to simply capture the moment.
Many special thanks to Adeline for creating the picture.
