oh jeez just realized this is six years old (thank you for reposting Suzanne)  just as fresh and interesting as it could be  what a great narrative voice and those guitar sounds are golden!!  this deserves a short film made for it; what is the vibe?  you know it but does it have a name? spaghetti western blues? echoes of Sour Times by Portishead but really *they* echoed this classic https://youtu.be/PDueBgKVJD8

hmm, you're right - I have heard this and liked - I couldn't remember though so I suppose this is as good as it's going to get until 'then' then - which as raw deals go - is pretty flippin' jammy from my perspective. :) ta v much

wonderful vocal, most quirky sound, so good!

fantastic orchestration, instrumentatin and ambiance!

Oh, I feel a great sensitivity here. Michael and Jonathan, I like your great collab !

Great song. Great execution. Really enjoying.

A playlist of other people's tracks (most recent first) that I have contributed to.

Collaborations Elsewhere

Music & mix Guiville @guiville
Vocals, lyrics, and additional string arrangements by Michael Wheelwright @wheelwright
---
https://soundcloud.com/guiville/sets/truth-guiville-wheelwright

VHS 22 (Feat. Wheelwright)

Wheelwright: voice https://soundcloud.com/wheelwright
Beckenstein: music, lyrics, vocal melody, instruments

Fictive Sisters is a Trans-Atlantic online collaboration between Wheelwright and Jonathan Beckenstein.
________________________________________________________________

hibernating
the days grow dark
suffocating
so pull your boots on
walk out the door

frozen ridge line
and silver moon
distant tree line
the sleeping forest
is under snow

crystal flakes will crunch underfoot
icicles agleam
father winter will tread by your side
to the frosted stream

calculating
the solstice tide
enervating
procrastinating
walk out the door

frigid meadow
in moonlight glaze
dormant willow
is waiting naked
for your embrace

crystal flakes will crunch underfoot
icicles agleam
father winter will tread by your side
to the frosted stream
________________________________________________________________

Michael and I will be introducing two new songs in roughly a month, and at that time the Fictive Sisters album "Immaculate Distraction" will be available on Bandcamp. We will let you know when and provide a link. Thanks always for your listening!

image from Wikipedia

Father Winter (with Wheelwright)(Fictive Sisters)

Wheelwright: voice, vocal melody, lyrics @wheelwright
Beckenstein: initial music, instruments, mix

Fictive Sisters is a transatlantic collaboration between Wheelewright and Beckenstein. Our album Immaculate Distraction is available at Bandcamp: https://fictivesisters.bandcamp.com/album/immaculate-distraction

lyrics below
_______________________________________________________________________

Born in Belarus in 86 yeah
Worked in construction back on the farm then
Dressed as a bishop she did deals in St Peters now she
Drives a Bugatti through the streets of Lausanne

It's not the money that's what she said
Don't want to end up with a hole in the head
We'll rule the world with the power of love
Oh do you think so coz
I don’t think so

We took an Uber to the conference centre she said
They’ll act like animals to get what they want
Blood on the dance floor but you get what you pay for when you
Hang with the cool kids at the policy disco

It's not the money that's what they said
No one looks good with a hole in the head
We'll rule the world with the power of love
Oh do you think so

I can't stay in bed for ever
My real life will never start
Complications don't want to know
Happy ending I don't think so

Hybrid warfare
Grand synthesis
Do the practice
Get dog biscuits
Keep it simple
Keep it stupid
Makes us feel good
We’re gonna use it
______________________________________________________________________

Image credit (detail, processed): Girl with red hat unsplash.com/@girlwithredhat

bandcamp

It's Not The Money (Wheelwright)(Fictive Sisters)

Wheelwright: voice, lyrics, vocal melody, synthesizer, theremin sample @wheelwright

Beckenstein: initial music, guitars, bass, drum programming, mix

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We stayed up very late then took the flight from Kyoto 
The blossom on the wind the artificial sky reminded us of something

Oh did you hear that a storm is coming 
Oh did you hear that we were making plans

That girl said she was you when you were in that noise art band
 But it was hard to tell if she was really real or just another ghost

The shadows on the wall 
The clinical blue light 
The trouble's hidden in my heart

I'm watching from above it's like we're in a TV show
 We're standing on a bridge the mountain in the distance like a Hokusai

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

image: Marlon Josué https://unsplash.com/@paladin_04 further processed by Wheelwright

Thanks to Fady for inspiration various.

