Clouds ☁️

SPECIALPLAYLISTS

Stuff made with friends

Songs and instrumental tracks inspired by history, mythology and literature

SPECIAL CECILIA 's INVITATION TO COLLAB >>>
MUSICIANS, BEATMAKERS, SINGERS, RAPPERS ... Who want Can USE & REMIX this ACAPPELLAS. A Special Cover of Billie Holyday Song with a little Extra Lyrics...
You can Use parts you want, Place it, Modulate it as You Feel, MAKE A SPECIAL TRACK, with SOUNDS or FIT IT AS A FEAT in a SONG... 

DOWNLOAD are FREE & it's in Wave, if You Want MP3, ask me. I
f You Use My Vocals, Mention My Name in the Track & Let Me Know, I will Repost, Share, Include it in Playlists & Mix...

First Version > https://soundcloud.com/specialececilia/good-morning-heartache-remake

Special Cecilia GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE Revisited + Extra - VOCALS for Collab

C'était un grand plaisir pour moi de chercher l'histoire pour accompagner cette belle musique passionnée de MingMonk.
Merci beaucoup, mon ami!
https://soundcloud.com/mingmonk
Composition originale: https://soundcloud.com/mingmonk/maria-sans-voix
Such a pleasure finding a story for this beautiful, passionate music from MingMonk. Thanks so much, my friend!

Maria - MingMonk (+ltp)

'green nails'
https://www.instagram.com/one.man.verity.show/reel/C9JVNvzuc-u/

lyrics: Scotty & Gems

Baby, paint your nails green today,
naked on the couch as I play with my lady.
As the sun shines through the curtains delicately. 
And the birdsongs that surround us match my melody. 

Greeeeen naaails.
And soooo free.
Come back one day and make me feel this way.
One day.





green nails

I have been working occasionally for years (at least since 2017) on this track, looking for a sound that could be acceptably evocative and hypnotic. Needless to continue at this point. I am unable to improve it with my skills. 

Heliopolis (Ηλιούπολις) was  an Ancient Egyptian city, the capital of a district of Lower Egypt in Pharaonic times (located north-east of Cairo, nothing remains of it today). It was of great importance in the religious life, due to the deities worshipped there: especially Ra, a solar deity who was later destinated to occupy a central position in various religions, including Roman. It is to this solar cult that the city owes its Greek name. 

Cover image: marble slab in relief with dedication to Sol Invictus. The relief depicts the Sun, the Moon and perhaps the bearded Jupiter Dolichenus.
National Roman Museum at the Baths of Diocletian, Rome.

------

Composed by Michele Ansani (2017-2024).
Female voice from free samples libraries.
Posted on SoundCloud: 2024, July 11.

Heliopolis *

First version here: https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani/ulysses-and-the-sirens
For the final draft I employ the same audio file, just adding a bit of guitar, percussions and vocals.
Lyrics and sirens song courtesy of Mainstream Eurodance.
Cover picture: John William Waterhouse, "Ulysses and the Sirens" (1891), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Lyrics

Baby I loved you 
more than words can say 
I need you 
like fire needs a flame 
now I'm breaking I'm waiting 
to hear you say my name

------

Composed by Michele Ansani (2017-2022-2024).
Posted on SoundCloud: 2024, August 5.

Ulysses and the Sirens (final draft) *

https://soundcloud.com/synline send me this wonderful instrumental, he also later on mastered and mixed this song. A Big Thank You for that, it was a great pleasure to write and sing along.

Artwork by Dr Carl Russell

New Roses

Just looking, looking, looking, looking
For the latest blooms
Just looking, looking, looking, looking
For the sharpest thorns

But that is…						
But that is no easy find
And that is…					
That is not an easy thing
Cos’ there is…					
Not any validity
And that is…					
That is just a misery

In the garden of new roses
Wandering hidden paths
Must move with some adroitness
Or getting tossed

Into the underwood
Growing not so very well understood…

Still picking, picking, picking, picking
For a little more attention
Still clicking, clicking, clipping, clicking
For some solid numbers

