So wonderful, really hit me in this part. Great job

Ooo, I like that...what is it? Oboe? English horn?

Dear Pete Goodrich, I could write lines and lines about this title. In summary, I like it a lot.

This is just...perfect. What a beautiful feeling this creates.

Jekyll's gardens always make me happy but especially so with Lindisfarne Castle as the backdrop. Beautiful recitation and a very evocative piece. Much enjoyed MrBouzouki

@user-994408151: Thank You ... I wanted to try and get a slice of Summer in this

A well produced beauty. Lovely and so calming, my friend.

This project now has it's own website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

The Pilgrims Way is the old waymarked safe crossing point to the tidal island of Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, off the NE coast of the UK.

The eponymous opening track of this project acts as a musical gateway to explore the history and natural world of this special place

Tracks will be added to this playlist as they are completed.

The Pilgrims Way Project

WESTERN ISLES

Crash

I'm still experiment with different approaches to create my music, so this is a small piece based on a percussive theme. It may feel like a journey in search of unknown, undiscovered places...

Since I'm slowly returning to classical guitar, I wanted to use it as the lead instrument. I decided to use all the dirty guitar plays and experiment with different ambient sounds and of course, with the piano :)

composed and performed by przemek mastela

Hidden Latitudes - part 2

Hidden Latitudes

My first songwriting effort of 2024 with vocals, piano, bass, percussion, strings and clarinets. 😊🎶🎵🎼🎤❤️

Thank you to my lovely Sander for this fine mastering job. @wane-of-summer for his wonderful music. ❤️😊❤️

Answer to my prayers

This is a follow-up posting of a wonderful collaboration Dan-T had invited Debra and I to contribute to.  Dan had posted it well over a year ago as a backing track to a dramatic French Fantasy production.  With his kind permission after the delay of a year, I wanted to post this as a celebration of a different kind of drama--life awakening from a long winter sleep. Dan's synths are sweeping and epic, Debbie's playing is measured and elegant like the words in a fine poem.  The Requinto guitar has a sweet voice sounding a bit like a Celtic harp to round out the production.  Hear more of Dan's French Fantasy (French Fantastic:) @dan-t-3, and Debbie's superb and poetic playing @debra_buesking.

Awakenings; Dan-T, Debra Buesking, David Dunham

Un caro saluto a tutti voi, vi auguro un buon ascolto sperando essere di vostro gradimento.

SUNSET ON THE AVENUE

Victorian Dance

In The Clouds

Art Expressed in Music – Leonardo's Genius	
April 2024
Duration: 3:30
Listen to the Playlist: soundcloud.com/bruce-klepper-1/sets/art-expressed-in-music-i
Painting: Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 to May 2, 1519) was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer.  His “Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa” are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance.  His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. He is renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geology,  hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics and zoology.  As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing the parachute, the helicopter, an armored fighting vehicle, and the use of concentrated solar power. The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and behavior.  As an artist, Leonardo considered his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was man’s highest sense because it alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty.  He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.  In Florence between 1500 and 1506, Leonardo began work on the “Mona Lisa”.  The “Mona Lisa” set the standard for all future portraits. The painting presents a woman revealed to likely have been Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocond.  The picture presents a half-body portrait of the subject, with a distant landscape visible as a backdrop; the expressive synthesis that Leonardo achieved between sitter and landscape has placed this work in the canon of the most-popular and most-analyzed paintings of all time. The sensuous curves of the woman’s hair and clothing, are echoed in the undulating valleys and rivers behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile—reflects Leonardo’s idea of the link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an enduring record of Leonardo’s vision and genius.  In 1517, a drawing by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicted an elderly Leonardo with his right arm wrapped in clothing. The latter, in addition to the record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d'Aragon, confirms an account of Leonardo's right hand being paralytic when he was 65, which may indicate why he left works such as the “Mona Lisa” unfinished.  He continued to work at some capacity until eventually becoming ill and bedridden for several months.  Leonardo only produced about 20 paintings in his lifetime. It is estimated that Leonardo produced between 20,000 to 28,000 pages of notes and sketches spanning across 50 different notebooks about work related to whatever topics that interested him – painting, engineering, philosophy, warfare, engineering, physiology, landscape, proportion, perspective, geography, and geology.... Unfortunately, Leonardo's interests were so broad, and he was so often compelled by new subjects, that he usually left projects unfinished.  Leonardo died at Clos Lucé on 2 May 1519 at the age of 67, possibly of a stroke.   Leonardo was described as lamenting on his deathbed, full of repentance, that "he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done”. 
For virtual voices, piano, marimba, tubular bells, virtual instruments, sound effects and percussion.

Art Expressed In Music - Leonardo's Genius

Hello dear Listeners,

Indeed, it's been a long while since Tim and I posted New Music together as  Shekinah Fire*, but today's the day!

This improvisation was recorded by our one Stereo ZOOM Mic on April 8th during the Solar Eclipse. 

I am on Tim's ancient upright Grand Piano and he's playing his Telecaster electric Guitar. What came forth as we played were Allelujahs for  the Joy of Spring and the wonders of improvisation.