We Were Making Plans (with Wheelwright) (Fictive Sisters)

Prod. by Monotronaut
Vocals & Lyrics by Wheelwright
https://soundcloud.com/wheelwright
Mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion.

--
Oh do you harbour some great sorrow or regret
Do the sins of the fathers pray on your mind
Oh if I lost my fear, my righteous anger, would I no longer be a danger to myself
Then we could walk like spirits through this complicated world
Forgetting all we know

Here comes the blue wave here comes the new wave
The frozen moment
Here comes the blue day here comes the new day
The frozen moment
Here comes the blue wave

I dreamed the moon was burning a cold white fire in the night
Like a scythe across the sky
It cut the stars free from their moorings and they became a second sun
And then we walked like sprits through this complicated world
Forgetting all we know

Forgetting All We Know (With Wheelwright)

Wheelwright and I made this together. We hope you like it.

You can find more from Michael here: @Wheelwright

Fictive Sisters is a transatlantic collaboration of Wheelwright and Beckenstein. Our album Immaculate Distraction is available at: https://fictivesisters.bandcamp.com/album/immaculate-distraction

Drowned a Thousand Times (w/Wheelwright)(Fictive Sisters)

"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings." - Lao Tzu

"It's strange, but true, that the most important turning points of life often come at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways." - Napoleon Hill

A weekend improvisation, dedicated to the turning points in our lives that often show up unexpectedly, after heavy, difficult times.  As you listen to this piece, you will hear the "turning point" emerge in the music around the 3:22 mark.

A companion piece to "Starting Again."

The Turning Point

Recording sessions from  13/05/2025 - 03/08/2025.
presets, mixing, processing and editing: Pier WILL.

*** ALL TITLES ARE DOWNLOADABLE***
________________________________________________________________________
🛠 - Made with various Modular Synths / Multi-tracks / No I.A.
🎹 - Composed, arranged, performed, produced by Pier WILL & 4H09
🔲 - Cover art - Pier WILL
🙏 - Acknowledgements - Ableton, AKG, Arturia, Audacity, Cantabile,
Focusrite, Hewlett Packard, Korg, Logitech, Marantz, M-Audio, MSI, Samsung, Sony, SoundCloud, Teac, Techniks, Yamaha.
________________________________________________________________________

⚙️ - #Ambient #Movies #Experimental

I'm almost back...
After the death of a loved one, I found myself unable to play music... so I opened a small attic room deep in my unbalanced mind and played other types of instruments... it had to happen...
So here's a track, "ATTIC ROOM" (37 minutes), composed and produced, bringing together 10 very different and surprising tracks... I feel like I was in another dimension for a while, and I hope you enjoy it.
Have a great listen. Thank you.
Pier WILL

Me voici presque de retour...
Après le décès de l'un de mes proches, je me suis retrouvé dans l'incapacité de jouer de la musique... alors j'ai ouvert une petite chambre mansardée tout au fond de mon esprit en déséquilibre et j'ai joué sur d'autres types d'instruments... il fallait que cela se réalise...
Voici donc un titre "ATTIC ROOM" (37minutes) composé et réalisé rassemblant 10 titres tellement différents et surprenants... je pense avoir été dans une autre dimension pendant un certain temps et j'espère que vous allez apprécier.
Très bonne écoute à vous. Merci
Pier WILL

Attic Room

Another awesome electronic collaboration with David a.k.a. @blackmarketbrains ! I love his minimal techno beats so asked him to send me one that included one of his cool old movie samples.I was inspired right away to lay down some melodic loops and even a bit of guitar.

Cover image is public domain, an illustration from an old edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Forge the Creature! w/ Black Market Brains

Trippin

"I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us." - Anne Lamott

A Saturday morning composition inspired by the theme of grace.  Recorded on my very old Yamaha CVP and may need a few adjustments. 😊 Wishing everyone listening a wonderful day!

