It seems to have been a while since I last sat down in your inner parlour to listen to your wisdom drawn from years of conversation with your piano. Your timing seems to slow the ticking of the clock as the hands wind toward the inevitable stroke of midnight. But why rush, you ask the listener, and we settle into the answer - no reason. Abiding presence in your sounds, marvelously drifting from the end of one note to the start of the next. Gorgeous! :)

July 2020 AKS

“Mirror” is a reflection on the album (by the same name), that Paul Chagas and I collaborated on. Paulo initiated this piece via internet, and I responded. 
It touches on the various soundscapes that we evoked.

We hope that you enjoy this 2nd of two album preview pieces.
We would love to hear you response,….please leave a comment…

You can hear the whole album and download it here:  https://darkpebble-bluewave.bandcamp.com/album/mirror

With love, Wilhelm Matthies and Paulo Chagas

Mirror, (Chagas And Matthies)

The Trial
A Pico-Operetta for our Times

International Cast

Lady Humanity - Oddrun Eikli - Norway, vocals and lyric on the last song; @oddrun-eikli
Lord Mammon - Peter - England, All poetic lyrics in the operetta, except the last song; soundcloud.com/user-264930040/tracks
The Judge - David Dunham - USA, and acoustic guitar in the third song; @david-dunhamuser589535203
Music & Production - Seagull - Sweden, compilation, mixing, sound effects etc; @farout-music-studio

Here you can download all poetic lyrics: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/37k203an5c6azz0ekltvn/The-Trial-Libretto.pdf?rlkey=mope1vjiyqhaeo17b5u74dp2i&e=1&dl=0

Synopsis

Following unprecedented worldwide growth in human conflict, an emergency plenary session of the United Nations was convened late in 2023, tasked with finding new approaches to defuse global tension and ease conciliation. Recognising the abject failure of extant UN jurisdictions and powers, and in a radical restructuring of the international legal and security framework, that session established a new UN institution to sit alongside the International Court of Criminal Justice. The International Court of Moral Justice was formally incorporated into the UN Constitution on 1 January 2024.

The foundations of this infant organisation and those of the UN itself were shaken when it was revealed that the inaugural case to be heard by the ICMJ was to be a private prosecution brought by greed itself against the defendant, mankind’s innate sense of humanity.

In papers lodged with the court, the protagonist, Lord Mammon has asserted that the fundamental basis for human misery, the creation of discontent, thence envy and hence conflict, is to be found exclusively in false moral goodness and self-righteousness borne of a misplaced sense of benevolence. The human race survived and thrived, he states, not by moving at the pace of the slowest, or sharing resources with the weakest, but by taking and keeping, for the self alone, much more than is needed for basic subsistence, this being the singular route to strength, individual contentment and thus tolerance of others.

In reply, a broken and demoralised Lady Humanity has been compelled to present her own defence after failing to secure funding for a legal team to counter the advocates ranged in front of Lord Mammon. The case for the defence rests solely on the premise that good comes from within and cannot be created from nothing. So whilst she may try to bolster the moral cause in her work, she increasingly finds that the human souls she sees have no humanity in them whatsoever for her to strengthen, nothing to work with and as such, concedes that she has failed, but denounces the notion that it was for want of trying. Devoid of resources, supporters and allies of any kind she single handedly has held the fort against the self-perpetuating, self-reinforcing massed ranks of Mammon.

The Lord Chief Justice of the ICMJ along with his bench of associate judiciary adjourn proceedings to consider their findings and in the final act, return to deliver their verdict.

The Trial. A Pico-Operetta for our Times.

This is the title track off the album "There to here". It continues the story of a young man travelling across the atlantic ocean from Ireland in the 1800's and trying to find a place to settle in the new world of America. 
Music and lyrics: Phil Bowen
Mixing and production: Phil Bowen
Vocals/ backing vocals: Phil Bowen
Guitars: Phil Bowen
Keyboards: Phil Bowen
Lyrics: 
Verse 1
I look across Long Island in the setting sun
Shadows seem to dance around everyone
I look back at the ocean there’s nothing but sea
And wonder if this is reality

Verse 2
I walk to the station catch the Stonington line
Lay back my head. It’s like a mountain I climbed
One more day and I’ll soon be there
Providence calls to my evening prayer

Chorus
That’s the way I got from there to here
It seems to roll into another year
A little laughter, a few more tears
That’s the way I got from there to here. 

