Dialogue With You

In this track I used strings, horns, trombones, trumpets, piccolo and orchestral percussions.
Thank you for listening !

Composition: Julien Apelian
Recording studio: Audio Colors
October, 16th, 2023

Intergalactic Travel

Better Days (feat Jess Dempsey)

Cast of Characters:
xian3-- @xian3 – vocals, lyrics, and beat programming
Holger Engel—bass
Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- guitar, mix, and production
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)-- @josh-clary-1 – lead guitar, organ, and synth
 
This song started when Xian and Holger came up with the rhythm section. Xian reached out to me about adding some guitar and keys. I happily accepted and added some electric guitar, organ, and synth. Once I was done, I sent it back to Xian, who added his excellent vocals. Tez also added some subtle, yet thrilling psychedelic guitar to it, too, before producing and mixing it for us. 
  During a little odyssey Xian recently undertook, he came across this snippet of text, from which the lyrics were drawn, in the Museum of Literature in Dublin. It's from "Ulysses" (1923) by James Joyce (1882-1941) and he liked it immediately. The passage can be found in the episode "Cyclops", in which the novel's hero, Bloom, opposes division and prejudice.
  This is the first time Xian has collaborated with Tez and me, but we hope it won't be the last. Xian is everything we could ask for in a collaborator. He presented me with a really solid, but very open song, let me do my thing, and added more greatness to finish it off. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it.
Lyrics to Alf And Bloom:

(But it’s no use) …

(- What? says Alf) …     

But it’s no use says he
Force, hatred, history
All that
That’s not life 
For men and women,

(- What? says Alf) …

Insult and hatred
And everybody knows that
It’s the very opposite of that
That is really life.

- What? says Alf
- Love, says Bloom

(- What? says Alf)
(- Love, says Bloom)

(- Love)

Alf and Bloom (with Xian3, Llanpsych, and Holger Engel)

Humanity progressed with apparently small steps, and a lot of pitfalls. For better or worse. 
And the history of mankind shows with all desirable clarity, that our current situation as a so-called civilization is only a consequence of that we let again and again,  catastrophically failed leadership of humankind, that led us all the way, full circle, from the man in the stone cave to the man in the cardboard cave. 

So shame on us all, our so-called leaders, but perhaps mostly on ourselves for tolerating / electing / supporting them, over and over again throughout our history.... It is very tempting to burst out in one, over our world, for a long time, violently resounding primal scream. I'm Mad As Hell!!!!

Music & Narration; Our wonderful guitarist; David, https://soundcloud.com/david-dunhamuser589535203
Vocals; Soundcloud's most wonderful voice; Oddrun, https://soundcloud.com/oddrun-eikli
Lyrics; Our dear poet Peter, https://soundcloud.com/user-264930040/tracks
Compilation, Mix and Production; Seagull, https://soundcloud.com/farout-music-studio

A Shared Horizon

Oddrun;
Lead us on
To a golden dawn
A warming place
Of hope’s embrace

David;
And lo! Established as it was, the platform of our species from caved ashes so to rise
Though needs of leaders quite because of traits depraved that good Gods may despise
But why in aeons’ sequence led you must as always to the route of social harms?
We placed therein our sacred trust of democratic fruits within your grasping scaly palms.
Each brave insanity’s crooked generation of your leadership has truly failed
As the slave galley of humanity to the devil’s veneration unto hellish waters duly sailed.

Oddrun;
Save us now
Help us breathe somehow
You sate your greed
While our future bleeds

David;
On every front we count your preachers labouring ‘neath our own travails
Freedoms, equity, justice, truth, each our moral sense assails
Education, nurtured health and social care just as with security, were never profit counted there
All ghosted children’s wealth stolen with impunity whilst you, despotic, thrive on bountied fare.
No plans for the good, the safe and caring, where parental ties ever fearful, are left despairing
For every future you have raped, baring lies bequeathed upon the tearful bible of your swearing

Oddrun;
Buried alive
‘Neath your craven lies
Your cataract eyes
The blinding fog of our demise

David;
And now the circle is complete on its infinity of broken planal points
As to the murk we fall replete, a trinity of cloven hooves profanely to anoint
And yet, as poverty defines this shrine, wherein within, there’s naught that’s mine
Not even of old bone and stone, or painted ochre fine
But whilst my furry forebears appreciated well, all that on their back was theirs
I smell the consequence that all your works regressive lack, for we, the caveman’s heirs.

Developing Man - David, Oddrun, Peter & Seagull

STELLA STELLAIRE ÉTOILE POLAIRE
IT SEEMS TO ME YOUR FAMILY HAS LOVE IN THE AIR 
STELLAR STELLA JUST LIKE THE POLAR STAR
TO EVERYONE AROUND YOU IT SEEMS THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE

PARFOIS LUNAIRE SOUVENT INTERSTELLAIRE 
FROM LONDON TO NANTUCKET INTERPLANÉTAIRE 
STELLAR STELLA JUST LIKE A SHOOTING STAR 
FROM WHEREVER WE ARE YOU CAN BE SEEN BY FAR

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT THE VERY DARING PIPER TRAVELLING TO THE SOUTH POLE TO SERENADE THE PENGUINS?