Days of Grace

Lyrics: David L. Graham
Music, vocal, instruments & mix: PJ

Had Love A Time Or Two

This song may seem like a step backwards, no DAW, just acoustic, quite simple, vocals and a guitalele as accompaniment. Are you familiar with this instrument? I didn't know it existed until I met someone on the train who had one with him, the GL1 from Yamaha. It's kind of a full-fledged mini guitar. It's rather inexpensive considering the quality, costing less than 100 euros including the case. It's a beautiful instrument, and you can easily take it with you anywhere. You can play it like a normal guitar, you just have to get used to the small frets on the fretboard. But I don't wish to advertise here...anyway, I am really happy with it.
I found that song on my phone, one of my very first songs, like „Giants“. I wasn't very good at playing at the time, so the accompaniment consisted mainly of 1 or 2 notes on the electric guitar, hardly any chords. When I rediscovered it, I thought it sounded so embarrassing (the guitar playing) that I wanted to delete it. But then I listened to the complete song and finally liked it a lot. I've taken over some of the minimal guitar playing here in the guitalele version, but play also full chords. So please don't expect a complex song here. Maybe if this is the first song you will hear from me, you perhaps better skip it and listen to another one first.

Get out of my Head

Made in August 2025

Video; https://youtu.be/4nQXqMd0q4o

Colours Of Nature

Photo from left to right: JJ, Josh, and Ken
Cast of characters:
The Beautiful Dark -- @thebeautifuldark -- Carl — Ovation guitar, lead vocals, lyrics, and compostion
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark –- VST Chinese gong and VST cello
J.J. Terrell– @j-j-terrell – light VST Latin percussion, synth, and piano
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken -- drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Warwick fretless four-string bass, chant vocals at the end 
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen — ebow, production, mix, and mastering

 This song is the fourth Carl has written and composed with a member of Eclectic Collective in mind. This time JJ is being honored, and we all agree that he deserves it, too. Carl is a wonderful singer, songwriter, composer, and musician, and we're all grateful that he's joined our collective. 
  Here's what Carl had to say about it. "The music for this was a personal song written to myself which I never really released as I was trying to say goodbye to my own ego in the song. From that point of view I have always seen the piece as a great bit of personal therapy for me. None of the original lyrics survived and JJ gets painted by the new words .. But I thought it would be nice to reuse the composition for this. There was no big reason for it only when I decided to start a 60bpm song for JJ on piano .. I started playing Goodbye Ego and the rest is history..."
  We tackled this song like we would any other, though. Mark was first up on this, adding his VST magic in the form of a Chinese gong, as well as the cello you hear throughout. The subject of our adulation came next, with JJ adding not only his hot, yet minimal Latin percussion and essential piano, but moody synth, as well. Ken added his spicy drums after that, and once they were down, Josh jumped in with his four string fretless bass to complete the rhythm section. Josh also added the vocal chant at the end.
  All that was left was for Stephen to mix it all down for us, which he did in his always pro manner. But before he did, he also added some subtle, yet stirring ebow on his guitar. 
  As stated above, this is a continuation of our songs about us. Hope no one thinks it's arrogant. When Carl presents us with these little treasures, it's hard not to run with them, though. Always a ton of fun to make music together. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Original lyrics by The Beautiful Dark:

Praying hands
Whatever cause
Once our greater good not lost
Bored children create their fun
We shelve French horn for this fine one
"Nice one lads" We read it all!
Vacation taken
To JJ calls
Neighbour to good Mickey Moore
Find Michigan piano pure

JJ calls
Just for us
Love lit up
Just for us

Down the road city of cars
To Howell front deck
Dad and Guitars
We jam that love then tell the world
Love and service human highway knurled
Good bi-product of happiness sought
With Croatian fun to cloud we court

Terrell Terminator in Jungle
Predator for good
Keys like Mr Bungle
Faith in more like we could
He Thanks you
It's lifestyle
Built from a porch
Good collective friend
Keep lighting that torch

Some moments sealed, marked and moulded
Pure intention
Dark blindfolded
Howl from human to Howell good soul
Keyed keystone as collective role

JJ calls
Darkness falls
Love lit up
Just for us
Love lit up
Just for us
Love lit up
Just for us
JJ calls

JJ calls
Just for us

JJ Calls (Eclectic Collective)

