Loosely inspired by Edgar Winter's Frankenstein, only all blissed out.

Balloon Party

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

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)

Comin' apart describes the state of things. 

But we've seen and survived worse (I think!)

Time to hunker down, take care of oneself and one's fellows, and conserve one's energies for love, struggle and hope.

Stay tuned. 



photo by: Pamela Andrade

Winter

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

Washing machine music for that inner stain.

Rinse And Repeat

Real time solo guitar improvisation with effects and loop pedal. One mic to one mono track.

Still, I'm Glad We Met

I was fortunate and honored to have a visit from Janine a few weeks ago. We had a great time. Somehow, and unexpectedly, this came out of it.

Janine: voice, vocal melody, lyrics 
Jonathan: guitars, bass, drum programming, music

Please visit Janine here: https://soundcloud.com/janinelevinson

at the beginning we carved out a message
into a monolith tower of stone

we were searching for our home

he was the mountain I climbed from the valley
I was the water he drank from the hole

and we searched for a home

so in the meadow
we dug in the soil
to find the root of plenty
and a child began to wail

at the beginning
at the beginning

at the beginning we shouted our message
holy vibration from hollow to dell

and our voices rang like bells

his was the rhythm that rose from the valley
mine was the melody born in the sun

and we harmonized as one

at the beginning
at the beginning
at the beginning we carved out a message

we were searching for our home

At The Beginning (with Janine Levinson)

live looping improvisation later re-composed and augmented in studio






Wait

This project started out as a self-administered technical tutorial. I am a very poor geek, and have just now gotten around to teaching myself Flex Time operations.

But as I kept working colors and ideas began to present themselves, and I found myself back in a palatially squalid student apartment in Worcester MA in the summer of 1976. There was a cheap “record player” there, and a certain album had just come out. I listened to it over and over, to the point where the vinyl seemed worn through. This sounds little to nothing like the album, but it is still somehow my fractured dream memory of it.

6 Florence Street

The Charioteer

Stingray

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)

Like a lot of us these days, I have some extra hours on my hands. While looking to amuse myself at this most unamusing time, I made this. I hope it cheers you, too, and provides a few minutes pleasure. That is all it is for.

This music is also my version of whistling past the graveyard. One of many versions.

Please stay healthy. And let us be strong, and pick each other up when one of us is down.

Lockdown Cocktail

Postcard From A Hot Spot

Everything is enhanced when Janine is around.

Voice, vocal melody, words and flat felting image: Janine Levinson https://soundcloud.com/janinelevinson

Music and instruments: Jonathan Beckenstein

is there an ever blooming flower?
is there an ever open rose?
is there an ever present lover?
well maybe it could happen
who knows

is there an ever thumping mattress?
are there forever open legs?
is there eternal love and happiness?
well maybe it could happen
maybe it could happen

once in a while
go out the open window
and fall into the cold
go out the open window

am I the ever open flower
with petals ever in your nose?
and neurons ever more to fire?
well maybe it could happen
maybe it could happen

An Open Window (with Janine Levinson)

Ingvar Tautra https://soundcloud.com/agnosturaelwar recently posted a group of instrumental tracks for open collaboration. One of them was a charming solo guitar that really spoke to me, but also seemed a little lonely up there all by itself. It is the first thing you will hear. I added to it only minimally, a bass and two guitars.

Thanks for the ride, Ingvar. It was fun!

Here is a playlist from Ingvar of other artists who worked with the same guitar track as I have; https://soundcloud.com/agnosturaelwar/sets/contributions-free-collab-2-5

Ingvar's Fjord

Four Telecasters and an organ walk into a bar.

Or maybe it's a chapel. Can't tell. But it's weird in there, all swirly and broken up.

Bill Boethius has posted a very alternative cousin to this music, derived from the same genetic material: https://soundcloud.com/bill-boethius/blue-slippage

Signorelli Blue

Mark Duffield: all vocals, vocal melodies and lyrics.
Jonathan Beckenstein: music, guitars, bass, drum programming

Please visit Mark here: https://soundcloud.com/markduffieldcollaboration

or here: https://soundcloud.com/eltel-music23

There’s a map upon your face
Says join the human race
Often whispered sweetly

There’s a hunger in your eyes
Tells your stomach not to lie
Often whispered sweetly

Pooh pooh pooh pooh!

Is it magical?
Not so physical 
Metaphysical
Not invisible
Not divisible
Nothing risible 
Shoot the animal, Officer Dibble

Pooh pooh pooh pooh!

Often whispered sweetly

They rely on the ways of a gun 
Keep it simple
Keep it pithy
They rely on the ways of a gun

Something in your eye
That’s tugging at your heart
Something in your mind
That’s tugging at your heart
Something in your eye
Is tugging at your heart

Pooh pooh pooh pooh

Officer Dibble..

Officer Dibble (with Mark Duffield)

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

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