But that is…						
But that is no easy find
And that is…					
That is not an easy thing
Cos’ there is…					
Not any validity
And that is…					
That is just a misery

In the garden of neurosis
Wandering hidden paths
Ahh, must move with some more adroitness
Ahh, already getting lost

In the underwood
The maze gets bigger than understood
In the underwood…
Where the new roses stood…

New Roses (wt Synline)

A few things to say.
1. Sorry, this song is a long one: more than seven minutes, too many to expect to have listeners desirous to get to the end of a small marathon. Moreover, it is slow (the first refrain only comes after three minutes or so) and sung in Italian (the English translation is available, but it is never the same thing).
2. The photo shows two actors: Bekim Fehmiu and Irene Papas, protagonists of a wonderful TV series (‘Odissea’) aired in 1968. A show that enriched my childhood and conditioned my imagination (and my reading) forever.
3. I have long wished to be able to write a song about that story within the story of Ulysses' wanderings: his return to Ithaca and his failure to be recognised by Penelope. I succeeded in 1994, then producing a few versions of it. I recorded this one a few years ago, the sound quality was not excellent but now I have taken it up again, singing it all over again and changing the arrangement a little. I hoped at least to recreate an atmosphere musically suited to the story evoked.
Female vocals courtesy of Sound Doctrine.

LYRICS 

he speaks softly from afar
and his voice is like a stray dog
like a boat you can barely see
like a moon on a swing
suspended on the edge of a sea wave
he holds his breath to follow his song

she sings and as she sings she has dozed off
he takes her hand and
whispers ‘welcome back into my life, welcome back’

she still sleeps and dreams of making love
with this morning shadow
of these colourless eyes 
came from an icy adventure
of days that smell clean
of all nights and all days
of spells, escapes, memories 
of days lost without desires

and if she will not listen to his words,
if evil will not slip from her heart
then who knows
where the wind will settle him
where he will lose himelf
where he will rest

[Penelope]
"Are you the night that burns
are you this sky that falls on me
are you this ship that arrives
are you this fire congealed inside me
... (You're all I need) ..."

she squints her eyes and moves slowly
as if to let the world to feel
all the weight of this abandonment
of this vanished illusion 
of her infinite sadness
sadness that perfume the nights and days
spent alone with this wound

but he is not only the thought of every morning
he is in the sand in the waves
that have always bounced on the shore
he is the cement of this house
is the receding fear
is the storm ever closer
he is this morning shadow
and she will listen to his words
and the sea will deposit him on her heart
and then who knows
maybe the wind will settle 
the circle will close
and she will recognise him

[Penelope]
"... (You're all I need) ...
are you the night that burns
are you this sky that still falls on me
are you this ship that arrives
are you this fire congealed inside me
are you my eyes you are my hands
are you my lips my skin of today and tomorrow
are you this peace that rises again
are you this home to recapture
this night to rest
... (You're all I need) ..."

------

Lyrics and music by Michele Ansani (1994).
Posted on SoundCloud: 2024, September 15

Nostos (il ritorno di Ulisse) **

Lyrics: Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Music: Michele Ansani & Francess Harris (@pianofran)
Piano: Francess Harris
Vocals, keyboards and electronic strings: Michele Ansani

[Eng lyrics below]

It would actually be a cover, but I do not know whether Petrarch (or others to him contemporary) had also given musical form to the sonnet. For him, the compositions of the Canzoniere (late title) were actually 'Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta'. Modest, the poet. The literature about this introductory sonnet is endless, one can easily start from Wikipedia.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I had taken this and other texts from the italian vernacular lyric tradition of the origins, giving them some melodic texture: a normal operation for a student of Literature oriented towards medieval studies and a lover of medieval tunes.
I proposed to Francess (@pianofran - please visit her SC page, full of great piano performances) to play a piano base for this song, and she went much further (as I imagined), with her usual delicate and unmistakable touch, helping to generate a melody and an atmosphere that seemed to me perfectly suited to this very famous poetic composition.

Englsh lyrics (translation by A S. Kline)

You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes,
of those sighs on which I fed my heart,
in my first vagrant youthfulness,
when I was partly other than I am,

I hope to find pity, and forgiveness,
for all the modes in which I talk and weep,
between vain hope and vain sadness,
in those who understand love through its trials.

