During the height of the pandemic, I tried to imagine the time when we would be reunited with old friends, our families, and our colleagues. This piece is the result. It sustained me and I hope that you feel this way through the toughest of times.

Tea For Two from #GarageBandNation

I hope you enjoy this gem of yearning for Christmas memories that take us all back to our childhood. A fav of my better half I humbly submit this classic and yearn for your voice to sing along.

White Christmas Cover By LarsLooperMan

May peace return to the Ukrainian peoples and the madness end.

Chillin Out For Ukraine

Spring by LarsLooperMan

A lot of people ask me where my music comes from. Mostly I answer that I have no idea. Somewhere from the ether I often answer. But my process is a bit more complicated. 

Spring is something that I have looked forward to more and more each year. For many years there is a Robin that sits outside our window in a magnolia tree as the sun rises and claims the backyard as his. He waits until the dawn begins its early light and makes his pronouncement. Loudly. Very loudly. Depending upon the cloud cover it begins in March somewhere between 4:30 am and 5:15 am. You cannot sleep through it. And, he is our harbinger of spring. Robbie the Robin returns year after year.

I get up and get coffee. So, about a month and half later he is joined by another yearly visitor. A mockingbird that I befriended many years ago. I simply tossed a couple of pieces of string in the yard when I noticed that he was watching me in the garden. He picked up the strings and took them to their nest. Come to find out that mockingbirds do have an affinity for people and grow accustomed to the daily gardener. They watch I guess in hopes of me dropping some they like. Turns out their favorite is saltine crackers crumbled on the deck railing.

I can call to, what we have named Marty the Mockingbird and the Marvinettes, who are protected by Martha. She always cat calls to ward Marty and the young ones off from getting too close to me. But I have repeatedly through the years felt that stare and turned and found him watching me in the garden quite nearby. I look forward to the return of Marty’s family which certainly has gone through several generations in 15 years or so. So it is his offspring and their mates that come back year after year now. They know they can trust me and that they will be greeted with gifts. So, recording these small beasts that occupy my garden has been something that I have accumulated over a few years including calling Marty to come out and play. He has and returns my song along with a few of his own. I play them back off my phone. And, in return they squawk back at me to stop imitating them. That happened this morning with our Robin and I recorded his conversation with me telling me to stop that in a sense. Suddenly, the ether moves me and the notes and production flows into what I call Spring. I hope you will be inspired to engage nature in this way. It is what helps me find peace in the frays of life. Join me, Robbie the Robin, and Marty the Mockingbird beckoning him to join me with his family in May.

This piece is written in the E Major key like Spring by Vivaldi. I think he would have done something really spectacular in his day if he had been able to record the movement and sounds of Spring. I humbly submit this knowing that he may have sent me a gift from the ether. I chose the mandolin and strings pizzicato to represent the Spring rain. All the other elements have their own meanings. I leave that to the listener to interpret in their own imagination. Also, please listen to Vivaldi’s Spring rendition and imagine the rain and flora and fauna emerging from Winter’s embrace. 

Vivaldi Four Seasons: Spring (La Primavera) Full. Alana Youssefian & Voices of Music RV 269 4K - YouTube

Attribution to juskiddink and mike_stranks :

I borrowed a wonderful sound of a babbling brook from juskiddink on freesound.org called “babbling brook 2.wav”. Thanks much as it added the perfect flavor to this piece! 

Also thanks to mike_stranks for Birdsong 1 - Woodpecker.wav. Another perfect addition to this evolving spring piece.

You may freely use https://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/ and https://freesound.org/people/mike_stranks works as long as you follow the Attribution 3.0 licensing requirements of the Creative Commons and freesound.org provisions.

Spring

Spring by LarsLooperMan

Inspired by a good friend and supporter, Achimedes, AKA, David Stuart who once advised me last year to acquire a Symphobia product with a small windfall. I could afford the Orchestra Essentials library (some day to upgrade to full Symphobia) and have tried to learn this sophisticated VSTi library. I have been climbing a few mountains and am quite thrilled with his advice. This is my small contribution to an appropriate send off to our dear friend leaving the land of dreams and heading to the heartland of America. So long fellow soundclouder. We know that we will hear from you often.

The reason I mention this is that David is heading home. We know all the reasons as my greatest love and I have battled cancer for over three long years with success. Our victory is unlike the bitter challenges that David has had to face and struggle with and this has weighed on my mind heavily whilst composing this suite.

I know we all want to wish him great success on his new journey. I hope this suite will energize David to follow his bliss with great intensity. As Joseph Campbell once noted, "Follow your bliss and doors will open where you thought none existed."

We wish you a very safe and enlightening journey. We know that you will make the very most of it. Some students are in for a treat I am quite sure and you will soon be with family and friends. You are home already :-))

Of course I fused OE and my London Solo Strings, Freidlander Violin, HollywoodWinds, and Westgate solo instruments to represent the journey and its many challenges and rewards. I wish him blue skies and smooth tail winds !!

