Anam Hermit: words, voice, vocal recording
Jonathan Beckenstein: instrumental track, mix

I became obsessed with a certain Italian TV show, and the possibilities of Italian Hip Hop. Thanks to Anam for making a musical fantasy come true.
You can visit with him here: https://soundcloud.com/anamhermit
He is a fountain of creativity.

Calami La Lampo (with Anam Hermit)

Janine Levinson: voice, lyrics, vocal melody 

Jonathan Beckenstein: initial music, instruments, mix

a note from Janine, lyrics to follow:

Jonathan sent me this lovely music, and for some reason I thought of Fibonacci. Not so much the number sequence, but the guy. The numbers are cool and I love them --a series where each is the sum of the two before: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so on. They are meaningful because it turns out these numbers appear disproportionately around us: in math, in our preferences, in nature. Like as depicted in the wonderful illustration that Jonathan found to accompany our tune. So many things end up to be described by the numbers. The beautiful numbers! Count the petals on a flower and the result will likely be one of them. How lovely is that? 
But the guy himself popped up in my head when I heard Jonathan's music. I imagined young Fibonacci --almost a thousand years ago now --looking carefully at everything around him: ruminating, fascinated, entirely distracted. So in love with the mystery of the world. To me that is the essence of romance. Young Fibonacci, madly in love with the world.


One one Two three five eight thirteen
 Leonardo what were you dreaming about
 Underneath your covers?
 One two three five eight thirteen 
You were the sum of your Dad and your Mom 
And everything that came before 
One two three five eight thirteen 
Hand over mouth 
See your breath in the night 
Leonardo you thought of everything
 One two three five eight thirteen 
Fibonacci, counting the petals on cosmos 
What did you find when the moment aligned? 
What did you see in the branches of trees? 
Fibonacci, you thought of everything 
The son, the sum of everything

You Thought Of Everything (with Janine Levinson)

Screach - voice, lyrics, lead guitar during verses https://soundcloud.com/bobby-brady

Jonathan - lead guitar during bridge, initial music, instruments

Thanks Mike!

soul of the night (with Screach)

Five guitars.

A companion piece to: https://soundcloud.com/jonathan_beckenstein/billy-i-am-ruined

Billy I Am Ruined, Too

Mark Duffield: voice, lyrics, vocal melody and harmony https://soundcloud.com/markduffieldcollaboration

Jonathan Beckenstein: initial music, instruments, mix

Mark has also created an engaging video: youtu.be/85vI0Ot80Sw

He’s a sweet street sweeper
He’s got a thing for a fairground ride
On the bull or on the bumper
He’s the best there ever to ride

(x4) He’s a sweet street sweeper

Bugger you! You were not there
You didn’t see it
You were not there
Bugger you! You were not there
You didn’t see what happened
You weren’t there

Sweet street
Sweet street sweeper

(x2) Oh, no!
Pick it up
Throw it out
Pick it up again

(x2) Yes, he’s beautiful
& there’s nothing you can say that can take that away.

(x2) Ooh, I’ll take that away
Nothing can take that

Sweet Street Sweeper (with Mark Duffield)

Janine Levinson - Voice, vocal melodies, lyrics @janinelevinson

Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley - drums and percussion @hypnopompetus drums recorded at the tension headache studio @tension-headache-studio

Jonathan Beckenstein - initial music, guitars, bass, organ, drums for bridge and guitar solo

ain't nobody got nothin' for me
and I got nothin' for no one
but what I got, I will give you for free
I haven’t got a something,
but I will give you some

what I got I will give you for free
maybe a little or a big part of me
I am mounted on the front of your wooden ship
and counting the stars

waiting for the stormclouds to come
waitin' for the lightning to burn
waiting for the ocean to swallow us all
and counting my possessions

poseidon, are you waiting
to give me what you’ve promised?
or only rumbling on the surface
poseidon I am counting

waiting for the snarl from below
waiting for the rift in the dirt
waiting for the earth to shake us loose
and counting her rotations

there ain't nobody got a ticket for me
there’s no use waitin' for the god of the sea
so where I go, I'm gonna get there for free
but I will let you come
I’m gonna let you come

