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D3006

The CDs have just arrived -soon to be available online at all the major download places. Its handsome and sounds wonderful…clear voiced, open sound with a grand acoustic dynamic. Dynamite through good headphones. A tip of the hat to engineer Jeff Wolpert for a meticulous mix and mastering.

The actual CD (opposed to virtual) is in limited supply. Only a small quantity of glass mastered CDs were manufactured. If you admire the actual you can send an email to otterbay@lostsound.com and one will be reserved for you.

What Is Your Name OB106

original CD with liner notes, 2015 OB 106 *free shipping

$25.00

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Today, Jan 15 2015 we approved the final master. It has been an all consuming experience since we first posted here, Sept 2013. We began this project with the intention of allowing ourselves time; time to find the optimum ways of recording our array of found sounds; time to build the perfect arrangements; time to allow the minutest of changes; time to be patient and uncompromising. All our changes during the process have made a world of difference. We embarked on this method to create a sound that we love and a sound that could not be achieved in any other way. Now we’ve reached the point of “letting go”. Next month the CD should be out in the world.

armoury recording-struck jugs-oct-2013

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listening to final mix – Desert Fish Studio, photo: D. Minden

Almost 1 year to the day, the recording is complete. Now, its all about listening. Letting some time go by to give perspective and listening to what has been recorded with fresh ears. We’re iistening now: the balance between sounds, the clarity and placement of the music and vocals, trying to find the best order and sequence for all the pieces that will make up the whole. It’s coming together as storytelling and the music and lyrics connect to each other in intricate ways, so that the sequencing becomes essential. We still imagine the wholeness of the album, rather than separated individual songs. Do people even listen this way anymore; or does the increasing prevalence of streaming encourage us to only hear individual separate pieces?

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We thought we had finished all the recording last June and were close to wrapping up the album.  A few days later Carla realized there was one more song that needed composing. The story wasn’t complete. This one took longer than usual to come into focus. Piano, insistent yet delicate, was going to be the centre of the music and words were going to tumble down and around the repetitious notes. Spoken, intense words against a texture of tuned glass bottles, struck metal bowl, musical saw, wordless vocals and piano. It’s October 1st and we have been immersed in this music for the last year. Today we recorded the piano tracks on a dusky, mellow 38 year old Grotrian-Steinweg.

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We are now working on the last composition of the song cycle.  It will be a quiet mix of piano, understated vocals, spoken word and musical saw…perhaps with the addition of a repeated struck metal bowl tuned with water. The found sounds that orchestrate much of this recording are being selected for their particular timbre and presence. They are unlike any other sound with their certain rough edges. When we record found sounds the goal is not the electronic manipulation of the sound. We record them to sound like what they are: physical, tangible sounds with substance.

metal bowl-mindenduo
 

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just finished a complex mix of found sounds, voice, & piano. It was carefully constructed and built up in layers of repeated sounds of clay flower pots, struck tuned glass bottles, struck PVC pipe, carpenter’s saw, blown tuned wine and miniature liquor bottles and percussive piano with spoken word, then interrupted with lyrical piano and vocals. From one perspective it might be the soundscape of a modern dance work; from another it illuminates the space between theatre and music. It stands as the dramatic focal point of the album,  “The Courtroom” .

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2 performances in Toronto coming up end of May: compositions for waterphones, musical saws, tuned glass bottles and the dark vocals of Carla Hallett will celebrate the quiet side of the acoustic spectrum. Natural, quirky sound, rich in subtle hues and rough textures… strangely familiar and resonant.

Musideum  Saturday May 31 8:00PM 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 133  Toronto

Music Mondays Monday June 2 12:15 noon, Church Of The Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Square. Toronto