STELLA STELLAIRE ÉTOILE POLAIRE
IT SEEMS TO ME YOUR FAMILY HAS LOVE IN THE AIR 
STELLAR STELLA JUST LIKE THE POLAR STAR
TO EVERYONE AROUND YOU IT SEEMS THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE

FROM A BOOKISH MATRIARCHY A STELLA WAS BORN
A THEATER OPERATOR BACKSTAGE IN LONDON TOWN 
ENCORE
STELLA STELLAIRE ÉTOILE SOLAIRE
IT SEEMS TO ME YOUR LIFE’S GOT PLENTY IN THE AIR 
STELLAR STELLA JUST LIKE THE SOLAR STAR
TO EVERYONE AROUND YOU IT SEEMS THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE

STELLA STELLAIRE ÉTOILE POLAIRE
IT SEEMS TO ME YOUR FAMILY HAS LOVE IN THE AIR 
STELLAR STELLA JUST LIKE THE POLAR STAR
TO EVERYONE AROUND YOU IT SEEMS THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE

YOU CAN ASK FLORA, WOLFGANG, ALEX, PETER, THOMAS, SIMON AND YOU CAN ASK FLORA 2 AND EVERY ONE AROUND
AND WHO KNOW ONE DAY IN PARIS WE CAN HAVE A DRINK AT
L'AMI LOUIS

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE VERY DARING PIPER?

THE VERY DARING PIPER (Lyrics) Song for Stella

This song describes a person who has spent his entire life in the same town, enjoying friends and all the comforts of familiar places and people. But as the years advance he becomes more fixated on the increasing number of friends that have passed on, leaving him to contemplate his approaching fate. He determines that he has to leave his home town to escape the unnerving confines and find renewed hope for his future.

All music and lyrics written and performed by Craig Durgy
Copyright 2024 Gentle Rain Records
(thanks to Brett Styles for the cover photo)

Lyrics:     So Long by Craig Durgy

There’s too many gravestones here for me to hang around
I see them grow from row to row
Like weeds up from the ground
They used to be all faceless, a place to calm me down
But the start of each new row 
Was the end of folks I know 
I’ve been too long saying so long in this town

There ain’t much to be said, that ain’t been said a lot before 
And nothing changes anything, it’s either less or more
Less familiar faces, more stones to gather for
If I stay here for too long, then
I will surely be among them
I’ve been too long saying so long in this town

The setting sun’s long shadows come, and slowly form a wall
And I can’t ignore the call to look away
If tomorrow ever comes again it comes again for me, 
It’s gotta be, where I can breathe, 
A brand new day, I cannot stay

If I head down to Allentown and find a fair-haired lass
And settle in till I begin to lose track of the past
We’ll go to malls and carnivals, we’ll ride the coaster fast
It has its ups and downs
But it always comes back round
I’ve been too long saying so long in this town
I’ve been too long saying so long to this town

So Long

Valley's Boy

I'm just a Valley's boy at the heart
Wind me up and I'll play my part
Son of a couple who couldn't get a start
Always loved the underdog
Never felt a part

The dirty shanty lives of the working class
The Rhondda Fawr and the Rhondda Fach
Washing the working souls down the fractured hills
Into the River Taff the Rhondda's running still

Sandstone pavements and rusted steel
Cold wet wind on my down at heel
Pick your future boy, forget your dreams
Mining our lives like those deep coal seams

Valley's Boy

Good Cop Bad Cop.


They're playin with my head.

Yeah I could say most anything
You twist my words and throw them back at me
It doesn't really matter what I say
You'll draw your own conclusions anyway

Good cop, bad cop.

No mater how it looks or what I say
They're coming out all wrong, my words today
Made up your mind about the way this goes
It's juxtapose if the truth be told.

Good cop bad cop
Playing with my mind.

Yeah I could say most anything
You'll mince it up and bake your lies with it
A recipe for imoral gain
Targets met, bad cop at the reins

Good cop bad cop
Make it stop.

Good Cop Bad Cop.  (Voice of Logan collab).

Winds of change were blowing 
People’s anger kept on growing
Revolution was in the air
But King Louie didn’t seem to care

Inside the walls of Versailles
Everything was going fine
Outside people were starving
While the King Louie drank his wine

Let them eat cake 
Don’t care about the little people’s problems
Centuries have passed but the sentiment’s still the same

Royal blood flowing through his veins
When he faced that guillotine It must have felt so strange

History is written by the victors
And if you’re on the losing side
You could be Dr. Jekyll 
But they’ll say you were mister Hyde

Food clothing and shelter, People have basic needs
Better take care of satisfying them 
Before you move onto other deeds

Let them eat cake 
Don’t care about the little people’s problems
Centuries have passed but the sentiment’s still the same

Kings no longer control us we extinguished that flame
Now the corporations rule
We’re pawns in a  shell game

They give us our cake and we eat every single crumb
And they’re hoping it prevents the next revolution

Let Them Eat Cake

Ian aka Lou has kindly offered me to work on his track https://soundcloud.com/user-659662265/outer-levels-140-bpm
 ... well here's my little Akai EWI improvisation added to his track "Outer Levels" - I hope y'all like it !
I used his artwork ... changed the typo a bit of course ;)

Outer Levels / by Lou aka IPG1 / remix

Songs with a twinge of humor (and some a bit more serious).  
I do not use AI to create my songs. 
Recently I have had the urge to pick up my guitars (Taylor 114ce and Fender Squire) and I have been trying to use more guitar in my songs.  
My go to .vst plug ins are  EZkeys 2, EZ Bass and  EZ drummer 3) and my DAW is Logic Pro 11. 
I welcome your comments and enjoy listening to all the great music on SoundCloud. 
All songs are originals and copyrighted.

Let Them Eat Cake

Joe Stroffolino