Sometimes you need a break. That's what the song is about. We hope you all remember in time to relax and forget all the stress!

This is your day!
I'm tired of the noise today
You need to get away
The world can wait just for this day
Let the stress fade away
I walk up the mountain high
Let all of your worries fly
And no phones to distract 
To no one I will react

This is your day
In the world can come what may
Enjoy the view so wide you will be satisfied
It is just you and your day of peace
And beside that there is nothing to achieve

(Only do what you can really enjoy this day
Think of yourself
Yes, it is may day
Just hold what I wanna keep
Hold it tight
Nobody gets on my nerves
No expectations
Today only good situations
Keep the ghosts away
It's you and no one else)

Walk by the lake shore
Feel the breeze and more
Let go of all that you have done
Your peace has begun
Feel the calm in your soul
Let go of all the whole
It's your day

That's it, yes
Today I feel freedom so near
No task to do just cheer
Wander through the city streets
And Watch how the people meet
Get a coffee and take a seat
This is your day now all for you alone
Take a deep breath and do nothing then rest
And forget all the mess
Take more of these days
Escape life's mad haze

I'm walking through the city streets
Where many people meet
I sit down in a café outside
protected from the sunlight
I watch the people pass by
Some are happy others cry
The world moves fast, take it slow
Let life just flow
This is your day
In the world can come what may
Enjoy your time outside 
In the dimmed sunlight
It is just you and your day of peace
And beside that there is nothing to achieve

This is your day

Recorded in Modesto, Ca.  Featuring Sergio Parraga (from Spain) Featuring Alto Saxophone solo. Gibson 335 Electric Guitar solo. Vibraphone solo. Flute solo. Fender Electric Bass. Roland Synthesizer Bass. Fender Rhodes Electric Piano Rhythm. Horn Section Trumpet, Alto & Tenor Saxophones,  Trombone. Drums Full Acoustic kit set. Percussion Timbales, Cowbell, Bongos, Ago go Bells, Tree Chimes.

Cannery Row

Sniffling

Ray and I improvised this song together, only not at the same time and not on the same continent. Go figure.

You can visit Ray here: https://soundcloud.com/user-364196783-552705040

Steady

Cast of characters:
The Beautiful Dark -- @thebeautifuldark -- Carl — VST orchestration, vocals, lyrics, and compostion
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken -- drums, percussion
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Warwick fretless four-string bass, Fender Precion four-string fretted bass, and Roland Phantom synthesizer
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– Tom Anderson Custom T model electric guitar
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark – VST string arrangement
Llanpsych -- @llanpsych -- Tez – Fender Stratocaster electric guitrar, mix, and production

 This song began as a musical letter written, composed, and sung by Carl to Eclectic Collective. Carl and Josh had been sniffing around each other's pages, admiring each other's work and collaborators. So Carl reached out with this friendly, uplifting song, as a gift to the band. 
  Ken was first in line, adding his awesome, driving drums to give us a heartbeat to build upon. Josh came along next and completed the rhythm section with his trusty four-string fretless bass. Stephen was next up to bat, adding his dynamic raspy guitar, which almost sounds like an electrified fiddle. Next up, Mark added the tasteful VST strings arrangement in the second half of Carl's original composition.  
  We had it pretty much done sounding, but wanted to spice it up a bit, so we came up with the idea for a coda. Josh added his bass and synth for it, and Tez came up with the thrilling guitar part of it, as well. Tez also added the thrilling guitar intro, too. 
  Once it was in the can, we asked Tez to mix and produce it for us, which he did in his always expert fashion.
  This is the first song EC has done with Carl, but we know it won't be the last. We all admire him for his creativity, proficiency, and prolificacy. His page is worth a stroll, too, as it contains a lot of gems.
  We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Original lyrics by The Beautiful Dark: 

Hey Collective Seeds,

Let's work things out across that water
There's a cable under sea,
We can send all sorts of...
Music/Words/Sounds - It's insane!
Look Lads,
That's life in the fastlane!

So it's ones and zeros
Mine and yours and theres
We are all heroes...