Poseidon (with Janine Levinson & Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley)

Janine Levinson: Voice, lyrics, vocal melody and harmony https://soundcloud.com/janinelevinson

Jonathan Beckenstein: Initial music and all instruments

photo: David Levinson

I woke up kinda late
Brushed the dust off my fedora
Justice, she can never wait
Roll out of bed and shuffle through the door
Even secret agents get the blues

Another day, another dance
Another man to figure out
Coincidence or happenstance?
A criminal? A gadabout?
Even secret agents get the blues
Thinking of you

You did the crime
You do the time

Sorrow, it’s my favorite meal
Eat it up with eggs and coffee
Pictures in the big murder book
Of cold hard evidence you brought me

Even secret agents get the blues
Even secret agents get the blues

Even Secret Agents Get The Blues (with Janine Levinson)

This was made on the occasion of being unexpectedly called back to full time work after some years of delicious semi-retirement.

Why Must We Toil

Janine Levinson: voice, vocal melody, words, painting https://soundcloud.com/janinelevinson

Jonathan Beckenstein: initial music, instruments, mix

Guys like you as tough as nails give my heart a fluster
Gettin’ right up on me baby with the swagger and the bluster
And when I catch my breath again, I remember you're protectin’
That beatin’ thing inside your chest that's worried about rejection

Sometimes we girls don’t understand the beating heart inside of a man
Understand he's a man

I wanna tell you I’m in on the joke but you got that shield of pride
And the highest degree of security for that tender part inside
I'm ‘onna tell you something else: When your heart starts to pitch and moan
The feelin's kind of undermined when you know you’re not alone

Sometimes we girls don’t understand the beating heart inside of a man
Understand he's a man
He’s a man

You show the world what you want them to see
But you’re real: you feel, you bleed
So darlin’ in the dark wee hours
You can share your pain with me
Share your pain with me
You can share your pain

Guys like you so full of bluff give my tender heart a shudder
Rough and roll and showing off and melting me like butter
But you aren’t fooling me you know, and while I’m tight against your armor
I promise you I will protect the secret that you harbor

I’m gonna try to understand
The beating heart inside of a man
Understand, he’s a man

Girls Don't Understand (with Janine Levinson)

Wheelwright: voice and lyrics, vocals recording and their sub-mix, song form editing. You can visit with him here: @wheelwright

Jonathan Beckenstein: initial music, all instruments, mix

There's a message
It says come back right now
And you looked like you'd seen a ghost
People talking
Then they're moving away
And you're questioning everything

Transatlantic
And the earth was shaking
Lost in transit
Lost in mid translation

Oh and the kingdom to come
Will be a kingdom of reason

Did I tell you
All the things we could see
When they held you up to the light
Drink some vodka and then
Walk out the door
You said this is better for everyone

[Chorus]

We like the meaningful songs
They send a meaningful signal

In the Hare Krishna restaurant in Soho
No one recognised you
Coz you didn't look much like the photo

On the inside
I said everyone's lost
And you said yeah but nobody really cares
Run the numbers
And learn to be smart
Now the world is turned upside down

[Chorus]

Image by Cash Macanaya unsplash.com/@cashmacanaya

Lost In Transit  (with Wheelwright)

A most warm thank you to Jörg for his wonderful tenor sax and flute contribution to this track.

You can visit him here: https://soundcloud.com/joerxworx

image by: Thorolf Jansson

My Tent Or Yours (featuring Joerxworx)

Four guitars on a deliciously depressive and sleep deprived winter's day. Neither entirely composed nor completely improvised, it is more a finger painting.

For Ray.

january

Wheelwright: voice, vocal melody and harmony, lyrics @wheelwright

Jonathan: initial music, instruments, mix

image by Lani Maynard

Crossing time-zones
Godforsaken deserts
Midnight in transit stations
The illusion of freedom
Written in blood written in stone

It's just an idea
It's just an idea

The twisted wreck
Of a helicopter gunship
A distant call to prayer
Sweet liquorice and bitter cigarettes

It's just an idea [...]

