A fantastic collab guys! I love Hamba's voice and his work with and also this musical arrangement is absolutely impeccable.

Really well done Simon. Very dark and atmospheric, the music really compliments the words.

Sombre, beautiful and an amazing reading Mr B. Top job from you both.

Brilliant arrangement Simon and Hamba your recitation is eleoquent and stage worthy.

Deep dark atmosphere, excellent production

Performance of great emotional impact. Collabs to be continued. Great both !

Once again, I have completed a collaboration with Hamilton Bailie (HamBa). Hamilton’s marvellous vocal intonations on the poem “Litany in time of Plague” provided me with inspiration to add  a bed of music to heighten the experience.
The poems author, Thomas Nashe, was an important figure in Elizabethan literature, and this poem  is a philosophical, if sometimes woeful, look at death. In a time of vast inequality among society, the plague proved a real leveller of class, strength, wealth & beauty. All tiers of society were touched by the hand of death.
While I listened to the recitation, I improvised on the piano, latching onto key phrases & words. I then went back & improvised the string parts as well. Later I just polished the whole thing up & what you hear now is the result.
In all six verses of this poem, Thomas Nashe repeats the same final two lines: "I am sick, I must die. / Lord, have mercy on us!" Whereas these lines sound gloomy in the first five verses, their meaning changes because of the optimism of the sixth verse. Nashe is suggesting that people's suffering will soon be over, and that death will release them from mortal pain. 


A Litany In Time Of Plague ft HamBa

I started off learning piano at around 6 years old, but only realised my ear for music when I could pick out melodies I heard on the radio & from then on I started writing my own music & playing long into the night, to the point where my parents told me to stop so they could go to sleep!
In my teenage years I joined bands & learnt basically on the fly how to work as a group. Once I realised that keyboards were not as portable & able to be played on beaches / around campfires, I taught myself guitar. By adding drums, harmonica & bass to my arsenal, the stage was set for a fully working band to record in my garage. Since setting up my home studio, I love recording a tune each week & especially love collaborating with all the extremely talented musicians on soundcloud. I'm a full time musician, with many different hats in the music community. Including songwriter, composer, live musician & blog writer.

If you are interested in my electronic page, then visit https://soundcloud.com/electro-pup

Check out my blog at http://simon353.wordpress.com/

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