Yet I see clearly now I have become
an old tale amongst all these people, so that
it often makes me ashamed of myself;

and shame is the fruit of my vanities,
and remorse, and the clearest knowledge
of how the world's delight is a brief dream.

Original poem

Voi ch’ascoltate in rime sparse il suono
di quei sospiri ond’io nudriva ’l core
in sul mio primo giovenile errore
quand’era in parte altr’uom da quel ch’i’ sono,

del vario stile in ch’io piango et ragiono
fra le vane speranze e ’l van dolore,
ove sia chi per prova intenda amore,
spero trovar pietà, nonché perdono.

Ma ben veggio or sì come al popol tutto
favola fui gran tempo, onde sovente
di me medesmo meco mi vergogno;

et del mio vaneggiar vergogna è ’l frutto,
e ’l pentirsi, e ’l conoscer chiaramente
che quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno.

---

Cover picture: Anonymous, 'Francesco Petrarca in the Studium', wall fresco, last quarter of the 14th century, Reggia Carrarese, Sala dei Giganti, Padua.

------

Posted on SoundCloud: 2024, September 24.

In rime sparse il suono [Petrarch, Canzoniere - Introductory Sonnet] **

It's a special honor that my dear friend Michele Ansani asked me if I would like to work on a song he wrote years ago called 'Alla Fine della Fine delle Fini' (To the end of the end of the ends) which is a great track. When I listened to it I said to Michele that I thought the song is already finished and asked what I supposedly could do with it. He said, that he wasn't going to publish it and wanted me to work on the root idea of the song to create something new.  Thank you so much Michele for being so generous to leave the basic song idea to my purposes (all flaws are mine).

Listen to his wonderful music here, you all know him anyway: https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani

Michele Ansani: Seed idea
Me: Instruments, vocals, lyrics, arrangement.

Photograph from the top of Half Dome, Yosemite NP, CA, USA by A. Besinger  2022

One day I walked the shores of time
Wiping away the footprints left behind

Tossing stones into the sea  
Just to watch the ripples making their way back to me  

What if these dancing rings were just memories
Would they come to life once more to set me free?


Abandoned this place that I called home ￼
and took that boat I was hiding for so long 

Facing the storms, past the sirens song
The love of gods in mind may have led me wrong

Set course to the end of the end of the ends
So when you step off the edge of the world 
Make sure that your wings are spread 

When I stepped through the gates of Plutonion
Caught between Scylla and Charybdis I would be found

Sacrificed the ones to whom I belonged
A wise man would rather be envied than being wronged

Set course to the end of the end of the ends
So when you step off the edge of the world 
Make sure that your wings are spread 

Set course to the end of the end of the ends
So when you step off the edge of the world 
Make sure that your wings are spread

Off the Edge of the World (with Michele Ansani)

MUSIC, LYRICS, MIX, COVER PIC - Tam Jennifer

LYRICS 

Boy that I love
You think you're not enough
With eyes that question why
Boy that I love
You think you're not enough
I'll never see you cry
.
Boy that I love
You think you're not enough
I'm haunted by your angry eyes
Boy that I love
You'll always be enough
-
.
Masculine energy
Standing right in front of me
I'll never back down
You don't have to be strong
Societal norms 
That are simply wrong
.
Boy that I love
You think you're not enough
With eyes that question why
Boy that I love
You think you're not enough
I'll never see you cry
.
Boy that I love
You think you're not enough
I'm haunted by your angry eyes
Boy that I love
You'll always be enough
-
.
Dark waters hold us all
Wondering the path
Wondering what this life is for
.
Silent memories in my mind
What does it mean to see
If everyone else is blind? 
.
Certain substance happens between us
Certain events we can't explain. 
For all the boys with young or old faces
I see you dreaming of better places, 
How painful the human race is. 
-
.
 
© Tam Jennifer Hastings, 2024. All rights reserved.

BOY (2024)

The Smoking Trout is back with a new chapter in the saga of the Holy Dumpling.  Was great to hear Uziel in front of the mic again as well as Tot laying the beats.   Jeff and Terry remain masters of their domain. 

