Name: Larks Flew South by 56swetch
Duration: 3 min 34 s
Description: A soundtrack of fripperies during a blizzard, while dreaming of the tropics.

Lots of cool and weird sounds in here! Great song!

A dreamy song with some dream pop guitar tones, about a dream lover. 
The chord progression for the middle instrumental/guitar solo section was composed by Terry Michaels of the band Lyndenthal.
The bass is a Music Man Bongo fretless 5 string recorded direct through a Tech 21 RPM preamp.
The lead guitar is a PRS DC3, through a Stomp Under Foot 1973 V1 Ram's Head Muff for the middle section solo, and a Stomp Under Foot Red Menace for the harmony guitars at the end. Lead guitars were all played through a Hiwatt DR103 amp. 
The chorused "soft focus" rhythm guitars are an MJ Groovemaster recorded through Keeley Loomer, Realizer and Dyno My Roto pedals and a Hafler Triple Giant preamp.
The E Bow guitars are a Hamer Studio played through a Way Huge Conquistador Fuzztortion, an Electro Harmonix Epitom3 and into a Sansamp. 
The clean guitar in the verses is a Hamer Chapparal, recorded direct through a Hafler Triple Giant guitar preamp. 
Synths used include Arturia OB XA V, Steinberg Retrologue, G Force M Tron Pro and Korg Mono Poly, plus the Una Corda piano in the little interlude toward the end of the song.

The song was composed in 2019, some rewriting in early 2022, verses rewritten in summer 2022. Vocal, bass and guitar tracks were recorded in summer-fall 2022. Mixed in fall 2022.

Dream Eternities

This song came out of fooling around with DADGAD tuning a few summers ago. You'll hear what came out in the acoustic guitar track here. I did a good bit of the recording then (2019), but just came back to this in the last few weeks to add the vocals, electric guitar, and whatever knowledge I've gained in the last 3 years about making a recording sound a little better.
This song is in the spirit of lots of other songs that exhort those listening to help make this world a better place. That type of song always appealed to me as offering a bit of hope in the midst of chaos, confusion, self-centeredness, fears, etc. I'm thinking of things like Love's In Need of Love Today by Stevie Wonder, Love is the Answer by Todd Rundgren, or even All You Need is Love from the Beatles.
This lyrics here aren't so overtly Love centered, but if the message is heard and accepted, and taken to heart...hey, who knows?

Words and Music by John Schwetje; copyright Swetchsongs (ASCAP) 2022. All voices and instruments performed or programmed, production, engineering, and recording by John Schwetje at Swetchsongs studios, Long Island, NY

Golden Rule

Here's a song about keeping your bearings, and being comfortable when they inevitably take you into newly charted places. Change is a constant, so those bearings can swerve and shift pretty regularly. Our perceptions of the "world", and our place in it, are never likely to be fixed for any great length of time.
It can also be about realizing that changes in borders, and shifts in our own lives and circumstances leave some constants which remain integrated in some basic, yet profound, ways.

Written, performed , recorded, engineered, and produced by John Schwetje at Swetchsongs Studio, Long Island, NY. Copyright 2022 by Swetchsongs, ASCAP. Photo is public domain image of the Kashgari Map from 1072 CE.

A Map Of The World

Inside Glow

Surrender To Silence

A song about a good way to spend time. Updated version with new mix, drums, and backing vox, which replaces something that had been here for about 5-6 years.
Composed, performed, engineered, and recorded by John Schwetje.
Swetchsongs ASCAP

Doing Good

Recent composition and recording that became a bit of an excercise in arranging for horns and reeds. A contemplative, but optimisitic, view of possible futures.
Composed, performed, engineered, and recorded by John Schwetje.  Swetchsongs, ASCAP 2023.

Hoping Hopes

This version is an early 2023 update of something that was first put up here in January, 2018. It's a new and clearer mix. There's also a discrete horn and woodwind part that hadn't been there before. I know a bit more about recording now than I did then, and I believe this is improved over what had been before through some tweaks I now know of and can employ..
I'd never explained the title in my previous track note. I personally couldn't believe that I'd ever be capable of writing or performing something like this. I had the idea when hearing it develop that it was really pretty cool and different from other things I'd done. I really thought it could represent my "life's work", and that I'd be happy to have anyone at any point of time hear this as someone said "Listen to this. This is this guy's essence."
I've done other things in life that I've been proud of, and written and recorded other pieces of music that I've liked, but I'd be happy to be remembered through this piece of music alone, if it ever came to that. It might not mean much to anyone else, but it does to me.
For what it's worth, VBS were my mother's initials. I think she'd too be amazed and impressed to hear that the kid who grew up playing loud bass and guitar on her porch had ever gotten to the point that he'd generate something like this
Guitar, bass, keys, drum and percussion programming, and composition by John Schwetje. Recorded at Swetchsongs Studios, Long Island, NY. Photo by John Schwetje. Swetchsongs, ASCAP.