A Journey Towards Bliss

Growing up in Appalachia afforded me a wonderful opportunity to listen to this form of musical presentation and having the appreciation at the time that it was just plain great music. John Denver brought a different flavor to the music scene which was a raw singer-songrwiter with rich stories to tell to us in the 1970s. Many were corny but a few stand out like this beauty. A classic in every sense of the word we are taken along a country road driving homeward bound to Appalachia where our roots await us and make us feel at peace and full of joy.

Denver, Taffy Nivert, and Bill Danoff have written a delightful tune and in its study got my Friedlander Violin and a few other woodwind nuggets along the way. Another mountain climbing journey. What a wonderful instrument to learn.

It would so honor me if you were to sing along with this ... Lyrics are at the bottom :-))

"Take Me Home, Country Roads"

Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.
 Life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze.
 Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.
 West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads.

 All my memories gather round her, miner's lady, stranger to blue water.
 Dark and dusty, painted on the sky, misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye.
 Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.
 West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads.

 I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me, the radio reminds me of my home far away.
 And driving down the road I get a feeling that I should have been home yesterday, yesterday.
 Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.
 West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads.
 Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.
 West Virginia, mountain momma, take me home, country roads

May You find your Mountain Mama in your mind for just a moment or two :-))



Take Me Home Country Roads - John Denver Study

Losing one's mother has been difficult and trying. For those of you who may have lost your mother I offer this reflection of her place in heaven. I miss her and love you my oldest and dearest friend but carry you in my heart wherever I go. Rest my lovely.

A Place In Heaven

My day spent driving home thinking of my brother, and during the entire trip, there was Heaven Crying Snow and Ice and Freezing Rain in the distance. During my journey I listened to his favorite music and my heart hardened. The blues were your soul. Senselessly murdered, my God. Rest dear Soul. Rest in Peace and sing your heart out with Stevie and the lot. We miss you dear friend. My Dear Brother, My Heart Aches

And Heaven Cried Snow and Ice and Rain

A little fantasee never hurt anyone and it is a fitting way to end this journey and collection named eMergentZ. I always seem to end such visions with a magic flute, and believe me that the Claire Alto Flute surely fits the bill. I hope you enjoy it as much as I love this instrument. :-)

I articulated the Alto Flute using TouchOSC on my ipad. This I programmed for the instrument.

Fantasee from EmerGentZ

The Rising Tide at our feet is the real possibility of change and the anxiety that accompanies it. I will continue to dabble in the black arts of mastering. Have extended the track, competed the movement, and chosen a final master. Much to learn.

For the Tech Heads:

First Mastering with Ozone 7
Waves API
Symphobia Orchestral Essential
Symphobia Orchestral Brass
Orchestral String Runs
Hollywoodwinds
FL Studio is my Base DAW with Sony Acid Pro for Complex Mixes

Rising Tide

Rising Tide - SenTiMenTZ

Please help Anders save his home with this free download ... http://gofundme.com/help-the-sylvesterjohnson-family

Richness

RichNess from His Story

For the Father who is my hero and always has been there with his love.

Manly from SenTiMenTZ

On Friday it should be a Funky Jazz Friday. Get up offa that thang and Funk it up!

Garage Land Nation

Funky Friday from #GarageBandNation by LarsLooperMan

I am always open to collaboration :-)) Please comment good or bad, always something to learn and thanks for your ears :-) #LarsLooperMan

About 10 years ago I began composing again. There are many reasons, but after a few tunes I found that people were liking them. Today's VSTs and DAWs afford you that opportunity to express yourself just like a big recording studio. The SC community has helped me improve my work and I do thank them.

So this journey began with my love of classics and alternative genre's of music. When inspired I begin to compose and sometimes it happens quickly and sometimes it happens when it happens.

I am inclined to record with very little or no compression at all. So crank it up so you can hear all of the subtle nuances. Sometimes I mix for 12 hours or more at once to find those harmonizations that tickle that hair in your ear. This is just my way of reaching out and touching my listeners. I am very appreciative that so many Soundclouders have reached out and mentored this work. I invite those comments as it only makes the music that much better, so thanks!

I am influenced by many. I would say that it ranges from Henry Mancini to Herb Alpert to Led Zeppelin to Andreas Vollenweider to Weather Report to Acoustic Alchemy. Even Captain Beyond or classical elements! Now it is my turn to take what is inside and share it.

It is kind of scary to be here with so many talented professionals and skilled musician's. Not to mention that the production quality is a happy surprise.

I am here to share, but also, to learn. So, if you think I went awry then tell and teach me. I have a very blank canvas and hope that we can share a moment together. Boy oh boy, have I been learning! Thanks to all of you who are so kind with your time!

More later, when I have something brilliant, stupid, or silly to say.

BTW, if I won the lottery I would travel the world half the time collaborating away and then the other half would be spent trying to help other people's dreams come true. :-))

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