* Stonerjazz @user-911083679 -- Vocals, Lyrics, Original Idea, Acoustic Guitar, and Artwork

* Uziel @user-455619833 -- Vocals

* TexMex Shaman @texmex-shaman -- Electric Guitar & Bridge

* Tot - @tot-beat -- Beat & Drums

* Tea R. Sea - @tea_are_sea -- Synths & Production

-------------
Catch up with the first 10 tracks of our work-in-progress concept album, Quest for the Holy Dumpling: on.soundcloud.com/FR63a

Listen to the Smoking Trout's first album, The Land of Zed (2021-2022): on.soundcloud.com/WB34q
-------------

Lyrics (by Stonerjazz):

We all chose it, we arrived here at this self-same place
he liked to think that he had earned it
but that simply not the case.
He just dreamed it up one sunday afternoon
while drowsing and lounging in the Ether
where the US resides
while living on a Proton Banished
to the outskirts of a single Atom
In a single Universe-
It was a wicked Curse, specifically designed for him
A scorcerer, Albert Rufus Smith
Stole a Rocket ship and he took it to Uriah
He was a rascal and scoundrel and a liar and a thief
But he had a magic knife that he had won in a game of dice
on a stormy night in a corner of some ruins
in the desert in december by the fire light with some other witches from Oaxaca
where he'd Spied Roberta picking magic mushrooms naked in the moonlight
with her brothers and her sisters and some others from the Bus-
It seems that Albert Rufus Smith Was Smitten

The eternal now is Wow
When we wonder why we wander
where we will
while walking walking walking to fulfill
the contemplated vacancy
Beyond the vast Horizen

Alberts knife was sliver with a handle made of Amber
when he held it high above his head
it gave off a blinding light
and on that night on the planet of Uriah
when Gus and all his jolly happy hopeful holograms arrived
on that Beat-up Bus
That formulated plan in Alberts wicked head
appeared to be on Track
had he not been messmerized by Roberta's perfect presence and physic
he might have pulled it off, that dirty rotten little sneak--

Sid and Larry caught him and his Cronies
trying to steal the bus and Abduct
Sally and Roberta too, Who
were sleeping on the bus in the back together as they always do,
And Gus was not Amused-
Albert seemed to be confused until he held his Magic knife up high
and blinded ever bodies eye
and in a frantic flight he escaped into the distant night--

Albert Rufus Smith (Smoking Trout's HOLY DUMPLING #11)

Dear friends, with genuine pleasure I’d like to share with you my new collaborative work with David De Michele —  a highly talented composer and musician. You can listen to his magnificent music here: @user-92820487

David has created an ethereally beautiful addition to my original composition, making it sound so magical. It has been a great honour and joy to collaborate with David once again.

Thank you a lot for listening to this music, and we really hope you will enjoy it!

Credits:

Composition & piano performance: Anastasiya Ihnatovich
Arrangement & orchestration: David De Michele

Fiat (Ft. David De Michele)

Here is another track produced with https://soundcloud.com/joerxworx. On an (not too) old piano base of mine (https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani/kepler-1649c-draft), he did his usual excellent work with his saxophones, then I finished the arrangement with some keyboard phrases.

Dedicated to the comet of the century.

Piano and keyboard: Michele Ansani
Alto and tenor sax: joerxworx
Posted on SoundCloud: 2024, October 25

Tsuchinshan–ATLAS

Here is another track from Michele Ansani that I was invited to. On an old piano base from Michele,
I delivered alto and tenor sax, then he finished the arrangement with some keyboard phrases. ........
He dedicated this piece to the comet of the century.

Piano and keyboard: Michele Ansani - https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani
Alto and tenor sax: joerxworx
Posted on SoundCloud: 2024, October 25

I am happily connected to my Inner Child.

