This song was written in Nov 2021 during a composition challenge, in a limited time (4 hours). At this time, it was obviously a very small part of it, blurred in reverb, not mixed and sung in only one shot. 
After some digging and mixing, I'm pleased to show you here the entire song. As usual, my voice is not supposed to be definitive here. I just want to show the intention. Any collaboration proposal with a singer is welcome.

* Richard Gonfrier* copyright ©. 2023

Never Say Goodbye

"Lord Lead Me Home"

back when I was recording the John Denver song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" with the fine gentlemen in The Eclectic Collective, my 8 yr old daughter loved the song so much she began singing it ALL THE TIME. This is a quick little recording of her singing the chorus. Pretty amazingly expressive singing for a youngster if I do say so myself! 

Here's the full recording with the Eclectic Collective:
https://soundcloud.com/user-432503709/take-me-home-country-roads-eclectic-collective?si=124fd64d50bb42bca0caa9b197a975c2&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Country Roads (daughter sings chorus)

Cast of Characters:
One Man Verity Show-- @one-man-verity-show – Scotty -- guitar
mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark – percussion and triangle 
cgmaness-- @user-419254289-15129531 – Chris – guitar
TexMex Shaman–@texmex-shaman –Stephen– guitar, production, and mix
J.J. Terrell–@j-j-terrell –electric piano
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara -–Ken–drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)–@josh-clary-1 –- five string fretless bass, seed idea

Composition-- The Eclectic Collective

This song started with me coming up with a bassline and the arrangement. I started it as a project for the Eclectic Collective, so they were all immediately involved. Ken first laid down his rock solid groove of a drum beat to complete the rhythm section. Scotty was first after that, adding some melodic/rhythmic guitar magic to the mix. Stephen then blew the doors off of it when he added his melodic, dirty guitar to it. JJ was up next with his funky electric piano to fill it in. Chris then came in and added the trippy, swirling, psychedelic guitars. Mark also came along towards the end and added some really cool, but subtle percussion, and if you listen for it, a triangle in there, too.
  Of course every good song needs a good producer. Stephen was able to wrangle this into a good mix, thankfully. He also very cleverly came up with and added the psychedelic break in there between the first and second verses. Chris also added some really cool vocals to that part, too.
  This one was a lot of fun to make, and was our second song with Scotty, with whom we really enjoy making music. I named it such because I wanted the spirit of welcoming lots of musicians to come through. We hope you enjoy listening to this song as much as we enjoyed making it.

Come on in (Eclectic Collective)

Cast of characters:
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- electric piano, synth, seed idea
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark –  vocals, lyrics, mix, and production
Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- Tez – guitar
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen–banjo, guitar, sitar, and final mastering
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums, seed idea
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – four-string fretless bass
Composition – The Eclectic Collective
This song started in probably the most effective way our group writes them. Ken had a spectacular drum beat that was unused in a previous project, so JJ composed and recorded with his magical keys a chord structure and arrangement. Once we had a beat and a chord structure, I came along and added my foundational bass. 
  Now that the rhythm section was complete and the chord structure was in place, Stephen added his unique melody line that you hear at the beginning and every other verse on his magic banjo. He also plays all the initial guitar until about the 1:40 mark, when Tez takes over. In addition, Stephen also laid down some really trippy sitar in the break section. Then it was time for Tez to add some spice to the mix with his fiery guitar solos, which you hear from about 1:40 on, eventually building up to a crescendo towards the end. 
  Once we had all the music down, we realized that we had a big gap in the bridge without much going on in it. So, Mark came through and recorded a cool poem he had written on his refrigerator with word magnets more than a decade ago, captured with a picture, and added to for the this song. The poem is loosely based on the idea that our dreams exist in a digital environment/universe. The girl's voice you hear echoing him is his daughter, for whom he originally composed it, in her first appearance with the EC. 
  The song was now finished, except for Mark using his masterful production skills to trim and move a few things. After he made those adjustments on, he threw a mix on it. While we usually defer to Tez or Stephen for the mix, Mark did such a great job, we decided to keep his mix. Stephen did, however master and EQ it to make it a finished product. 
  This is a song written truly as a whole band effort, showcasing what the Eclectic Collective can do. I hope you enjoy listening to is as much as we enjoyed creating it.  