Verse 3
So the train moves on and time moves on
I’m sitting here thinking that I belong
To this new world of hope, opportunity
No more locks on doors, no master key

Verse 4
The moon shines down across a canopy of trees
On a warm summer night well I feel so at ease
One more day and I’ll soon be there
Providence calls to my evening prayer.

There to Here  Pt. 2

There to Here

There To Here

Il y a quelques années, mon Ami Ed m'avait soumis une bande son guitare solo, pour une collaboration. L'ayant redécouvert il y a quelques temps, j'ai réadapté ces éléments aujourd'hui pour ce nouveau concept que je présente ici ....

N'hésitez pas à visiter sa page: https://soundcloud.com/westtracksmusic

**************************************************************************************************

A few years ago, my friend Ed submitted a solo guitar soundtrack to me for a collaboration. Having rediscovered him some time ago, I've adapted these elements today for this new concept, which I present here ....

Feel free to visit his page: https://soundcloud.com/westtracksmusic

Sway .... With Ed Cunningham

Resilient @ Passengers Bar Belgrade 2024 - 04 - 19

Hello dear Listeners,

Indeed, it's been a long while since Tim and I posted New Music together as  Shekinah Fire*, but today's the day!

This improvisation was recorded by our one Stereo ZOOM Mic on April 8th during the Solar Eclipse. 

I am on Tim's ancient upright Grand Piano and he's playing his Telecaster electric Guitar. What came forth as we played were Allelujahs for  the Joy of Spring and the wonders of improvisation.

In case you're wondering about the title, the jewel-like 'sparks' made visible in the Sun's Corona just before it reached Totality then as it exited (as captured in the Photo), are called 'Baily's Beads'. We hope you'll hear them as the music unfolds.

May you enJOY!

Music © Gary Courtland-Miles & Tim Elliot 2024
℗ Gary Courtland-Miles 2024 & Tim Elliot 2024

Edited and Produced by © Anomon

Image Credit & Copyright Daniel Korona
titled:  'Baily's Beads' - Total Solar Eclipse of April 8th 2024

Baily's Beads * Shekinah Fire

This track is my recognition and thanks to all my musical friends . As you listen ,I hope that you will experience the peace and solitude and distance your mind from all the negatives around the world.
Enjoy.

Distant Souls .

Frida's Wings – The Skeletons
April 2024
Duration: 2:50
A shorter version was previously included in the “Art Expressed in Music” series
Painting: Frida Kahlo Painting Self Portrait.
Music for Danse Etoile Ballet (www.danseetoile.org) who will be performing Frida's Wings, a ballet based on the life and works of Frida Kahlo, June 2024 in Colorado.
Thanks to John-Marc Ventimiglia @john-marc-ventimiglia for creating the “rattling bones” sound library
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self portraits and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.  Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain. In most of her self-portraits, she depicts her face as mask-like, but surrounded by visual cues which allow the viewer to decipher deeper meanings. Aztec mythology features heavily in Kahlo's paintings in symbols including skeletons and skulls.  In the painting, Dream of The Bed, painted in the year of 1940, Frida expressed her feeling and interception of death, which depicts a skeleton on the canopy of her bed (as she had in her real life). Her husband, Diego Rivera called the Juda, Frida's lover, but Frida said it's just an amusing reminder of people's mortality. Frida Kahlo spent much of her life in pain.  As As a teenager she suffered a horrific bus accident which left her unable to have children and meant she needed more than 30 operations on her spine. Eventually her withered leg had to be amputated and she died at 47. She said in her diary: “Feet, why do I need you, if I have wings to fly”
For guitar, accordion, trumpet, violin, double bass, sound effects and percussion

Frida's Wings - The Skeletons

Frida's Wings – The Valse 
April 2024
Duration: 3:10
Painting: Frida Kahlo Painting Self Portrait.
Remix of Vals Alejandra by Enrique Mora
Music for Danse Etoile Ballet (www.danseetoile.org) who will be performing Frida's Wings, a ballet based on the life and works of Frida Kahlo, June 2024 in Colorado.
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self portraits and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.  Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain. In most of her self-portraits, she depicts her face as mask-like, but surrounded by visual cues which allow the viewer to decipher deeper meanings. Aztec mythology features heavily in Kahlo's paintings in symbols including skeletons and skulls.  In the painting, Dream of The Bed, painted in the year of 1940, Frida expressed her feeling and interception of death, which depicts a skeleton on the canopy of her bed (as she had in her real life). Her husband, Diego Rivera called the Juda, Frida's lover, but Frida said it's just an amusing reminder of people's mortality. Frida Kahlo spent much of her life in pain.  As As a teenager she suffered a horrific bus accident which left her unable to have children and meant she needed more than 30 operations on her spine. Eventually her withered leg had to be amputated and she died at 47. She said in her diary: “Feet, why do I need you, if I have wings to fly”
For strings, piano, accordion and percussion.

