Hi there and welcome to the release of one of my compositions, written for the ‘Music for Brains’ Project, 'Central Park Sunday'.

I am honoured to work on this project and will be releasing more tracks soon. 

I first shared this track with John Styles in November 2022 and am delighted that it has received so much positive feedback from the listeners. John and I have regular meetings to share our ideas and experiences and it was following one of these talks that he suggested I start to upload the ‘Music for Brains’ project compositions for everyone to enjoy.  Given the popularity of this track we decided it should be the first.

About this track:
I was fortunate to visit New York City in October 2022 with my family. It was such a wonderful time, and I was so inspired by the sights, sounds and atmosphere of this wonderful, magical city.
The inspiration for this track came from a walk in Central Park on a Sunday morning. 

It was a crisp, sunny Autumn Day, we had walked along 7th Avenue to get to the park and then wandered into the middle of the park. We met a lovely Park Volunteer who gave us a friendly welcome and a little map. We slowly meandered along the winding paths and found our way to Strawberry Fields, climbing the small hill we finally reached 'Imagine', John Lennon's memorial garden. Buskers were playing Beatles songs and people gathered round to take pictures, share feelings, and enjoy this special memorial. We then wandered on through the tall trees watching the leaves fall gently on a breeze. 

I was just thrilled at seeing so many people enjoying a walk in the park. It was cold, but the leaves were golden, the sun was shining, and we had stopped off for some lovely chicken noodle soup by the lake. Later we sat and watched a group of children enjoy a magic show for a birthday party. It was lovely to hear their laughter and excitement. We wandered on and found ourselves by the Zoo and were able to see the sealions through the railings, playing in their pool.

Central Park had such a powerful impact upon me, and I felt so at peace. I have worked in Parks maintenance in the UK all my life. My first job was working for the Royal Parks in London so being able to see Central Park was absolutely amazing. I really loved how there are still sections of the natural bedrock visible, so if you stand in the right location, surrounded by trees, you can almost imagine that you have gone back in time, before the City was built and connect to the natural energies of this wonderful place.

My composition is trying to express so many feelings that it is hard to describe what I am trying to convey. But if you have been fortunate to visit this magical place, I hope that I have captured just a small part of its energy. If you have never been to Central Park, do not worry as I am sure my emotions were also inspired by the energy of nature that has been with me throughout my career.

Just relax, close your eyes, and imagine you are on a walk in the sunshine on a cold and crisp Autumn Day.

Composer: Matt Baker
All Instruments: Matt Baker
Arrangement: Matt Baker
Producer: Matt Baker
Recorded at: Yew Tree Studios Liverpool

Comments and Feedback are most welcome.

All the best for now

Peace & Happiness

Matt

Central Park Sunday - Matt Baker

Welcome to our new song for the Feng Shui Music project, and we hope you will enjoy it.

As many of you may know Feng Shui is a philosophy or a way of humans interacting with life and creating happiness with it’s surroundings and lifestyle.
Feng Shui also means “Wind and Water”, we were asked to compose new music for a later to be released “Feng Shui Vol 3” album, and we wanted to make sure it has our own signature, and not to be mistaken by the earlier released albums, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

The title given to this song can be explained in different ways, we used “Feng Shui Spirit” and can be understood as a “Pool” of different elements of our life on Earth, the surroundings we’ve created and live in, and how we use those to create our own happiness and prosperity.
Whether you’re in or outdoors, alone or with other people, this music is neutral, and can be listened too in every situation or place, it can be played loud but also softly as background music. 

We’re not trying to convince you to live with that philosophy, and we don’t pretend that this is specifically meant as Feng Shui music either, we’ve tried to make music that relaxes people, as we feel that when you meditate and are able to relax, you’ll open up your soul for new ideas, peace and harmony with your surroundings no matter where you are or what you are doing.
Our music is created so that it can be played during those sessions for relaxation and meditation, but also can be used as background music while you’re doing your own stuff, like work or conversations with others.

We are very pleased with the comments and letters we have received from our listeners to this project and our music, many of our listeners just accept this music as very relaxing and mind-expanding, that was exactly our intention with this music, you can name or relate to it whatever is convenient to yourself.