In case you're wondering about the title, the jewel-like 'sparks' made visible in the Sun's Corona just before it reached Totality then as it exited (as captured in the Photo), are called 'Baily's Beads'. We hope you'll hear them as the music unfolds.

May you enJOY!

Music © Gary Courtland-Miles & Tim Elliot 2024
℗ Gary Courtland-Miles 2024 & Tim Elliot 2024

Edited and Produced by © Anomon

Image Credit & Copyright Daniel Korona
titled:  'Baily's Beads' - Total Solar Eclipse of April 8th 2024

Baily's Beads * Shekinah Fire

Lindisfarne has always held a special fascination for my wife and I, so it is no surprise to me that I would eventually create some music about it. Hopefully you can be swept away by the music but not the tide ;-)

This track is now the first track of the "The Pilgrims Way Project" exploring the history and natural world of Lindisfarne 

Project Playlist 

https://soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/the-pilgrims-way-project

Project Website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

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Instrumentation
The Pilgrims Way Instrumental features Low Whistle, coupled with the sound of strings and the wheeling of seagulls overhead. It also features Shevvanai Voice of the Elves VST. (Lara Ausensi) 

"Flock of Seagulls by juskiddink (5th June 2010) licensed under creative commons attribution licence via https://freesound.org

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/



Thanks to Redmando, Leonard Scaper and the Songwriters in the Kitchen Forum for the spark
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Background
Ever since 635, when King Oswald gave the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to St Aidan to establish his monastery, the island has been a place of pilgrimage. The road was not constructed until 1954 and until then the vertical poles were the only indicators of the safe route between the mainland and island. The sight of the poles stretching across the sand and mud is one of the most iconic views in Northumberland and to walk the route away from the road and follow in the footsteps of our medieval ancestors is a wonderful experience.

The Pilgrims Way

"A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine - From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord"

This track is now part of "The Pilgrims Way Project" exploring the history and natural world of Lindisfarne

Project Playlist

soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/the-pilgrims-way-project

Project Website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

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Instrumentation
The Vikings! instrumental features rolled timpani, strings, electric guitar and a choir ending. Various sound FX from that are classed as Public Domain are used to add colour to the track from www.freesound.org

creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

"Flock of Seagulls" by juskiddink (5th June 2010) licensed under creative commons attribution licence via www.freesound.org

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background
Simeon of Durham recorded the grim events of the Viking attack on Lindisfarne in 793 AD

"And they came to the church of Lindisfarne, laid everything waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted feet, dug up the altars and seized all the treasures of the holy church. They killed some of the brothers; some they took away with them in fetters; many they drove out, naked and loaded with insults; and some they drowned in the sea" .

The Vikings !

An Irish-tinged tune about the Lindisfarne Gospels to reflect the Irish foundations of the community despite the later Romanisation of the Celtic church. 

The track title comes from me thinking about it being a beacon of civilisation, a rallying point, during the Early Middle Ages whist a far chunk of the UK was under Viking rule and Christianity had again been pushed to the margins of the UK.

Thanks to Karen O'Mahony (MonnoDB) for her (harp playing) advice - check out her stuff here:- https://soundcloud.com/monnodb

This track is now part of "The Pilgrims Way Project" exploring the history and natural world of Lindisfarne

Project Playlist

soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/the-pilgrims-way-project

Project Website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

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Instrumentation
A Light in the Darkness instrumental features strings, high C whistle, harp, violin,  Uilleann pipes, bodhrán (Irish frame drum) and a choir backing.

The sound of 'Eadfrith' doing his writing is a sound FX that is classed as Public Domain and used to add colour to the track, It can be found on www.freesound.org

creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background
The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated manuscript gospel book probably produced around the years 715-720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the British Library in London. The manuscript is one of the finest works in the unique style of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art, combining Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements.

The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 and died in 721 AD

A Light In The Darkness

Semi-Finalist in the Instrumental category in the UK Songwriting Contest 2018

With The North Shore I hope to give a feel of that 'magical interface' between land and sea, a place apart from the hustle and bustle of life where your soul can find peace for a while. A natural world full of wonder for those with the time and inclination to see.  

This track is now part of "The Pilgrims Way Project" exploring the history and natural world of Lindisfarne.

Project Playlist

soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/the-pilgrims-way-project

Project Website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

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Instrumentation
The North Shore instrumental features low whistle, DADGAD tuned acoustic guitar, strings, choir backing, violin and synthesizer

A sea waves sound FX that is classed as Public Domain is used to add colour to the track from www.freesound.org

This recording was actually done at Bamburgh, just down the coast from Lindisfarne island.

creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

"Flock of Seagulls" by juskiddink (5th June 2010) licensed under creative commons attribution licence via www.freesound.org

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background
The 'semi-hidden' North Shore of Lindisfarne is driven past by tourists every day, eager to see the 'sites' of the Island in their race against time before the tide cuts them off from the mainland. It is part of the Lindisfarne Natural Nature Reserve and its shifting sands and tides combine to create the 3500 hectares of dunes, saltmarsh and mudflats of the Reserve, home to a fascinating array of birdlife, seals, rare orchids and other wildlife. To experience it you need to spend time on the island, either by choosing to be cut off by an early tide or ideally stay on the island for a while.

