Thank you for indulging me, Viv. ;) I left choral singing a while ago, so I do miss harmonizing but this is more fun as I got to sing all the parts but the bass line. If you wake me up early enough, I could do that, too!!

Wow, Nadia, your vocals sound great with this vocal treatment. Nicely done!

Your voice is a treasure, Nadia! Beautiful accompaniment & mixing, Garddwr!

@hearthouserecords: Thank you! We will : )

I didn't expect some doo wop here. And the aggression reduction lyrics made my day lol

This is absolutely delightful!  What a brilliant collaboration both of you...

...Nevertheless, I'll go on flying.

Thank you.

North Pole Highway

Spring Awakening

https://youtu.be/wklFeuxtLW8?si=nRRpeQR8uLxX-hVr

promenade

Some Doo-Wopping with Nadia.  
Vocals, Vocal Melody, Harmonies, Lyrics by Nadia Selvaggi
Instrumental, Vocals, Harmonies/Bass Line, Lyric Tweaks for Aggression Reduction, Mix by Garddwr Porffor
Lots more of Nadia's lovely music https://soundcloud.com/nadiaselvaggi

Bees
by Nadia Selvaggi

You've got bees, bees, bees in your bonnet
Can you remember how we used to be?
Your screams will wake the mountains
Our days are numbered
Why spend them in acrimony?

Let's quiet our mind and look deep inside
Life's pain has turned us bitter and blind
Our hate makes us unkind
So let's leave our past behind
There's wisdom and virtue in silence, sometimes

You've got bees, bees, bees in your bonnet
Can you remember how we used to be?
Your screams will wake the mountains
Our days are numbered
Why spend them in acrimony?

So dry your weary eyes
Let forgiveness be our guide
A house divided will crumble and die
The pawn shops of life
are filled with gold bands of pride
It's our choice alone to keep love alive

You've got bees, bees, bees in your bonnet
Can you remember how we used to be?
Our days are numbered
Why spend them in acrimony?

Bees (with Nadia Selvaggi)

As each November approaches I try to make my own little Remembrance-time tribute.  Seems more relevant as each year passes...

Following the huffing and puffing empire lunacy in the summer of 1914, the next four years would see 40 million casualties, half of them deaths and of those, half were civilian.  

40 million.

40 million tales of poignancy, pain, grief and human tragedy, through times that can often seem littered with coincidence, symmetries …. bookends and mirrors.

In the Military Cemetery of St Symphorien near Mons rests John Parr.  At only five foot three inches and several years under age he (amazingly) managed to enlist in 1912 - hoping to see the world, and get the advertised “two square meals” a day.  He was the first British Army casualty, killed in the battle of Mons aged just 17, his body left behind, fate unknown until much later in the conflict;  the army unable to answer his mother’s letters of enquiry about her “silent” son.

By pure coincidence, John lies just a few yards from the last British soldier to die in the great war.  George Ellison served for four long years including at the same first battle of Mons as John, and most of the famously grinding, attritional infantry battles of the conflict.  His working life bookended by military service, George had first enlisted in 1902, leaving the army in 1912, just as John joined, he became a coal miner, re-enlisting at the outbreak of war to dig mud not coal and fight from trenches he helped excavate.  George was killed just 90 minutes before the armistice took effect at 11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month.  The futility of the conflict was cruelly illustrated by the fact that George’s war had started and ended at exactly the same place, Mons in Belgium.  They had literally gone nowhere.

As a postscript to progress since "the war to end all wars" the human race is currently reckoned to be engaged in 7 major wars, 15 significant ongoing conflicts and 21 “minor” conflicts (the latter defined as up to "only” 1000 deaths per year).  By way of another macabre bookend, the longest of these has been going on, unbelievably, since the year .... 1918.

As always, this simple ballad is offered as a live one mic one take effort - please excuse the fluffs and gaffes.
_______________________

Bookends and Mirrors

Sun turned cold ‘cross every sky in the summer of ‘14
The Good Lord shook his head, and he placed it in his hands
Braided declarations flying, whose like was never seen
Lunatics in feathers stockpiled lead, bagged their sand.
Slapstick Mephistopheles, unleashing of his flame
Spiral minds lobotomised in the waltz of the insane
Simple lives unknowing of the mud that would become
A mirror in the resting place of two Holy Mother’s sons.