Technically all our instruments are carefully layered and merged with each other, so they would sound smooth and floating like the wind blows and the water runs to bring harmony and peace to our life’s.

Composer: Matt Baker
Arrangement: John Styles & Matt Baker
Instruments: Matt Baker & John Styles
Producer: John Styles

Your comments, advices and critics are very much appreciated as always, all the best for now John and Matt

John Styles & Matt Baker - Feng Shui Spirit

Hi there and welcome to our latest track in our 'Feng Shui' project, 'Savannah Sunrise'

The inspiration for this track came from a photograph I found on the internet of a mother elephant walking with her young, silhouetted against a bright orange sunrise on the vast African Savannah. 
This beautiful image immediately conjured up the wonderful bond between this mother and her child and the amazing adventure that awaits them each day. 
I imagined the moments of joy and elation as the young elephant encounters all the other wonderful creatures that share their homeland and the mothers pride at watching her offspring grow and develop.  
This also denoted natures remarkable strength to survive against the many perils and dangers, which sadly are mostly due to the impact humans have had on this incredible habitat.
I hope that in listening to this track you are able to escape the daily pressures and stresses and are momentarily transported to the Savannah to observe that baby elephant as it continues its journey.

Composer: Matt Baker
Arrangement and all Instruments: Matt Baker & John Styles
Producer: John Styles

We hope you enjoy our creation and welcome any comments and feedback.
Thanks for listening
All the best for now
Cheers Matt & John

Matt Baker & John Styles - Savannah Sunrise

Welcome to our new song “Heart of the Forest” for the Feng Shui Project.

Although we made (originally) a longer version of this song, we pre-release the shorter version for you all to enjoy.
We’re very grateful for all the positive reactions our new songs for this project receives, and it really motivates us to continue this way.

Creating these compositions is done motivated and inspired by the elements of nature, sometimes watching a beautiful picture, or just by experiences we had by hiking or travelling, also with this composition Matt got his inspiration by his own experience.
As always we talk / chat through the process of developing this song and it’s instruments, till we’re both fully satisfied with the end-production.

Normally a song grows longer, this time the song was initially longer, but we cut it into a shorter version, although we may end up releasing the longer version on our album later this year anyway.
Like all our creations for this project, we layered all the instruments instead of using volume settings, we hope to create a sparkling clear sound this way.

We hope this piece may bring you in a relaxing state of mind, so you can imagine being in nature yourself being able to forget any worries and stress from your daily life.

Composition: Matt Baker
Arrangement: John Styles & Matt Baker
All instruments: Matt Baker & John Styles
Producer: John Styles

We appreciate your comments and advices as always, all the best for now, John and Matt

Matt Baker & John Styles - Heart of the Forest

Enjoy  our latest track ‘Elephant Mother’  by Matt Baker & John Styles.

African Elephants are one of the most at risk animals on the planet. 
Some studies indicate that by the year 2020, large roaming groups of wild African Elephants may no longer exist! Leaving only those protected in fenced areas safe from hunting a poaching. The problem, unfortunately, is due to elephant hunting and poaching in pursuit of economically valuable African Elephant ivory tusk. Despite the worldwide trade in ivory being outlawed since 1989 (by the UN administered CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), the problem of poaching has never been entirely eradicated. There remains an active, international market for ivory – especially so in the Far East where it is much sought after for use in medicines and ornaments. According to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring group, during 2009 alone, 25 tons of illegal ivory - taken from an estimated 2,500 elephants - was intercepted and confiscated by international police agencies. Although this is good as it prevents the ivory reaching its market, it is regrettably too late for the victims of this crime. Something must be done to bring about an end to this cruel and senseless slaughter, before it is to late.

In this track we imagine a mother elephant caring for it’s young, ever aware of the dangers that surround her. Not only those posed by other species who share her homeland, but by mankind. We also see the beauty of the young elephant discovering the world and hope it may be able to grow to maturity and live it’s life in peace, unmolested by man.

Comments and feedback most welcome, Matt & I are also very happy to announce that this track will also be adapted and released by Quenya Projects.

Composer: Matt Baker 
Instruments and arrangements: Matt Baker & John Styles 
Producer: John Styles

Kind regards John & Matt

Central Park Sunday - Matt Baker

Music4Brains

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