The North Shore

This track is dedicated to the memory of Chris A and the time that was 'Elidor'. "I hope you are flying somewhere with that big grin on your face" 
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This track was very much a collision of ideas. I wanted to follow on from The North Shore and actually take the listener into the air to experience the feeling and freedom of flying like a bird. Additionally the track title "Flight of Fancy" was the title of an original instrumental  played by a band I was in in the early 80's. The keyboard player in that band is sadly no longer with us, so I decided to try and reinvent the spirit of that time as a musical tribute to Chris.  

Enjoy your Flight of Fancy :-)

This track is now part of "The Pilgrims Way Project" exploring the history and natural world of Lindisfarne.

Project Playlist

soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/the-pilgrims-way-project

Project Website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

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Instrumentation

(i) Sunrise (0:00 - 0:58)
Part One of the track features strings, brass from my new orchestral library Albion One by Spitfire Audio and timpani. It also includes an additional brass VST from Halion Sonic (Cubase).

(ii) The Shoreline At Dawn (0:59 - 2:28)
Part Two features Albion One Strings (muted - con sordini) and Woodwinds, Synthesizer and Electric Guitar 

(iii) Into The Air (2:29 - 6:42)
Part Three has Strings (Longs and Ostinato), Synthesizer, Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums (Simon Phillips Studio Drums in Groove Agent) and a Choir Backing. 

Various seabird sound FX that is classed as Public Domain are used to add colour to this part of the track from www.freesound.org

creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

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Background

This track seemed to naturally evolve into three discrete sections with a different musical flavour to each part.

(i) Sunrise (0:00 - 0:58)
As the title suggests, it is my musical imagining of sunrise on the beach with all the grandeur of a new day dawning. A big orchestral sound and timpani seemed the way to go.

(ii) The Shoreline At Dawn (0:59 - 2:28)
Part Two has a much more muted sound as nature begins to stir with the dawn and musically this part acts as a linking section between parts one and three. 

(iii) Into The Air (2:29 - 6:42)
Finally we are into the air and I wanted to give a feeling of flying by the use of rising chords sequences and a string ostinato (a recurring rhythmic or melodic pattern). I also wanted to give a nod to the original Flight of Fancy so it has a variation of the main guitar riff I played back in the early 80's, some interwoven guitar and keyboard parts and harmony with underlying jazzy drum and bass parts.

Flight Of Fancy

By Castle Walls - © P Goodrich 2019

"When Summer sun shines on your face
By Castle Walls I feel your grace
When bees alight on golden thrones
By Castle Walls 'twixt sea and stone"
---------------------------------------------------
The Gertrude Jekyll garden, near to Lindisfarne Castle is the focus of this track. Now owned by the National Trust, originally it was a walled garden that was first constructed by troops manning the castle, presumably as far back as the 1500s or 1600s, to grow food.

In 1902, the Country Life magazine founder and owner Edward Hudson took out a lease from the Crown on Lindisfarne Castle and commissioned his friend, the architect Edwin Lutyens, to transform the Castle into a holiday home in which Hudson could entertain during his summer visits.

In 1911, Hudson decided to restore the old walled garden to use as a place to enjoy. Lutyens brought in his regular collaborator, Gertrude Jekyll to undertake the design work

This track is now part of "The Pilgrims Way Project" exploring the history and natural world of Lindisfarne.

Project Playlist

soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/the-pilgrims-way-project

Project Website 

https://www.pilgrims-way.co.uk

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Instrumentation

By Castle Walls instrumental feature strings, cello, alto flute, alto F low whistle, english horn, piano, harp, alto glockenspiel, bass guitar, harpsichord and a mixed choir backing. It also features my initial poem voice-over and 'bees ensemble' :-)

The buzzing bees sound FX is classed as Public Domain and is used to add colour to the track from www.freesound.org

creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

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Background

In my head I had the idea of trying to capture the feeling of guests of Hudson, (or modern day visitors) walking around the garden on a late Summer afternoon, possibly stopping to listen to the bees, busy at work, collecting honey. 

The poem came out of that thought which then inspired the musical direction of the piece.

I imagined the first part, idyllic, tranquil, moving to section where you just focus in on the bees and everyday life slips away for a while. This is followed by a grander 'promenade ending', where I imagined Hudson's guests strolling around in the late afternoon sun.

By Castle Walls

A collection of songs, instrumentals and orchestral pieces charting my adventures in home studio recording and production.  All original compositions using voice, acoustic and electric guitar (sometimes using altered tunings), bouzouki, low and high whistles and MIDI instrumentation. 

I'm also using VST instrumentation to create classical compositions and integrating orchestral sounds into my songs and instrumentals.

Links to various instrumental projects and other Social Media links are available below.

My Eclectic Music Connections repost thread is here

https://soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki-repost

By Castle Walls

MrBouzouki

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