It took her awhile to get through xxx

True To You

Funny old world.  Whilst scrumping about on SC my travels took me to Michele's cloud where I alighted on his track as named above. Sharp intake of breath and a hurried message to Michele to ask if he might be so kind as to permit me to pen a few words to accompany it.  He graciously agreed.  Having nothing in mind at the time I hastily back-pedalled and explained that it might be best if he didn't hold his breath....next day I listened again and Mr Spotty Book called over Mr Pen for a chat.  What followed in the next hour or so is somewhat blurred.  I always try to read a text in one take, for integrity's sake.  This was my fourth attempt and the only one I managed to complete.  

I decided to quit while I was ahead.

Thank you, Michele, for the warm nostalgic smile infused in this wonderful music of yours, and for the (unexpectedly moist) journey upon which it took me.

Find Michele's music here:  https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani
________________________________________________________________________________

All the old little things we have lost

Of course, you know, Dad, that some stuff doesn’t work too well these days.
I’ll forget odd bits and bobs, like, maybe having lunch or doing promised jobs
Blimey, even birthdays on occasion slip the mind
As today’s neurons disconnect, recall’s evasion of my yesterdays so to find.
I actually forgot why I came into this room in the first place
Stood a while, cast about, then saw your face
Your smile leaping out from the old photo there
Engendered mine, returned, locked in loving stare
And propelled me back to play in those monochrome years
You know, our old box brownie’s still tucked away in the cupboard under the stairs.

Remember how it was, Dad,  how we lived, things we had?
Thrupenny bits and ha’pennies and bikes with hard rubber wheels
Plastic shoes and sock holes darned
Sparse but regular high carb, high fat meals
Never did us any harm
Hand-me-downs all around, we craved the latest style
Segs in shoes and outside loos
A homely fireplace, though just the one
We’d huddle round, our toasting forks with crumpets on, and laughing all the while

So I won’t forget all the old little things we have lost
Things so casually into history’s family album tossed
But neither have I lost my tendency to tears, welling soft
From the broken heart that burned for you, 
Then split apart and turned to frost
That day you died, just fifty two, so very young.
Who’d have thought that all those old little things
Would fill the font of memory springs 
From which this tearful smile of mine has sprung.

All the old little things we have lost: some words set to the music of Michele Ansani

Zephyrus abducted and then married the nymph Chloris, transforming her into a goddess: Flora.
The portrait of Flora, together with the scene of the abduction, is depicted in one of the masterpieces of Renaissance art: ‘Primavera’, by Sandro Botticelli (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).

I wrote this song when I was in high school (which means in the mid-70s), so I guess the naivety of the lyrics and the simplicity of the original melody are understandable. Francess (@pianofran : you all know her) worked beautifully on that melody (the archeological version of the song had a definitely different rhythm); we weren't planning to revive the song (the idea was to produce a purely instrumental piece), but the beauty of this piano arpeggio motivated me to give it a try. And so I sang it.
Of course, my gratitude goes to Francess for the magnificent work she has done on this my old music! 🙏

Lyrics (ENG / ITA)

You live in the leaves
of your fears
like a snowdrop
that can never bloom
Sad mechanisms
your tears and your smiles
seek the courage
to break the enchantment

But the wizard who imprisoned you
With golden bracelets
cannot stop the wind
that ruffles your thoughts
and only in little moments
incredulous and light
you imagine that time
listens to your breath

Already the leaves are falling
of your fears
and the wind disperses them
among thousands of plains
Your new smile
like fountain water
chases in the streets
other gazes and new lives

The sky is a hawk
and air a bee
the waters together dance
in your soft fingers
of perfumed musk
you will carry them with you
never more shall you pass
where they still shade
cold, dark bushes

----

Vivi tra le foglie
delle tue paure
come un bucaneve
che non potrà mai fiorire
Tristi meccanismi
i tuoi pianti e i tuoi sorrisi
cercano il coraggio
di spezzare il sortilegio

Ma il mago che ti imprigionò
con braccialetti d'oro
non può fermare il vento
che ti spettina i pensieri
e solo in brevi attimi
incredula e leggera
ti immagini che il tempo
ascolti il tuo respiro

Già cadono le foglie
delle tue paure
e il vento le disperde
fra migliaia di pianure
Il tuo nuovo sorriso
come acqua di fontana
rincorre nelle strade
altri sguardi e nuove vite

