Collaborations with Simon Reich

@simon-reich

Simon & Me

WB Yeats poem, recited magnificently by my friend Hamilton Bailie. When I first heard this recorded version, I went straight to the piano & improvised the basis of the orchestral backing in one pass. It was a truly inspirational moment as the music just fell off the ends of my fingers. I then went back & added all the strings, horns & other orchestral instruments to fill out & back up the overall feel of the poem. Really enjoyed doing this project (the first collaboration Hamilton ever did) & hope to produce a lot more using his fabulous resonant vocals.

The Song of Wandering Aengus - Ft HamBa

This is a collaboration between myself & a fantastic musician in England who calls himself "HamBa". He sent over an idea based around a percussion backed piano solo. I added a double bass, rhythmic piano chords & a few bluesy piano riffs. I pulled it back into a 12 bar blues format & then finally added some cool saxaphones to give it some melody. Lets hope you'll want to eat "Green eggs and HamBa" anywhere!!!!

Green Eggs & HamBa

A collaboration with Hamilton Bailie. HamBa supplied the lovely vocal recitation of an Irish poem "The Stranger's Grave" & vocoder sections. I supplied the electronic musical backing. Something slightly different from my other work, but lots of fun nonetheless.

The Strangers Grave ft. HamBa

Once again, I have completed a collaboration with Hamilton Bailie (HamBa). Hamilton’s marvellous vocal intonations on the poem “Litany in time of Plague” provided me with inspiration to add  a bed of music to heighten the experience.
The poems author, Thomas Nashe, was an important figure in Elizabethan literature, and this poem  is a philosophical, if sometimes woeful, look at death. In a time of vast inequality among society, the plague proved a real leveller of class, strength, wealth & beauty. All tiers of society were touched by the hand of death.
While I listened to the recitation, I improvised on the piano, latching onto key phrases & words. I then went back & improvised the string parts as well. Later I just polished the whole thing up & what you hear now is the result.
In all six verses of this poem, Thomas Nashe repeats the same final two lines: "I am sick, I must die. / Lord, have mercy on us!" Whereas these lines sound gloomy in the first five verses, their meaning changes because of the optimism of the sixth verse. Nashe is suggesting that people's suffering will soon be over, and that death will release them from mortal pain. 


A Litany In Time Of Plague ft HamBa

At the Hawk's Well is a one act play by William Butler Yeats, first performed in 1916 and published in 1917. Once again I have completed a lovely collaboration with HamBa from the UK, who is a magnificent orator & brings to life words on a page like no one else I know. After receiving the recitation, I proceeded to improvise my piano line, while listening to the words being spoken. This gives me the purest way to connect the music inside me, with the words I am hearing & the story I feel they are telling. All I'm trying to do, is support the pictures I am seeing in my mind with music. If you like this sort of project, please scroll through my page & see the other collaborations we have recorded over the years. Also visit HamBa's soundcloud page for his own solo projects as well.   https://soundcloud.com/hamb-1

Hawks Well Ft. Hamba

Once again, I have teamed up with the brilliant HamBa (Hamilton Bailie from the UK)who's recitations are always so expressive. Once again, we've worked on a WB Yeats poem. They are fine just on their own, but to lend a bit more drama to the text, I've added piano & orchestral instruments & also some sound effects, to heighten the tension in places. 
Hopefully you will enjoy this treatment & also go back & listen to other collaborations we have completed.
https://soundcloud.com/hamb-1

Jealousy Of Emer Ft. HamBa

Music:   Simon Reich - @simon-reich

Vocal:    Hamilton Bailie

Traditional Irish folk song

As I Roved Out 2 - Simon Reich & Hamilton Bailie

Once again, I have teamed up with the brilliant HamBa (Hamilton Bailie from the UK)who's recitations are always so expressive. This time he picked a poem from John Donne, "Sweetest Love". Hamilton's voice is a beautiful instrument to work with & adding all the instrumentation never attempts to get in the way of his lovely recitations.
Hopefully you will enjoy this treatment & also go back & listen to other collaborations we have completed.
@hamb-1

Sweetest Love Ft. HamBa

Demelia Denton wrote a poem & asked for collaborators to re-imagine the piece. I turned straight to my friend in the UK, Hamilton Bailie (HamBa) to do the brilliant spoken word section of this project. I then wrote a piece that had a lot of menace in it, but still supported the strong words of the poem. Strings, piano, heavily reverb drenched kettle drums & lots of other sound effects, helped me round out this somewhat disturbing track, but one I thoroughly enjoyed working on.

The Curse ft. Hamba. Poem written by Demelia Denton

Here is a poem by Yvonne Heinz & recited by Hamilton Bailie (HamBa). The Paris massacre caused such a stir around the world. Not only was there an outpouring of grief & shock but it felt like the terrorists had won & caused people everywhere to feel scared about going out to public places or celebrating our usual festivities in peace. Especially since Paris was already adorned with Christmas decorations & counting down to December 25th, Yvonne decided to do a poem that not only acknowledges the tragedy, but gives cause for hope & optimism, which is a wonderful human trait, the ability to face adversity head on & prevail, no matter the cost.
With these sentiments in mind, I produced sound effects & music to give emphasis to the words & create a vivid picture to back up their intent.

Christmas In Peace. Poem by Yvonne Heinz. Recitation by HamBa.

It's always a pleasure to do collaborations with Hamilton Bailie (HamBa) from the UK. His poetry recitations are always so full of richness & imagery. Hamilton really enjoys the works of WB Yeats, so here is another poem of his, in our ever growing collaboration back catalogue. As per usual, I listen to the poem & then begin to improvise over the track & eventually things start finding a place to sit. If you enjoy this, please look through this playlist for other similar tracks.
https://soundcloud.com/hamb-1/sets/simon-me


Second Coming ft. HamBa

All playing, vocals, composition are my own - unless credited.  I play directly on IOS synths on my iPad.  Most of what I do is layered improvisation.