Category: Album Release

Slumber Album Released!

William Wordsworth was a poet who wrote of an enigmatic young woman who died at an early age. Her name was Lucy.

Slumber is an album of 8 songs (and an epilogue) – each one named after a line of the 5th poem of the “Lucy” series:

A slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears
She seem’d a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years
No motion has she now, no force
She neither hears nor sees
Roll’d round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees

Filled with haunting soundscapes and melancholy melodies, Slumber presents a musical mourning of the long lost Lucy. This album truly was a labor of love. May you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making!

Slumber Album Release Announcement

The new Chords of Orion album, Vision, releases on October 1, 2014 on BandCamp!

slumber-art

William Wordsworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth) was a poet who has inspired and fascinated me for many years. In particular, his set of 5 poems about an enigmatic girl who died at an early age. Her name was Lucy. Here are all 5 poems for your poetic reading pleasure. Let them roll around in your soul: http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/lucy.html

Slumber is an album of 8 songs, each song named after a line of the 5th poem, “A slumber did my spirit seal”. Here are the song titles:

1. A slumber did my spirit seal
2. I had no human fears
3. She seemed a thing that could not feel
4. The touch of earthly years
5. No motion has she now, no force
6. She neither hears nor sees
7. Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
8. With rocks, and stones, and trees

I am so excited to release the album for download!

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 6 Rough Mix

If you are new to this series of songs, a quick summary – The new Chords of Orion album (mid-2014) is in progress. It is based on a William Wordsworth poem (http://www.bartleby.com/106/180.html). The challenge is to write and record a song for each of the 8 lines of the poem. This is the 6th song written, and the 4th line of the poem. As with all the songs from the album posted so far, this is a preliminary “rough mix”. After all the songs are recorded and previewed on YouTube, they will undergo a final mix, be mastered and officially released.

Equipment used:
Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy HF2
Avid Eleven Rack
Strymon Timeline
TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper
Morley L’il Alligator Volume Pedal
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio interface

Signal path — Carvin to Eleven Rack to effects out to volume pedal to Ditto to Timeline to effects in to Focusrite

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 5 Rough Mix

Listen to “No Motion has She Now, No Force”, an ambient guitar meditation, set to the beautiful backdrop of Antelope Island State Park in Utah.

This recording features “faux” Frippertronics. In addition, the wind-powered drone created in this video (http://youtu.be/V93Hh_xt-og) was used.

Hope you enjoy the music. Be on the lookout for the 3 remaining tracks and the final release of the album!

Equipment used:
Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy HF2
Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic
Avid Eleven Rack
Strymon Timeline
Morley L’il Alligator Volume Pedal
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio interface

Signal path — Carvin to Twin Tube to Eleven Rack to effects out to volume pedal to Timeline to effects in to Focusrite

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 4 Rough Mix

Pushing the new album of AMBIENT GUITAR MEDITATIONS forward!

Song #4 is entitled “With rocks, and stones, and trees”, the eighth line of the Wordsworth poem the album is based upon (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174822).

This is a “rough mix” release. Vocals at the end will change and there may be another guitar track that sneaks in.

EBow and Strymon Timeline are key players in this track. The Timeline was used to create the drone/pad that glues the song together.

Equipment used:
Fender Blacktop Baritone Guitar
Carvin Holdsworth HF2 Fatboy
Avid Eleven Rack
EBow
Logic Pro X

Signal path — Fender/Carvin to Eleven Rack to effect send to volume pedal to Strymon Timeline to effect return to computer.

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 3 Rough Mix

Work on the new album of AMBIENT GUITAR MEDITATIONS continues.

Song #3 is entitled “Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course”, the sixth line of the Wordsworth poem the album is based upon (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174822). This is a “rough mix” release. At this point, I plan on keeping the performance, which was a first take of a solo improvisation.

Background video is from the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Equipment used:
Fender Blacktop Baritone Guitar
Avid Eleven Rack
EBow
Logic Pro X

Signal path — Fender to Eleven Rack to computer.

11R Patch – I started with the “Secret Journeys” preset and modified it to get the tone I was looking for.

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 2 Rough Mix

Work on the new album of AMBIENT GUITAR MEDITATIONS continues.

Song #2 is entitled “I had no human fears”, the second line of the Wordsworth poem that inspired the album (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174822). Although this is a “rough mix” release, it’s pretty close.

A little more proggy/post-rocky with a nice ambient soundscape.

Equipment used:
Carvin HF2 Fatboy (Holdsworth)
Avid Eleven Rack
Strymon Timeline
TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper

Signal path — Carvin to Eleven Rack to Effect send to Volume Pedal to Ditto to Strymon Timeline to Effects return back to Eleven Rack.

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 1 Rough Mix

As was discussed in the last post, a new album of AMBIENT GUITAR MEDITATIONS is underway! It’s based on one of the “Lucy” poems by William Wordsworth (http://www.bartleby.com/106/180.html). Take a peek at the poem. Meditate on the poem. Notice that there are 8 lines to the poem. Yep – the new album will have 8 ambient guitar meditations/songs, one for each line of the poem.

This video was shot during the actual take of the first track (A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal). One guitar, one Ebow, one loooong delay (“Faux” Frippertronics), one take. This is a rough mix of the final track. Enjoy!

New Ambient Guitar Album in the Works

With the release of Vision (http://chordsoforion.bandcamp.com/album/vision), the Chords of Orion music production machine suddenly found itself in a lull. What to do?

After some soul searching (for about 30 seconds), the decision was made to embark upon a new album project! This time, however, instead of re-imaging old traditional tunes, I decided to re-image an old poem. Let me explain:

William Wordsworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth) is poet that has inspired and fascinated me for many years. In particular a set of 5 poems about an enigmatic girl who died at an early age. Her name was Lucy. Here are all 5 poems for your poetic reading pleasure. Let them roll around in your soul: http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/lucy.html

The new album will be a set of 8 songs, each song named after a line of the 5th poem, “A slumber did my spirit seal”. Here then are the song titles:

1. A slumber did my spirit seal
2. I had no human fears
3. She seemed a thing that could not feel
4. The touch of earthly years
5. No motion has she now, no force
6. She neither hears nor sees
7. Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
8. With rocks, and stones, and trees

I am very much looking forward to introducing the new songs as they unfold. I’ll posting a Youtube video of each song in a “rough mix” form as I record and mix them. Stay tuned!!