(Music: Hans-Michael Albers, Lyrics: Terry Reeves)
Terry Reeves:  Vocals
Hans-Michael Albers: All instruments, Arrangement & Production

Today, 22nd. August 2025, marks 13 years since our dear brother Bri succumbed to the deadly combination of leukaemia and Guillain-Barré syndrome.  Watching him through 2012, unable to do anything for himself and increasingly confined to a hospital bed is something none who loved him will ever forget.  
He has never been (and never will be) forgotten, not only for the music he created but for the force of nature he most certainly was.  In 1964, our Mum & Dad bought him an entry level acoustic guitar as a Christmas present and his progress on the instrument was something to behold.  By the time he was 18, he’d bought himself a Gibson Les Paul on HP (24 payments of five pounds and thirteen shillings per month) from Selmers in Charing Cross Road, London.  He joined a band, somehow co-opting me in as lead singer at the tender age of 15 (still a schoolboy, no less) and over the ensuing ten years, formed bands of whose line-up I was always a part, graduating from singing to percussion and eventually drums.
There being guitars laying around the family home, Tel took to playing and encouraged by Bri, never stopped.  Fast forward another five years and he too started writing songs so that by ’82, the 3 of us decided to form a band (Root Division) to play them.  It’s a truly special thing to be in the same band as your brothers and recording those songs became something Tel and me still remember with an abiding nostalgia.  No wonder we still talk about those days…
This song started life as an instrumental, written by Hans and of course, it’s brilliant as is but Tel liked it so much, he asked if he could write some lyrics and a vocal melody.  Being a generous fellow, our dear friend from Hamburg said he’d love to hear what Tel had in mind.
His basic idea was to incorporate as many references as he could to Cripple Club tracks, in celebration of the firm friendship we have formed in together recording what amounts to over 50 songs.  There may be a few of you who can spot one or two…
So this is for you, Bri.  We love and miss you, sweet brother.
(Gary Reeves)

Last Summer day reasons
Hamburg always shines
Shadows of Superheroes
Another surprise will come in time
Click toward a pension
From birth but never knew
Surprised to find a blackbird
In the flames as the music grew

Touch wood for satisfaction
CC music every day
Root of strong existence 
Step off the world to feed the phrase
Another Titan message
Titanic stories past
Image of a fraying edge
Never thought hang of time would last

It’s the time, it’s the place
It’s the only performance I can show my face

Last chance for singing
Avoid resistant tide
Pleasing distant garage
Remember 4 to 3 to 5
Stars in space that linger
Soaking up the blue
Palette of sunshine yellow
Mix to green for go - but for who?

T,G & H, Two and you!

LAST SUMMER'S DAY BLUES - CRIPPLE CLUB

Music's got a hold of me.
I am also half of Fictive Sisters https://fictivesisters.bandcamp.com

I have a soundcloud manifesto too (I know almost no one cares):
(1) I do not want to win at soundcloud
(2) I respect people who listen by trying to do work that is as good as I can make it but I may attempt (and possibly fail badly at) different kinds of music so you will probably find some of my tracks suck quite badly even if you like others
(3) If I follow you please feel no obligation to follow me back or to listen to my tracks because I know different people like different things
(4) If you follow me please don’t expect me automatically to follow you back because as I said different people like different things. I try to listen to most new uploads of the people I do follow, so there are only so many people I can meaningfully follow (and only so many reposts I can cope with) at any one time before it all gets a bit overwhelming
(5) If I add a track of yours to my likes that means I particularly like it and if I comment on a track that means I really did want to communicate something. I do not do these things expecting or wanting anything in return or fishing for listeners/followers etc.
(6) Soundcloud (still) can be wonderful and has wonderful people in its universe but some aspects of it do my head in and so I am putting this out here so everyone knows where I am coming from. This is not intended as criticism of anyone else, it is just what works for me

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 https://soundcloud.com/sel-sync, and Fictive Sisters, a transatlantic band with  the incomparable Wheelwright https://fictivesisters.bandcamp.com/album/immaculate-distraction.

Drowned a Thousand Times (w/Wheelwright)(Fictive Sisters)

Jonathan Beckenstein

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Sterling Signature

Jeff Roberts

Gary Rees

S YlveR 🦊

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