R33DY D - Ray Of Sunshine (Radio Edit)

A live set recorded at the Seven Stars Bristol on Sunday 26/3/23 singer songwriter Karen Swan featuring Carl Philip Louis on electric mandolin 

Karen Swan (ft. CPL) Live at the Seven Stars Bristol UK

Believe it or not, this track was born, because i started playing with Spitfire's Christmas instruments (https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/christmas if you are interested).
While i liked the sounds, i did not like the music itself, so i started switching up the instruments and adding more and more of that Argon Antlers sauce i'm working on.

Guess this year i listened to too much deep techno, because at one point it morphed into this repetition of washed and mushy melodies and textures. I tried to use the least amount of musical ideas and then stretch them for as long as possible. I really like what it became.

Even though the sound quality is not as good as before. This time my majestic friend https://soundcloud.com/forgottendreams was not available to mix and master the music. So, I had to mix it, and I gave it to the SoundCloud AI for mastering. Honestly, I don't like the way how it sounds and thought of not releasing this until I know how to handle the mix myself, but I'm postponing my career for so long that taking a pause again would be more painful than accepting some subpar qualities.

Later, I'll make a remix to do some justice for this one. Until then, hope you'll find something in it that is worth hearing.

EDIT at 23.11.12: i replaced the audio file with a new master. It is still far from perfect, but much better than before...

Vertigo

What's In Your Mind LIVE at Gloucester Folk Trail 2024

On 31 January, Danielle Banks, Ian Cleverdon and Nigel Lowndes attended a songwriting workshop in Halsway Manor, Somerset, run by Boo Hewerdine and Reg Muross and were tasked with writing a protest song.

So what was the biggest issue facing many of us road users  in England at the time? POTHOLES! The song was written collaboratively in less than two hours.

Wind the time on to February and we couldn't get the song out of our heads. As Danielle and Ian live in North West England, they decided to try it out on an unsuspecting Open Mic audience in Buxton. It went down a storm! 'You should record it!', so we did!

Potholes

Gravity is a piece about letting go and embracing change. Musicians always tell you that their latest music is the best they have ever written, so this might be unusual to hear, but this track is simultaneously my most and least favorite piece of music i have written in recent years.

A few months ago i had some pretty traumatic experiences that made me unable to focus on any creative work. When i finally sat down to make something, i didn't wanted to write anything significant or important, i only wanted to experiment with some new sounds and ideas. This piece was almost finished in a few hours. I wanted to widen the palette of the sounds i'm using, introducing new bass instruments, a new approach to create drum tracks and also trying out a i - bVII - i - ii chord progression, which i believe is extremely rare to find.

First i was hesitant to even share this one because i feel it is very generic and predictable in many ways, yet somehow it captured perfectly my state of mind after the wounds of last year. Sometimes you just have to accept that things change around you and stop hold on to your hurt feelings, so your mind and body can be at the same place again. Far from the place that pulls you down.
I am listening to it for weeks now and somehow feel better every time. It is a very strange adventure to me, but there you go...

Gravity

Indigo

From Ort, released March 28, 2025
Written by Jack Goodall

Jack Goodall - vocals, piano, synthesizer, drums, bass guitar, sticks, samples
Jack Smith - drums
Jobe Baker-Sullivan - accordion, violin
Karen Swan - vocal

Recorded and produced by Jack Goodall and Emma Reading

Best Before December

Taken from Hannah's new album: 'Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia' 
OUT Sept 22nd 2017
**** MOJO / **** Record Collector / **** Loud & Quiet

PRE-ORDER 
Limited Edition Metallic Space Vinyl / CD / Digital: http://smarturl.it/syjioe

Hannah Peel's third album is a seven-movement odyssey composed for analogue synthesizers and full, traditional 29 piece colliery brass band!

 "We have a hundred billion neurons in our brains, as many as there are stars in a galaxy" Theoretical physicist and author, Carlo Rovelli.

LIVE DATES:
Tickets: http://www.hannahpeel.com/projects 
23rd Sept - Liverpool - Liverpool Philharmonic
30th Sept - Stockton - The Arc
21st Oct - Barnsley - The Civic Theatre
28th Oct - Basingstoke, The Anvil Concert Hall
MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED...

INFO:
With only a year following on from the release of her second album ‘Awake But Always Dreaming’ to widespread acclaim (Voted No.1 Album Of the Year – Electronic Sound Magazine), ‘Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia’, explores one person's journey to outer space, by recounting the story of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself. With artwork by Grammy award winning designer Jonathan Barnbrook (David Bowie collaborator on albums ‘Blackstar’ and ‘The Next Day’ ) and the complete brass band and rhythm section recorded live on location in The Barnsley Civic Theatre with Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio team, this exclusive album combines Peel’s detailed, analogue synth layered production and her expressive flair for performance with ‘Tubular Brass’, featuring the top UK championship brass band players. It’s a wholly unique, collaborative sound and seemingly, a first of it’s kind both live and on record. 

At the close of the album’s final song ‘The Planet of Passed Souls’, tutti brass jostle with the hiss and crackle of a 78rpm record. An emotionally charged, scratchy sample taken from a 1928 recording of Peel’s own choirboy grandfather in Manchester Cathedral leaves the listener questioning the reality of Mary’s connection with the stars… Did she ever make it to Cassiopeia? Is this all a daydream as she sits in a back garden shed tinkering with electronics and her telescope? Or maybe this is her final breath as her mind and body pass into another realm of life? Is this science or fantasy? And how much is there really a division between the two? 

ALBUM TRACKS:
1. Goodbye Earth
2. Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula 
3. Deep Space Cluster 
4. Andromeda M31
5. Life Is On The Horizon 
6. Archid Orange Dwarf
7. The Planet Of Passed Souls

Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia

Archid Orange Dwarf

Hannah Peel -  'Archid Orange Dwarf'

Sharing different music projects and items of interest within the Bristol Music Scene

GarageBand Lessons Album

Whole Sound Bristol: On my way to Nova Scotia Season 1 Episode 3 of 10

Whole Sound Bristol: Milk and Alcohol at the Thunderbolt Season 1 Episode 4 of 10

Apparently I'm an enigma 💜☀️my other soundcloud profile is Karen Swan singer songwriter observer of stuff...

https://linktr.eekarenswan

What's In Your Mind LIVE at Gloucester Folk Trail 2024

karen swan 4

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