Signed the line, five years young, fingers crossed behind his back
Chance to see the world, grab a future, two square meals.
At 17, John’s angels sung, first to fall in dawn’s attack
Abandoned and forgotten, deaf to all his ma’s appeals.
Never knew the miner, his bookend pal to be
Fighting down the line, many battles that he’d see
Full four years in trenches, George’s hell lived through them all
Cruelty was smiling wide at England’s last to fall.

In service time they travelled nowhere, nothing to achieve
Embracing 40 million weeping mothers left to grieve
The crime of puffing chest bravado beggared to believe
Hall of mirrors seeping others’ blood of the innocent naive.

Now John and George lie facing each to seek their mirrored peace
Raise my eyes and brim a tear for the lessons never learned
Pray God, don’t ever let them know man’s insanity but increased
The war to end all wars a mere sequel oft’ returned 
By comedies of leathered fools stuck on infinite repeat
Bemedalled and bejewelled, they prosecute their moral defeat
But here, on sallow turf twixt heroes, broken mirror in my broken hand
Met by my own broken eyes, I still fail to understand.
_________
Photo by Michael Yuan on Unsplash

Bookends and Mirrors

A humble honey bee becomes an questioning philosophical singing bluesman.  A folky song reminiscent of one of my musical heroes, Loudon Wainwright III (Swimming Song, Dead Skunk)
Lyrics:
I've been flying around
I've been buzzing around town
I'm just trying not to drown
Inside the hive mind
I'm on a mythical quest
I'm a 5 eyed Sir Galahad
I'm always questioning the plan
The most beautiful flowers
They always seem the most sad
Is there a heaven?
Do I believe in nothingness?
And nothing less?
Oh well, I digress
You know what we should do?
Let's dive bomb the Influencer!
Destroy her photo shoot!
Oh, I've been buzzing around
I've been swarming around town
I've been questioning everything that I've found
Inside the hive mind

Is our life just one job?
And that's all we do?
I'm a drone bee
Not a worker
But I'm really stung on you
Let's cause chaos at the school grounds!
We'll seek out the bullies
Give them technicolor wounds!
Oh yeah, well you know that a life must have a purpose
And we all contribute to the bloom
(happy bee buzzing around)
In the hive mind
Hive mind 
You've got to question the way you're thinking
Start questioning the plan

Hive Mind

Auteur : Ze Scott (https://soundcloud.com/jerome-scotto-di-vettimo)
Compositeur  : Bribinvoile (https://soundcloud.com/bribinvoile)

Auteur de l'illustration : Harrison Haines ( httpswww.pexels.comfr-frphotosilhouette-d-arbres-3536506)

Paroles:

Un autre jour à attendre la nuit
Quelqu’un déjà comme moi saisit l’occasion d’un  répit
Le nez en l’air sans se retourner ne semblant pas surpris
Il me dit

A l’envers du décor
Tant de calme me rend plus fort   
Car la nuit quand je sors
L’oeil ouvert, moi je rêve encore  

Au rythme des étoiles la tête ailleurs			
De nouveaux apôtres nous frôlent comme en apesanteur
Le tumulte au loin BFM éteint on partage dans la lueur
La même pâleur

Puisqu’ à l’envers du décor
Tant de calme nous rend plus forts
Car la nuit quand on sort
L’oeil ouvert nous on rêve encore

Encore

La Ronde Sous Les Cieux  (Bribinvoile / Ze Scott)

Written, Recorded, Composed and Produced by Dan

Home Sweet Home

https://soundcloud.com/nowy-yorg-nowyyorg/tracks 
https://nowyyorg9.wixsite.com/seasional-optimist/local-hero 

nowyyorg 2023 

...although I don't really play covers, this one is so deep under my skin that I couldn't resist... I hope you like my arrangement... 

guitars - nowyyorg 
piano   - my friend Sophie

Local Hero (Wild Theme)  - Dire Straits (cover) by nowyyorg

Here’s a jazz swing track for 2024 !
It’s a rearranged version of an old composition. In this track I used piano, acoustic guitar, B3, Rhodes, brushed drums and upright bass.
Thank you for listening !

Composition: Julien Apelian
Recording studio: Audio Colors
December, 28th, 2023.

Maximum Swing

Aresquiers

All music, songs and lyrics are original, unless noted.
Collaborations welcome, if you think you can add something to any of my songs, want to sing them, etc, please drop me a note
I advise playing on a good Hi-Fi or at least good headphones, otherwise you will miss all the good stuff going on in the lower frequencies. You don't want to only hear half of the music : )

Bees (with Nadia Selvaggi)

Garddwr Porffor

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