He carries her in his heart
She's all he had now all he has
White knuckles holding fast
His mother's photograph in a young man’s hands

Now everything is lost
Now everything is lost

They say half the future’s buried in the past
But the fallen will not weep for us
When it’s our time to choose

It's just an idea [...]

Sweet Licorice And Bitter Cigarettes (with Wheelwright)

Here’s a strange one. It was made as an assignment for a continuing education class such as I must periodically take to maintain my professional license, a license which has little to nothing to do with music. The radical A/B/A form of the piece as well as its brevity resulted from the nature of the assignment. What the hell any of this has got to do with the Tin Man also relates to the specifics of the class, and I won’t bore you with those. But making the music certainly made the class more fun than it might otherwise have been!

The Tin Man

Janine Levinson: voice, lyrics, vocal melody, photograph https://soundcloud.com/janinelevinson

Jonathan Beckenstein: initial music, instruments, mix

You and me on the beach when you found the purple rock and gave it away
You and me and she on the streets of Tokyo with the drunks in the rain
We were lost in wonder on the river eating cake with our hands
Running into the same guy everywhere we went

These are pictures of love that I have
Keep them forever in inside me
Pictures of love that I have
And I’ll keep them forever

You and me on the day we decided to run off and get married in Vegas
Missed each other and we ended up at different airports
You and me and she when we tried so hard not to laugh at the preacher when we
Gave him our vows that he just went and ignored

These are pictures of love that I have
And I’ll keep them forever

Pictures of love
Pictures of love

It was we when I dressed like Cindy Crawford and took pictures with you
So long with my makeup and that creep online said I looked like a dude
You and me and she when we’d listen to grandpa read his books to the crowd
And the day that we drove so far just to find matching cowboy boots

Pictures of love that I have
Keep them forever in inside me (pictures of love)
The pictures of love that I have
And I’ll keep them forever

You and me on the beach when you found the purple rock and gave it away
You and me and she on the streets of Tokyo with the drunks in the rain
Coming up from the subway to the smell of fish and shoemaker’s glue
Thought they were robbers but they made fun of you

Pictures of love that I have
Pictures of love that I have
Pictures of love that I have

Pictures Of Love (with Janine Levinson)

V1

 DESTITUTE
 AND WITHOUT A CLUE

 DISSOLUTE
 WITH A BONE TO PICK

 ONCE IN A WHILE
 THE LOCK AND KEY

 OVERNIGHT
 DEBAUCHERY

V2

SCORPIO
DUPLICITY

MIND YOURSELVES
OR HE’LL HAVE YOU ALL

MOUTHFUL OF GUILE
AND FALSITY

RADIANT 
HYPOCRISY 

(TRANSITION / INSTRUMENTAL)

V3

AFTER ALL 
ARRIVING HERE

DIDN’T FALL
DIDN’T FUCK IT UP

ONCE IN A WHILE
EPIPHANY

GRATITUDE
AND HARMONY

Photograph is mine, and is the view from my room.

Many thanks to Amy Kaufman, Janine Levinson, Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley, Wheelwright, David Weiss, and Wodwo for their generosity and patient advice as I tried to sing my own song, a project that I found both thrilling and terrifying!

Gratitude And Harmony

Hello partner, your ride is here.
Just slide the empties off the seat and climb in.
Don’t sit on that spring, it’ll cut you.
No, the seatbelt’s broken, wipers, too.

Little man
On the lamb
Blues

Where’d you say you were going?
This car doesn’t go that way.
This is a ride to the Last Star.
Don’t hold on too tight, you’ll get yourself hurt.
Trust me, you are going to a better place.

Little man
Takes a stand
Blues

THE PILGRIM ACCEPTS THE BOWL
THE SHAMAN SAYS SWALLOW WHOLE

INDIGO
AFTERGLOW
ALL YOU KNOW
GONE…

You again. You sure?
OK, I’ll take you home.
Crack the window, it’ll help some.
And there’s a paper bag in the back somewhere.
Use it if you have to.

Superman
Wonderland
Blues

Superman 
Wonderland
Blues

Indigo
Afterglow
All you know
Gone...


Thanks to Fady, Janine Levinson, Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley and Wheelwright for their most helpful and useful consultation.