Frida's Wings - Valse

Resting

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=42508

Keeping It Together (Soul Shaker EP)

A track from the album Time and Tide, available on Bandcamp
amandasanderson.bandcamp.com/album/time-and-tide

Lyrics, music, mixing, production: Verulium
https://verulium.bandcamp.com/releases
Vocals: Amanda Kim Sanderson

It started in Garstang
Heading out for the M55 it's a beautiful motorway
But in the wrong direction 

I first saw Jimi in 75
Stood on the cowling of a seaplane not alive
But more like a saviour

I sat by the lakeside
Checking up on the stove and the gear for a very long holiday
To where the spirit takes me

He landed like a star on Derwentwater
His face was drawn so I offered him a quarter
Of Kendal mint cake

Driving the ghost of a famous 60s rock star
Around and around ’til we've built the energy
Living in the back of a camper van
The lakes are great and we do the best we can
One day we'll make it

We're parked in a lay by
Filling up with some beans on toast and a very nice Chardonnay 
To mark the occasion

In a white silk shirt and skin tight pants
He can't sing a note and he's banned all instruments
You've got to respect it

Driving the ghost of a famous 60s rock star
Around and around ’til we've built the energy
Living in the back of a camper van
The lakes are great and we do the best we can
One day we'll make it

We pin our hopes upon
The comeback show of the chosen one
At the Woodstock of the north
In Deeply Vale with Sandie Shaw and The Doors 

Driving the ghost of a famous 60s rock star
Around and around ’til we've built the energy
Living in the back of a camper van
The lakes are great and we do the best we can
One day we'll make it

But the times have changed
The stars have left?
We keep on chasing happiness none the less
One day we’ll find it

Time and Tide

Driving The Ghost Of A Famous Sixties Rock Star

Approaching Midnight

A special song about my Dad. (a tribute to John Prine's style of music)
Lyrics by Tony Harris that inspired Lizzie 
Vocal & Music by my friend Lizzie Taypen

I WOKE UP EVERY MORNIN'
TO THE SOUND OF HIM PLAYIN'
HIS OLD HARP IN THE KEY OF "C"
A GREAT MEMORY FOR ME

THEN HE WAS READY TO START HIS DAY
GRABBED HIS LUNCH...WAS ON HIS WAY
ALWAYS ARIVING EARLY AT THE JOB SITE
CAUSE BEIN' LATE WOULD NOT BE RIGHT

(CHORUS)
MY DADDY WAS A CARPENTER
HE LOVED DRIVIN' THEM NAILS
A SMALL TIME CONTRACTOR
ALWAYS FOCUSED ON DETAILS
NO AIR TOOLS BACK THEN
TO HIM…IT WAS A SIN
IF YOU DIDN'T USE A HAMMER

HIS WORK DAY'S...THEY WERE LONG
FILLED WITH HARD WORK AND SWEAT
NOW DON'T GET ME WRONG
MY DAD HAD NO REGRETS

HE LEARNED HIS TRADE
IN THE ARMY DURING THE WAR
WORE OUT MANY A SAW BLADE
AND HUNG MANY A DOOR

(REPEAT CHORUS)

ON SUNDAY WE WERE ALWAYS GOIN'
TO THE COUNTRY CHURCH NEXT DOOR
HIS BIBLE, HE WAS ALWAYS READIN'
DIDN'T WANT TO BE THE MAN HE WAS BEFORE

(REPEAT CHORUS)

2020 © Lyrics by Tony Harris (BMI)

My Daddy Was A Carpenter - Lyrics by Tony Harris - Featuring Lizzie Taypen - Original

“A painter paints pictures on canvas but musicians paint their pictures on silence.” -  Leopold Stokowski

A member of Cellar Door which you can find here: https://soundcloud.com/cdoor

"The most powerful and magical language is music. The reason for this is that music is the original language. Music is not ornamented poetry, and poetry is not ornamented prose. Poetry is fallen music, and prose is fallen poetry. Prose is not the original language; it is poetry made practical. Even poetry is not the original language; it is music made speakable, it is the words of music separated from their music. In the beginning was music." (Peter Kreeft, Philosophy of Tolkien)

My main page is:
https://soundcloud.com/phoebeelena/tracks
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7uEaYVwBY1r5WaJEhmekAw?view_as=subscriber

Approaching Midnight

Classical Glass

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