Life's Work (VBS)

This song started acoustically many, many years ago. It became electric at another point quite awhile back too. Now, there's a merge of both, along with fewer lyrics, a new rhythmic slant, and a new ending.
The words are inspired by the idea that, in this crazy world of ours, things can sometimes seem totally great.
That realization might occur to us at times. It's certainly aided by being somewhat blessed in our circumstances and outlook to begin with. On top of that, we've got to be open to that "light bulb flashing on" at those times when such an impression might be possible.
I had a friend who'd said, near the time when this was first written and played, that it reminded him of Jefferson Airplane's Embryonic Journey (which I'd never heard at that time). The electric part was a more conscious attempt for me to work with a vibe remotely akin to Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles. If this came close to either of those templates, I'm happy.
New mix put up 2023-01-28.

Written and performed by John Schwetje (acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drum programming, keys, and vocals). Production, recording, and engineering by John Schwetje at Swetchsongs Studios, Long Island, NY. Photo by John Schwetje. Copyright, 2019 Swetchsongs, ASCAP.

The Universe And Me

I was a recreational runner for many years, and a variety of things have now made me a walker. This song is an imaginary stroll in a forest. There's definitely a walking pace that might set feet in motion, and the different song sections might set up different trails and vistas on this walk.
Woods in the title also relates to the fact that this all originated on an acoustic guitar. Once upon a time, I felt it might solely be recorded with a pair or trio of acoustic guitars, but that didn't happen. The basic percussion choices also related at one point to wooden mallet instruments like marimbas, but that expanded too.
Hoping that this might make a nice stroll unfold in the mind of the listener, or that some might take the hint and play it via earbuds on an actual woodland sojourn.

Written, played, programmed, engineered, and recorded by John Schwetje as Swetchsongs studios, Long Island, NY. ASCAP (C) Swetchsongs 2023. Photo by John Schwetje

Walking The Woods

First the disclaimers: this is not intended in any way to be offensive to practitioners of any New Age/Pagan faith who might think "This guy is painting us with a broad brush that's based on archaic stereotypes.", Sorry if that impression comes across to anyone. Secondly, this song was written and first recorded in the very early 1990's, when sensibilities about being PC or "woke" were a bit different.
This is basically a lighthearted take on something that really happened to me on a Long Island roadway about a mile from home one late afternoon. I fearfully observed another driver nearly clobber a few of us at an intersection. It just so happened that their car was absolutely covered with bumper stickers and decals telling the rest of us that they'd rejected many conventional belief systems and embraced what's mentioned above as their alternative.Beyond the stickers and decals, there were crystals hanging from mirrors along with a spirit catcher or 2.
We all very narrowly avoided an accident and I was soon home, shaken and stirred to commemorate the experience in a rather curious way. I'd recently gotten an old cassette port-a-studio, and set out to document the experience and soothe my shattered nerves through song. Witchie was born, and a very old version of this survives somewhere in my basement on a cassette tape. My wife and daughter actually helped out on the "Which witchie was it..." part on that version.
My wife is now part of an upcoming run of Macbeth at one of our local theaters. Of course, the famous "Weird Sisters" are part of that, and the director and cast are having a bit of fun with that aspect of the production. Therefore, my wife asked me about that old cassette of Witchie. Rather than finding that, and dusting off whatever might still exist on that tape, I set about to do a 2023 DAW version, and here it is!.
No help from others on this. It was all written, played, programmed, produced, engineered, and recorded by yours truly here at Swetchsongs studios in early October of 2023. Hope it'll be heard in the tongue in cheek fashion in which it was written and intended.
ASCAP (C) Swetchsongs 2023. Photo adapted by John Schwetje

Witchie

A soundtrack of fripperies during a blizzard, while dreaming of the tropics.

Larks Flew South

Lots of good, and hopefully different, music here. I'm rooted in rock that's informed by influences like Kurt Rosenwinkel, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Weather Report, and Pat Metheny. Huge impact from Todd Rundgren, Neil Finn, XTC, the Island Records stable circa 1968-74 (Traffic, Free, Fairport Convention, etc.); and 70's prog-rock from Yes, King Crimson, Soft Machine, and Mike Oldfield. This all filters into what you'll hear from me.

Larks Flew South

56swetch

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