Original lyrics by Mistermark:  

The moon flickers on
and rises and dances
across a celestial stage
as dreamers paint the pixels of their mind 
like an infinite canvas 

Sleep away tiny egg
and leave a delicate thread 
of memory behind 
but never log out 
you are in the elaborate web
always

Dancing Moon (Eclectic Collective)

DESILLUSION     (translation after the French text)
Chant : Karine 
Paroles et musique : Alain Illos 

ON SE LAISSAIT GUIDER PAR LE VENT
AU MONDE PERDU DES REVES D'ENFANT
ON REVAIT
QUE L'ARRIVÉE D'UN PERSONNAGE
QUI PARTAGERAIT SES PRINTEMPS
POURRAIT BRISER TOUS LES SERMENTS
ET QU'ON NE VERRAIT PLUS SOUVENT
LES NUAGES

ON SE LAISSAIT PORTER PAR DES ERREURS
DES MESSAGES FLOUS DE NOS RANCOEURS
ON SENTAIT
QUE LA ROUTE SERAIT COURTE MAIS BELLE
A CONDITION D'Y ACCEDER
NE FAIRE QUE DES CHOIX PERSONNEL
MONTER LES MARCHES POUR ACCEDER  
AUX NUAGES

DES FLOTS DE SENTIMENTS
DES DESILLUSIONS DES PEINES
PARFOIS UNE LUEUR SOUDAINE
NOUS PROMENE
D'UN BOUT À L'AUTRE D'UNE VIE.

Desillusion

WE LET OURSELVES BE GUIDED BY THE WIND
TO THE LOST WORLD OF CHILDHOOD DREAMS
WE REVEALED
THAT THE ARRIVAL OF A CHARACTER
WHO WOULD SHARE HER SPRINGS
COULD BREAK ALL OATHS
AND WE'D NEVER SEE
THE CLOUDS


WE'D LET OURSELVES BE CARRIED ALONG BY MISTAKES
BLURRED MESSAGES OF OUR RESENTMENTS
WE FELT
THAT THE ROAD WOULD BE SHORT BUT BEAUTIFUL
AS LONG AS WE GOT THERE
MAKING ONLY PERSONAL CHOICES
CLIMB THE STEPS TO REACH  
TO THE CLOUDS

FLOODS OF FEELINGS
DESILLUSIONS SORROWS
SOMETIMES A SUDDEN GLOW
PROMISES US
FROM ONE END OF A LIFE TO THE OTHER.

Désillusion  avec Karine

The Suite Buy & Bye

This is another track in my work-in-progress album "Sleep, My Boy" (2024), to appear by the end of this year. In it, my idea is to collect only this and another already released track, "Sleep, My Boy", but each of them will have a full, electro-symphonic version as well as acoustic versions.

The track was composed in GarageBand iOS spontaneously in the early morning of 19 September 2024 and mixed and arranged in Logic Pro on 29 September 2024. It was released here on SoundCloud on 19 October 2024.

The composition was inspired by my recently-born gorgeous grandson, while he was far away from me for long, travelling with his family. Apart from this electro-symphonic version, it also has 3 "acoustic" versions - the initial one for piano and the subsequent ones, respectively, for strings and for synthesisers: I intend to post these versions too as tracks coming later in the same album.

The artwork cover for the track as well as for the album uses a photo I took on 3 July 2024 that I cropped and annotated in Mac OS Preview on 17 August 2024.

