Recording Ashflame

I’m finally recording my music. 46 years old I should have done it ages ago – only it wouldn’t have been the same music.
    Ashflame is a kind of opera. When I started recording some months ago, my intention was to keep it simple: guitars, piano, organ, bass, drums and occasional brass and woodwinds. But the second time I came to Petros’ home studio in the old town of Rhodes, he had had a little fun with the first part we recorded. The MIDI-files (originally meant for organ) were altered to French horns, bassoon, flute, strings, trombones, oboe etc. It sounded great, and suddenly I realised that what I was making was in fact orchestral music. Pretentious? Maybe, certainly ambitious. But you guys love pretentious music anyway.
    So we continued in the same way. The first song, The End, serves as a kind of overture, presenting some of the main themes and motifs. At the same time the listeners are introduced to the main character, Ashflame, in the moment of his death. Here you can listen to the result so far:
    
http://www.musicwebtown.com/jellyfishinice/275259


Sorry, no downloads yet. We will add drums towards the end and use a real bass instead of the MIDI one. All the vocals will be rerecorded later. I’ll upload the second song in a few days. Hope you like it!

Note: I am not responsible for the ads on that site.
 

Edited by refugee - August 09 2009 at 11:15

I’ve added the 3rd as well, featuring me on … chopsticks. I sing it myself here, but the first part will be sung by a girl (Matina has a very beautiful and unusual voice), the second by Petros.

The 5th song is added. It’s a song I made together with my brother some 30+ years ago, then with Norwegian lyrics. We recorded the "angry" bouzouki solo today. Again, remember that this is not the final version. I will not sing in the fairy choir at all, and we have to do a lot with the balance. And the piano part towards the end will be slower.

^ Thanks a lot!

One more thing: We’ll probably redo much of the flute work with a real flute.

We have started recording the 6th song, but I’m going away for a week so it will take some time before I upload it.

^ Isn’t it? It works fine for me. Maybe you could try another browser (I use Firefox).

I’m sorry, Cobb, I don’t know how to help you. Maybe you lack some software? On the other hand, they are MP3 files and should be easily read by any computer. Here’s the link to the site I have used:

http://www.musicwebtown.com/community/index.php

Hope this can help you. Have a nice day! (It’s already night here in Greece ...)

Thank you very much, Joosep! Warming words to take with me on vacation (I’m going away for a week). I’d love to hear your music, so please post a link if you have recorded anything.

Finally the 6th song, Dreaming of Ruth, is uploaded. Due to vacations, illness (nothing serious, but a sore throat goes bad with singing) and a failed experiment (I had to rewrite the end), this has taken longer than expected. If you listen carefully, you will hear a noise when I sing, "but cold as ice", but it’s in the vocal channel, and we’ll do it over again anyway. So, here it is, with "crazy diamond"-effects in the first interlude and "swordfish trombones" towards the end.

New version of A Vision of a Mission (#2, with flutes and a different organ). I think the end of the song is much better now. Matina has been to the studio and it sounds very nice, but we have to mix the music, so it’s too early to upload anything. I’m looking forward to replace "Night w bouzouki" with "Night w Matina", though .

Forgive me for shamelessly bumping my own thread. We are not asleep here, as you can hear if you listen to the playlist. In the 1st and 4th song we have replaced the "electric" guitar (which really was a classical run through a filter) with a real one. You can also hear Mattina’s voice, but remember that this is not the final take.

The 8th track ("The Writer") is the first part of a long song. Starting with some twelve tone music (permuted with my own system), it continues with a very special and odd rythm, alternating between e minor and e locrian. Kostas, who came to studio today with a Rush T-shirt, will put on a solo.

So, no more recording this year. Have a nice Christmas or Solstice or whatever you celebrate!

Yours

Espen