Imagine that a mischievous imp swapped the string parts for The Death of Åse from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.2. The first violins have been given the bass part, and vice versa; the second violins play the 'cello part, and vice versa. The violas get the short end of the stick as usual, and they play the same old stuff they always play. Let's also pretend that the players don't notice that their parts are in the wrong clef.

The illustration is by Mahkcar Ruhtra (that's Arthur Rackham backwards - I'll get my coat).

Variation On The Death Of Åse

From the 1998 CD "Hubbub". With Paul Gallant, percussion.

Hubbub In Babel City

Johnny Echo

From the 1998 CD "Hubbub". With Bruce Godfrey, violin and viola; and Helen Godfrey, 'cello.

Poppies

Velvet

From the 1998 CD "Hubbub". With Bruce Godfrey, violin; and Helen Godfrey, 'cello.

Cat In Heaven

This is a dinosaur toy that my daughter used to have, slowed down and subjected to more reverb than is entirely sensible. Just because - and so I can post it on Facebook. :P

Dinosaur Reverb

Another track from Shaking the Dreamland Tree. The 'cello section was performed by playing a six string bass with a Gizmotron. You heard it here and nowhere else, folks. :)

Flickering Shadows

The fifth piece from the increasingly inaccurately named Trois Gnossiennes by Erik Satie. To be fair, Satie himself never referred to numbers 4, 5 or 6 as Gnossiennes; they were only titled thus when published by Robert Caby some forty-three years after Satie's death.

Adapted from a MIDI file by Raymond Lucardie, with corrections by myself, and played by oboe and strings from the Miroslav Philharmonik 2 orchestral sound collection.

Gnossienne Cinq

The original was recorded on two four-track tape recorders and is effectively a six track recording. It seemed like a good idea to remix and remaster it, that was until I discovered how difficult it would be to transfer two separate tapes into the computer and make them play at precisely the same speed.

I've kept the lead guitar. I can't play like that any more - in fact I never could play like that, that part was made by editing the best parts of several takes together. The string synthesiser / choir combination, bass guitar, twelve string guitar and Paul Gallant's percussion are also retained. The drum kit and orchestral strings are new, and all the modern digital audio toys have been thrown at the project.

It all goes to prove that you can never step into the same stream twice. The original is here, for comparison: https://soundcloud.com/peter-maydew/the-egg-singing-to-the-birds

Peter Maydew