Living in this extended quarantine, words began to get in the way. And then I asked myself, don’t all of these lonely people just want to hear something that hits them right in their heart? What if I made an album that sounds like your neighbor playing guitar and you find yourself eavesdropping? 

Thanks for listening - Marco

credits:
Marco North: 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, electric guitars, dobro, banjola, cigar box guitar, saxophone, harmonica, cloud chamber bowls, tack piano, music box, calliope, harmonium, clavinet, mellotron, didgeridoo, accordion, celeste, Wurlitzer, hurdy gurdy, drums, and various Stradivarius string samples. 

All songs written and arranged by Marco North 
Produced, mixed and engineered by Marco North 
Mastered by Hans DeKline 
©+℗ 2022 Bittersweet Hum Music (BMI) 

Design/images by Bittersweet Group 

Recorded in our living room in Moscow, Russia. 

THANKS TO: 

Nataliya Usherzon, Eve North, Vera North, Hans DeKline, Eric B. and Chris W. from The Mixorcist, Irakli, Therese, Jon, JM, Evie, Jamie, Daniel, David, Mark, Greg, Marlon, Polly, Ryan and George.

Jacob and the Angel

Music and lyrics by Will Oldham. All guitars and voices by Polly.

We All, Us Three, Will Ride

JACOB and the ANGEL (final mixes)

I Wish I Was Back Home

Undertow

JACOB and the ANGEL (final mixes 2)

One Thousand Steps

Marco North: 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, electric guitars, dobro, banjola, cigar box guitar, saxophone, harmonica, cloud chamber bowls, tack piano, music box, calliope, harmonium, clavinet, mellotron, didgeridoo, accordion, celeste, Wurlitzer, hurdy gurdy, drums, and various Stradivarius string samples. 

All songs written and arranged by Marco North 
Produced, mixed and engineered by Marco North 
Mastered by Hans DeKline 
©+℗ 2022 Bittersweet Hum Music (BMI) 

Design/images by Bittersweet Group 

Recorded in our living room in Moscow, Russia. 

THANKS TO: 

Nataliya Usherzon, Eve North, Vera North, Hans DeKline, Eric B. and Chris W. from The Mixorcist, Irakli, Therese, Jon, JM, Evie, Jamie, Daniel, David, Mark, Greg, Marlon, Ryan and George.

JACOB and the ANGEL

Sisyphus

Windowsill

6 - Raychel

My first track posting for 2022!  Hopefully I'll be able to be a bit more productive this new year in terms of recording, editing and posting music to this page.

This is two separate recordings of the Buchla system, highlighting the Northern Lights 2SR Spectral Resonator as well as the 296R Spectral Processor.  Nothing terribly complex overall, but just wanted to capture the sweet sonics that both of these spectral processors have to offer when you push a 259a Twisted Waveform Generator and a few other things through it.

Once all of the sounds are introduced, it really turns quite lovely at around six minutes in and becomes a sweet ambient haven of undulating tones.  Feels like a nice way to bring in the new year.

Thanks for listening if you choose to do so!

Buchla Resonator Ambience

Tonight, live from the road, NOEL at the Controls gonna blow your mind. A double play dealt right-off the top...you're in for an unrelenting night of taste, grit, volume, cool, power and personality! KILLERWATT Chief Engineer Sid Walker thought he'd better sleep at the transmitter site in case havoc ensues from all those pinned, bent meters. Click the player above to listen.
https://www.killerwatt.co/2022/02/noel-controls-soundstage.html

NOEL at the Controls #10

Moanin' - by Charles Mingus (live at SUNY Buffalo 1999)

Home demo for a new song. Lyrics aren’t complete, and it’s just a GarageBand demo. My ideas for actual production are really different that the shimmery and monotonous pop song you hear here. But I’m happy with these beginnings.

Sketches

Our Time in the Serengeti (6)

In season one, the opening credits for HBO's The Leftovers were done by Max Richter (a Paper Route hero) and in season two, the credits were… well, gut wrenching on first listen/watch. A folk song performed by Iris DeMent that, by the end of the season, its juxtaposition could not have been more perfect. Which brings us to….

When it was announced that a third and final season would be made of The Leftovers, we wanted to capture this complete circle with a song. We took the two opening songs from each previous season (which could not be more different)… and played them as one.

This Should Be The Theme Song For The Leftovers S3

New York I Love You - -Zoe's Theme

I'm posting this unreleased acoustic demo I recorded back in 2010 in honor of my dear friend Felix McTeigue who I just found out passed away (Summer 2020). He wrote this song before I met him and we joked about it and so many other things during our decade of working together in NYC recording studios, where he was a producer and songwriter and I was his hired gun "Ol Spot On" (when I was doing well) or aka "Jeff Ditz" (when I wasn't doing well haha). I learned so much from Felix, as a studio musician but also as a friend. He was like an older brother to me and we were there for each other, riding high in the good times and thru the dark times. This song blew up once country artist Dallas Smith picked it up, setting the stage for Felix's move to Nashville, where he co-wrote songs for Lori McKenna, Florida Georgia Line and many others, in which he was nominated a Grammy for. But he always stayed humble, kind and gave me a ring to talk stupid, to make each other laugh, or if he wanted a web site designed, wiki page built or some guitar tracks to a new artists he was working with. I love that guy and his enormous talent but most of all, his kindness and friendship. This is all so surreal and a shock. Life is too short and precious-be kind to each other. Rest easy, dear Felix. - Jason "Ol Spot On"

Jason Szkutek's Album

Jumped Right In (2010) - Acoustic Demo Written By Felix McTeigue

Martin Ruby is a Roots/Americana band led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Marco North. Born in Brooklyn, he has been living in Moscow, Russia for the past 13 years.
Laying his demons bare, North pulls on characters like a series of strange coats. Paring back the extraneous, coaxing out the wry details, always seeking that conversational tone, his songs are a wandering collection of midnight confessions.
His first album, Heaven Get Behind Me was written on a 100-year-old parlor guitar, and recorded in a Soviet-era living room on a collection of vintage instruments, including a 1887 Pollman banjola. North’s unique songwriting is steeped in not only the melancholy grace of Nick Drake and Mark Linkous, but also the foggy noir of Johnny Cash’s American albums, and the somber meditativeness of Nick Cave’s most recent recorded output.

Sisyphus

Martin Ruby

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