Watching the fire,
From a distance we're warm
But not from their mire,
From this musical charm.
It's a bonfire,
An inferno.
Earth got plenty to turn off...

So we can sing to love
And we can play for more dove.
Let's combine our powers. Collective!
A Paddy/Yankee toasted sandwich

Tex festival streak
Psyched for more free
K2 to peak
Mistermark chimes ' found life fought
Give, You Entheogenic Psychonaught
Collective lands
Psyched for more free

Dear Collective (Eclectic Collective with The Beautiful Dark)

Lyrics
Sons and daughters braved the rain
Sorry story told again. 
Of the winners and losers that crossed the lines
And the connoisseurs with their fine wines
Tempted by - the shoals of ice
Tempered by the exotic spice
That flavors the wind and lifts the sails
That rides through waves as the North Wind wails
Ain’t no body know
Where the money goes
Ain’t no body know
oppressive power grows

Ain’t no funny games
Drunk on sunny days
Ain’t no funny games
Drunk on sunny days

Looking up for mercy from the stone…
All alone
Walking the plank and keelhauled …
on your own
 
Ain’t misbehaving- better walk in line
Snitches get stitches before their time
Picking those pockets only get so far
Matches light the fire that sets it off. 

He was a cow in calf better have a laugh
They were hoping that he’d become their money bags
Sharing empty shelves cob web caught the fly
Maybe he’ll think twice before taking my advice. 

Shattered lives
Shadowed lies
Better tell the truth
Before you look the fool
No one knows
Where it grows
In an Online kissing booth
A Smile without a tooth. 

Hitting up the walls ….
in the bathroom
Markings on the wall claimed….
They had you

With the  ground underneath
We take that generational trip

Of materialistic wealth and shallow thoughts about 
Their drip. 

And the flow never grows
 as we wonder why we’ve lost
 our grip.

Our love for the red wood forest 
it brings us to the chorus

Ain’t no body know
Where the money goes

If this is what we lose,
 it puts us to the screws

Ain’t no body know
oppressive power grows

Ain’t misbehaving- better walk in line
Snitches get stitches before their time
Picking those pockets only get so far
Matches light the fire that sets it off.

Dreams of the Byzantines

No Funny Games

(Written by Terry Reeves)
Terry Reeves: Vocal
Gary Reeves: Toms
Hans Albers: All other instruments, Arrangement & Production

Photo of Max from The Albers' Archive

What to say about Maximilian?
There are so many things to be told: a lifetime of 24 years, full of special moments, joys, fears, sorrows, worries, hopes, dreams, ups, downs, progress, regress, searching, finding, winning, losing, restlessness, peace...
His life had begun with an extremely difficult birth, almost as if the world didn’t want him. They told us he had a life-threatening infection, there were probably holes in his lungs and he obviously had no kidneys. In total, his chances of surviving were exceedingly slim. However, after endless weeks of both despair and hope, he overcame the infection, the diagnosis of holes in his lungs turned out to be totally wrong and they even discovered a kidney.  Just one maybe but at least it worked perfectly.  His journey into existence had begun.
As he grew, so did the never-ending nightmare of problems, challenges and battles, until we began to wonder what could possibly happen next.  Through it all, Max took every opportunity to accumulate extreme experiences - never hiding, always   seeking.  For that, we loved him even more…and even more it broke our hearts that we couldn’t help him find what he was looking for.
But suddenly, as the Summer of 2011 dawned, his troubles seemed to merely fade away.  Was he just arriving in life, coming of age, finding his place in society?  To be honest, we hadn’t the faintest idea.  But it was abundantly clear that, having always been an underdog, that same unwelcoming world had simply started to like and respect him.  He began to realise his many talents, enjoying his job as never before, finally becoming something he had never been - happy.
Fast forward to the gorgeous Summer evening of June 28th, the eve of a 4-week vacation to which he had been looking forward so very much.  A smile on his face, he said he was in the mood to go jogging, something he loved. Sometimes, he ran and ran for ages.  He’d been gone about 3 hours, quite a long time even for him, so Carina called his phone and he answered, cheerfully telling her not to worry and assuring her he’d be home very soon.  Seconds after the call, out of the blue, he collapsed.  A pulmonary embolism.  They told us he died instantly. 
Max, we have no words for what happened, nor for the eternal gratitude we feel for every single second of your life.  We do know we will never stop loving you.”
(Hans & Carina Albers)