Superman Wonderland Blues

Janine: voice, lyrics, vocal melody, artwork https://soundcloud.com/janinelevinson

Jonathan: initial music, instruments, mix

This is humankind
This is humankind

You hear the word god
You hear the word profit
you hear the word bullet
and you find yourself exploding

And although it should be clear
You will make yourself a witness
And the dais is a pulpit
Oh! your reverence is showing

This is humankind
This is humankind

you hear the word them
you hear it from your prophets
you hear the word trigger
and you find yourself imploding

And although it’s antithetic
You will worship disagreement
At your church of unforgiveness
Oh! your reverence is showing

Do not fret your thumping heart
We are humankind
This is just the way things are
This is humankind

This is humankind

To know your opposition
Feels like a new narcotic
You rely on distribution
Your opinion is the tonic

And although it should be clear
You’ll forget that you were something
And the answers will be soothing
Aw your reverence is showing

This is humankind
This is humankind

You hear the word god
You hear the word profit
you hear the word bullet
and you find yourself exploding

And although it should be clear
You will make yourself a witness
And the dais is a pulpit
Oh! your reverence is showing

This is humankind
This is humankind

This is humankind
This is humankind
This is humankind
This is humankind

Humankind (with Janine Levinson)

Here is an earlier version of "Next Day It's All Gone", the piece which follows on this page. This one is a bit less abstract, and a bit more... something. It made me think of summer while we were working on it, when it was very much not summer.

Thanks to Western Skies Motel for inviting me to engage with this piece. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and thank What-It-Is for the miracles I am about to encounter. Then I add, but do you think maybe I could get my acoustic instruments to sound just a bit more like René's? 

photo is my own, Point Judith RI, eastern opening of the Harbor of Refuge into the Block Island Sound, and beyond that, the open sea.


Point Judith (with Western Skies Motel)

Very much a collaboration.

Tante Meli supplied vocals and lyrics, vocal production, very good drum ideas, synth swells and sampled organ.

Faerytale played perfect cello and pan flute.

I brought guitars and bass, bass synth, sampled organ, digital percussion and drums. Then I attempted to mix it all.

It was fun.

Tante Meli and Faerytale. You know them, you love them. But if you don’t know them, go here: @faerytale and here: @tante-meli. You will love them.



source of image:
hqwallbase.com/images/big/the_gh…nd_me-1528321.jpg



Behind Me (featuring Tante Meli + Faerytale )

Real time, live looped solo guitar improvisation. Gretsch guitar, pedal board, amplifier, one mic to one track.



2-5-16 (Aunt Trudy is back)

Janine wrote this lovely song some time ago (lyrics below). Recently she sent it to me to produce, which was a great gift to me. I believe many of you already know Janine's work. If not, please visit her here: @janinelevinson It will be a gift for you, too.

Janine: song, voice, electric piano (Janine Levinson 2017)
Jonathan: guitars, bass, drum programming, synth, organ, balalaika sample, mix.

LOVE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT

Love is where you find it 
But never where you're looking
You give up expectations 
And then you feel it sneaking up behind you 
Looking for you

Love is all around us
But never where we've sent it
It's certain to surprise us 
If we let down our defenses -It’s a mystery 
Who will it be?

The sky is blue because that's how we see it
The world is round because we all believe it
The ground is warm - we know because we feel it
But love is manifested when we're no longer looking to receive it

Love is a surrender to an unexpected vision
It’s not what you were thinking 
And sometimes it requires a decision 
Just to give in

The future can’t be known; we don't control it
We find the road the moment we don't own it
We get the love when we don't try to force it 
And it's so unexpected,
We may not recognize it when we see it

It marches to its own drum
Like the tide, it goes and comes
Strips us of our pride and then
Comes back flooding in again

Love is where you find it 
But never where you're looking
You give up expectations
And then you feel it sneaking up
Behind you
Looking for you -for LOVE

art: Janine Levinson

Love Is Where You Find It (Janine Levinson)

For Kenny Beckenstein

https://www.goodcopbadcop.rocks/

Hail Columbia

live looping improvisation later re-composed and augmented in studio






Wait

I am honored and happy to have made this together with Fady.