Il cielo è un falco
e l'aria un'ape
le acque insieme danzano
nelle tue dita morbide
di muschio profumato
li porterai insieme a te
mai più dovrai passare
là dove ancora ombreggiano
cespugli freddi e scuri

----

Lyrics: Michele Ansani
Music: Michele Ansani & Francess Harris
Piano: Francess Harris
Vocals and arrangement: Michele Ansani
Composed by Ansani & Harris (1976-2025)
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, February 14

Flora [with Francess Harris] *

The lyrics translated into Italian are taken from the well-known T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land". Part IV: "Death by Water".

To give a new and different look to this old track I asked to my (and yours) friends (you know them well: @beatingedge). They improved the mix and above all added an instrumental part, on wich I enjoyed myself with other guitar, pad and cello sounds and parts. Obviously, I thank them immensely, with a special thought for Vampira (aka Mary).

LYRICS (ENG - ITA)

Phlebas the Phoenician,
a fortnight dead,
forgot the cry of gulls,
and the deep sea swell
and the profit and loss.
A current under sea
picked his bones in whispers.
As he rose and fell
he passed the stages of his age and youth
entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew
o you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
consider Phlebas,
who was once handsome and tall as you.

----

Phlebas il Fenicio,
morto da quindici giorni,
dimenticò il grido dei gabbiani
e il fondo gorgo del mare,
E il profitto e la perdita.
Una corrente sottomarina
Gli spolpò l’ossa in mormorii.
Mentre affiorava e affondava
Passò attraverso gli stadi della giovinezza
della maturítà
Procedendo nel vortice.

Gentile o Giudeo
o tu che volgi la ruota e guardi sopravvento,
Considera Phlebas,
che un giorno fu bello e alto come te.

----

Music by Michele Ansani & Beating Edge (1981-2025).
Picture is from James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 'The Ocean Wave' (1883-1884), National Museum of Asian Arts, Washington.
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, March 6

Phlebas il Fenicio [with Beating Edge] *

In Euripides' tragedy 'The Suppliants', a group of Argive mothers travels to Eleusis to plead with Theseus, king of Athens, to help them recover the bodies of their sons, who fell during the failed assault on Thebes. The Thebans, in fact, refuse to return the corpses for burial. These mothers, immersed in profound grief, represent the universal symbol of maternal mourning in the face of the loss of their children in war.

Cover picture: Theseus and Amphitrite with Athena looking on. Interior from an Attic red-figure cup, 500–490 BC. Currently housed at the Louvre Museum of Paris (inventory G 105).

Composed by Michele Ansani (2023-2025).
Female vocals courtesy of VOX.
Posted on SoundCloud: 2025, April 4.

The Suppliants *

Update (December 9, 2025). 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagLpl21qdY
I’ve posted the entire suite “In case nothing happens” on YouTube, including the parts (7 and 8) that are still missing here, accompanied by a very simple video.


Hello! I’m a university professor of history who enjoys playing guitar and piano/keyboard, and occasionally composing — unpretentiously, just for fun. I’ve been here for at least 10 years, but only recently have I started using the platform for something other than just external digital storage.
Most of my recordings (made with a KorgD8, Audacity, and more recently Reaper for MIDI and the Spitfire Audio libraries) are entirely homemade and decidedly imperfect. My music includes old songs (all written back in the last century; here I’ve only shared the ones I’ve reworked in recent years) as well as both old and new instrumentals.
Thanks for stopping by and giving something a listen; in the description you’ll often find explanatory notes or translations of the lyrics.

Here I’ve discovered a community of talented musicians and songwriters, and plenty of beautiful music to enjoy. Whenever I like, comment, or repost a track, it’s always the result of attentive listening. For the same reason, I’m not interested in trading empty “likes” without real engagement, and I won’t reply to messages from would-be promoters — follower counts don’t matter to me in the slightest.

Update (2024, September 9). Completed the "AI & (fake) songwriting project". Here: https://soundcloud.com/mick-hansan 

I've posted some 'live' homemade performance here: https://www.instagram.com/michele_ansani/