Small chance of survival, words from the first day
Stretching all emotions not a single which way
Asking whys and reasons, a chance to breathe long
Heartbreaking moments, hopes remained strong

Such a short distance, but a life running miles
Bring every sensation, fear to a million smiles
Experience not forgotten, continuous hug of care      
Born with fighting spirit, giving back more to share

24 years of love, no single regret
24 years of love, never to forget

Every challenge building, inner muscles to be felt
Secret ways to be happy, never question hand dealt         
Complication of thinking to find a new sentence 
Pathways to friendships, dreams of acceptance

24 years of love, no single regret
24 years of love, never to forget

A vision full of truth with strength to admire
Finding a hidden talent, past helping to aspire 
No journey of distance could prevent direction
A phone call assurance became last connection

It’s hard to find words, express feelings remaining 
Deep down inside shell, empty, sad, self-complaining 
But we will never forget our boy hero from birth
Brought love and kindness, past and future unblurred

24 years of love, no single regret
24 years of love, will never forget
24 years of love…

MAXIMILIAN - CRIPPLE CLUB  (Please Read Description)

Cast of Characters:
Cgmaness – open.spotify.com/album/42qOeOxPcclsxwxlPynFfL – Chris – Gretch bass, Guild Pelora electric guitar, SoundStone on a Harley Benton electric guitar, vocals, composition, mix, and production
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark – organ
Llanpsych–@llanpsych –Tez– Fender Stratocaster electric guitar
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Roland Phantom synth
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– Gibson Les Paul custom electric guitar

This song began as a mostly fully fleshed out idea from Chris. He presented it to the rest of Eclectic Collective as a bass line with a rhythm guitar chugging the goove. Awesomely powerful groove, but pretty stripped down compared with the final version.

We did this in an odd order this time, for no particular reason. Probably because Chris' bass groove was so strong, Mark was able to first add his ripping organ throughout, inspired by Deep Purple. Tez, again surprisingly, was able to add the fiery solos at the end and the intro, even before the drums were up. Although, we didn't have to wait long for that, because Ken filled them in perfectly, as he always does. Once the structure and rhythm section was complete, Josh decided to add the synth solo in the middle, at the crescendo, which he really enjoyed doing. Stephen came last to the party, but replaced Chris' rudimentary rhythm guitar with a fierocious, but more riff oriented, and less chordy line throughout.

Once it was in the bag, Chris was the natural choice to mix it, since his productions are always top quality, and it was his song to begin with. During the production, he also decided to add the guitar, including the an e-bow like device called a SandStone that sounds a bit like a synth, and vocal tones to the middle and end. He also added the vocalizations you hear in those parts, as well.

This is an example of an Eclecitic Collective song started by Chris, whose music we adore and with whom are always excited to work. His music is all amazing; check out his page if you haven't already. He is also on Spotify, which is where you'll find his new album, which is amazing! We hope you enjoy listening to this song as much as we enjoyed creating it.

The Collective - (Eclectic Collective) song by CGManess

The long anticipated;) follow up has arrived.  I begin the song with a brief reprise of "Two Faced" to set the stage.  After the cold and bluster of March, the gentleness of spring and early summer is felt with a walk in the park.
Thank you all for the overwhelming response to my ode to March and especially the interest shown in the little teaser, epilogue now a more complete thought.  As they say, "take time to smell the flowers":)

A Walk In The Park (David, acoustic guitars)

Guitar (Nylon electro-acoustic guitar Cordoba GK studio) and final mix by Neno J. https://on.soundcloud.com/mYPR0YxGjsZ2bWmRCH
Original music, arrangement, piano, organ, bass guitar, drums, J.J. Terrell

Tango passionato (Collab with Neno J.)

Sunny Day

Ambient, Post Rock, Shoegaze, space rock, indie

Vanquish

"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

The Collective - (Eclectic Collective) song by CGManess

Entheogenic Psychonaut (Josh Clary)