Duration: 4:19 minutes
Tempo: 124 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: D

Digital instruments used, in the order of composing and recording:

1. Synthesizer - Classics - Dreams and Visions
2. Synthesizer - Classics - Evolving Shades
3. Synthesizer - Classics - Formant Flutters
4. Synthesizer - Sound Effects - Cymbal Swell
5. Piano - Steinway Grand Piano
6. Strings - String Ensemble
7. Synthesizer - Bass - Synthetic Double Bass
8. Electronic Drum Kit - Solaris
9. Arpeggiator - Synth Bells - Contemplative Bells
10. Synthesizer - Soundscape - Synthetic Chatter

Thinking of You

Futuristic Night Fever

A New Change Of Pace

requiem for my beloved mother2

Untitled

"Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." -- Jerry Garcia

Welcome to my page, my peers, associates, friends, and musical family. I'm a lifelong, multi-instrumentalist musician who records prolifically and joyfully. You'll hear me play guitar, bass (regular four string, and four and five string fretless), mandolin, banjo, keys (piano, organ, synth), lap slide, sitar, and sing on my recordings here. I've been in a few dozen bands in my life, playing everything from bluegrass, jazz, rock, jam band, reggae, funk, afrobeat, Middle Eastern, traditional Irish, singer/songwriter, pop/covers, to experimental/avant garde. 
  Since I found SoundCloud a couple years ago, I've found many talented, creative people with whom to create music. However, in the summer of '23 I formed a band called The Eclectic Collective with some of my favorite musicians I've met through here. It started as a loose collective of musicians and coalesced into a core group of musicians who find other musicians with whom we'd like to make music, then run their songs through our process, and in effect add a full band. That core of The Eclectic Collective includes Tez (Llanpsych), J.J. Terrel, Ken (K2 and the Three), Stephen (Texmex Shaman), Chris (cgmaness), and Mark (mistermark). A couple of other musicians are frequent collaborators, as well, including Artur of Surfers Like Us, and Steve Vervaet of Steve's World. More recently, we've been joined by Carl of The Beautiful Dark fame. 
  The magic of music is amplified exponentially by each person adding to it. So, we really try to add our sorcery all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. Sometimes, we keep it within the group, but a lot of what we do is collaboration with other artists. Therefore these days, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other artists on the side.
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song or lyrics and you really want to add bigger instrumentation or a band and good production to it. 
  A small sampling of the artists whom I consider primary influences, and whom you will hear coming through my fingers include Phish, The Flaming Lips, The Grateful Dead, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, The Meditations, Michigan and Smiley, Lee Perry, Dillinger, Django Reinhardt, Impossible Recording Machine, The Allman Bros Band, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bela Fleck, Les Claypool, Sam Bush, David Grissman, John Prine, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, MMW, Moe., Morphine, Ween, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, John Scofield, Victor Wooten,  Cannonball Adderly, Thelonious Monk, Flea, Parliament Funkadelic,  Frank Zappa, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Carol Kaye, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons, Japanese Breakfast, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, Sean Lennon, and Billy Strings, but of course there are many more. I also really like and am influenced by traditional Iranian, Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Mauritian, Somalian, Egyptian, West African, and Syrian music. I welcome anyone who plays non-western music to contact me for a collaboration, too.
 I'm overjoyed to have found my community on SoundCloud. This is a truly unique forum where everyone is sincerely trying to build each other up. The profoundly supportive and positive SoundCloud community has really opened up an exciting new world of collaboration for me. That is the main reason I'm in the Cloud, actually, to connect with other musicians and make music that I enjoy listening to, and hopefully others do, as well. I am ALWAYS looking to collaborate with interesting musicians, mostly though BandLab, which is where I record almost exclusively. It's a solid, free digital audio workstation hub where you can share recording projects, even if it's not where you make your recordings.
  Everything I do is live instrumental, not programmed, and using no computer beyond my phone. That's not to say that I would be opposed to using that kind of tool, it's just not my preferred medium with which to paint. If you like my music, please share it. If you want to collaborate, my BandLab handle is @bingo_pajama. Feel free to contact me at cornbreadband@hotmail.com, as well, even if you aren't on BandLab.
  If your music is primarily AI, please don't come around my page, as I'm not at all interested in complimenting a machine.
  Here's a link to music I've recorded live with a group of musicians here in Pittsburgh called The Northumberland Street Ramblers.
Check out The Northumberland Street Ramblers on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fU4Me

Come on in (Eclectic Collective)

Entheogenic Psychonaut (Josh Clary)