I made this for my little sister; it's a string of cameos about the town where we were born and raised - a suburb of Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Low income, but real world, real people, real troubles, real joy, real love, real communities, real humour, real music, real life.  All in gloriously rough 1960's industrial working class North East England monochrome.

For those of you not from that part of the world, lyric translations back to English are available upon request. :)

Started as a scribble, pretended to be a poem for a while, then I decided to noodle along and then.....  Ah, you know how it is.....in Byker town.
__________________________________________________________________

Byker Town

Wallpaper of steam trains
Where the sweeping headlights sprawled
‘Cross the ceiling to the old piano
Up against my bedroom wall
In ‘67 the lid came down
Never played again so fair
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Cross the bridge to get to school
Rope swings underneath
Bull’s eyes from the slaughterhouse 
Bombed out rail yard stark relief
Billy Smart’s big top’s coming down
But I don’t care
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Stench of old men in the Raby Arms
A bottle of dog to take back yem
Dominos and baccy tins
Were all that mattered way back then
Every retail product to be found
In Ernie’s shop just six foot square
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Quayside Sunday mornings
Champion, just the job
A week of meat to feed the bairns
For only fower bob
Scranshins from the chippy van ‘round
The side door of the Mayfair
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Sent out on the Wednesday
In Charlie Shepherd’s finest rags
Over to the smokies
To get free broken kippers by the bag
Dad got paid when Thursday came around
Treats for us to share
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Front step full of babbies
Grazed knees on skinny legs
Back lane rows of nappies
Her face is full of wooden pegs
He’s on the dole no work to be found
Torn bookie slips by his chair
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Nets twitching down the road
Never washed in years
Kids with mucky faces 
Almost clean behind the ears
Never seem to have a frown
Owning only what they wear
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Give up all the baggage I’ve got now
Of life in disrepair
I’m walking back to Byker town
I’ll meet you there.

Byker Town

This composition started as an experiment in using virtual instruments and an early attempt (in fact first attempt) at orchestration. It is very rough around the edges and highlights the need for me to improve my mixing skills, but I think it has something raw about it. I hope you find it interesting to listen to.

Uprising Twenty - Two

Fruits of my Labor day weekend 9/4/2023
Original written by: Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, William Barry of REM off the Murmur Album 1983 IRS Label, now 2012 Universal Music Enterprises, a UMG subsidiary

09042023

Perfect Circle (instrumental cover) REM

verBASSert

... tiny blues attempt .... guitar* and sax improv each in one go ... photo: Anthony Torres, unsplash
... *I'm checking out my my new guitar ;-) ... and I record my guitar attempts with the (weak) hope, that I get something useful out of it :-) .. today I had a little luck :-D

Gimme a minute ... or two

Birth Pangs of a New Time

🎼Un titre à la croisée des influences musicales, 🎹Quel plaisir de  retrouver les couleurs du Nord de l'Afrique 🪔 et du proche Orient.✨
🎼This track is a crossroads of musical influences, 🎹 and it's a pleasure to rediscover the colors of North Africa 🪔and the Middle East.✨

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The last movement of the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (2024).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQq7E2npkYM

Pawel Strzelecki: 3. Finale [Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (2024)].

Beethoven Bagatelle Number 25 In A Minor Für Elise

01 - NI - STRAYLIGHT - Exquisite Pulse
02 - SA - HCT - Earth Rumbles [Grid] - Industrial Grit
03 - SA - HCT - In The Light [Grid]

In The Light

Polish composer (M.A., 2002, "F. Chopin" Acedemy of Music in Warsaw, Prof. Zbigniew Baginski's class), music theorist (M.A., 2000, "F. Chopin" Acedemy of Music in Warsaw, under Prof. Maria Piotrowska), musicologist (Ph.D., 2005, University of Warsaw, under Prof. Zbigniew Skowron), researcher, lecturer.
So far he has written 118 pieces: 12 symphonies (2017-2024), 3 symphonic poemes (2001-2011), 3 solo concertos with orchestra (organ, piano, flute, 2002-2024), 18 string quartets (2001-2024), 16 sonatas for different solo instruments with piano (violin, cello, oboe, trombone, etc.), chamber music as Piano Trio (1998), Piano Quartet (2021), Piano Quintet (2003), String Trio (2021), numerous songs for voice and piano, sacred works, e.g. Mass for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra (2002, rev. 2024), and electronic music.  
The author of the crucial, first and original book (used as academic manual and present in many libraries) on "New Romanticism" in Polish music after 1975 (2022, English Language Edition).
https://www.peterlang.com/document/1282565?fbclid=IwAR1Pm40flHnsqH07OsvXdXwV1ZwLeVLOmfrxkqe3wxL5rsJioluBL-2FQ9M#document-details-anchor
Polish edition (2006):
https://mi.pl/pl/p/Pawel-Strzelecki-Nowy-romantyzm-w-tworczosci-kompozytorow-polskich-po-roku-1975/59

The book was quoted in: Andrea Bohlman: "Musical Solidarities. Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland". Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 208, 266. The link to the quotation (p. 208):
https://books.google.pl/books?id=uNnBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA208&dq=bohlman+nowy+romantyzm&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjoyL-x-Lf4AhXOk4sKHUWMChUQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=bohlman%20nowy%20romantyzm&f=false

Pawel Strzelecki: 3. Finale [Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (2024)].

Pawel Strzelecki, Ph.D.

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