Please visit him here: @fadysporz
His songs are treats, sweet and tart and oh, so deep.

Is this how it ends?
oh no.
no fireballs
no siren calls
just panic
and confusion.

Is this how it ends?
oh no
no meteor
no demon horde
just panic
isolation.

If you could only
see through my eyes.
and I could
see whats inside
your head and marvel that
there ain't much daylight between us.

Is this where we bend?
who knows.
No lessons learned
no cheeks are turned
just malice
and delusion.

Is this where we mend?
I hope!
no rich or poor.
no 'mine or yours'
just victim
after victim.

Victim After Victim (with Fady)

This is the work of Hypnopompetus. Please visit us here: @hypnopompetus

It's a candy store for grown ups.

In The House Of The Strange (Hypnopompetus)

Improvisation, electric and acoustic guitar.

Hank

The tension is almost unbearable as we here await our election. I made this as a quick and dirty way to express and process that tension. And guess what... it works for Halloween, too!

ballot

Janine Levinson: lyrics, singing, vocal melodies, cover art. @janinelevinson

Jonathan Beckenstein: music, instruments, mixing.

I climbed to the top
thinking I would stop
and gaze upon the crystal view
but it turned out quite ordinary

I guess I think I thought
that everything would start
and I would find my heart
or something quite extraordinary

but there’s no here here
should have listened when they said
there is no there there
this room is full of ordinary men

I worked very hard
To be a member of
a high and mighty club
but it turned out quite ordinary

I guess that I supposed
when every door was closed
the thing that was behind
would be something extraordinary

there was no there there
should have listened when they said
there is no there there
the room is full of ordinary men

oh there there, dear
there are no answers here.
oh there, there dear
go forth and multiply

older now I know
the bill of goods I sold
the little boy when he was
something quite extraordinary

that there’s a special kind
of gem that he will find
that only special people get to see

there is no there there
should have listened when they said
there is no there there
there there dear

but maybe there’s a green
that I have never seen
the emerald kind of grass
that’s on the far side of the hill

there is no there there
the room is full of ordinary men

Ordinary Men (with Janine Levinson)

Words,Vocal Melody, Singing and Sampled Cello: Wheelwright 
Music, Guitars, Bass: Jonathan Beckenstein
Drums: Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley @hypnopompetus

You can visit Wheelwright's page here; https://soundcloud.com/wheelwright
You'll be glad you did. He is a true songsmith.

We All Know How It Ends                             (Wheelwright + Beckenstein)

Wheelwright: voice, lyrics, vocal melody @wheelwright

Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley: drums, tambourine, percussion recording @hypnopompetus  

Jonathan Beckenstein: guitars, bass, orchestral samples, original music, mix

drums recorded at The Tension Headache Studio, Tsagarada, Pelion, Greece https://soundcloud.com/tension-headache-studio




See you same time tomorrow
Goodbye Kelly goodbye Sister J
Oh yes you hide your sorrow well but
No need to tell these kids that god does not appear to care

Oh if he's even there
 
Walked down to old St Martin it's
Dusk already there's cold December rain
In the Piccadilly lights
This place has seen the lost and found for
Seven hundred years
And so they come and pray
Or just to stay out of the rain
 
Oh were there words enough and time I would
Explain the world away and
If life's just a story (maybe) we can change the ending if we try
And though the past's been priced and sold
Tomorrows yet untold
 
Strayed into being happy
Fields of barley framed our stupid bliss
But it was all reflected lights
I never learned how to be kind until I lost someone I loved
But I'm not here to pray
Just trying to stay out of the rain
 
[Repeat chorus]
 
And the words become a song
And the child becomes a man

Close Of Day (with Wheelwright)

A laboratory with an open bar and floating altar. Come on in! 

Here are various solo and collaborative projects - songs, soundscapes, live looped solo guitar improvisations. 

This project used to be called "imaginary friends", but it became too real for that name, as did many of you.

I hope you enjoy something you find here. Do feel free to be in touch, you never know what might happen.  

I also invite you to attend @hypnopompetus, a duo project with the illustrious Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley.

Jonathan Beckenstein

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks