Collaborations

Collaborations with Simon Reich

@simon-reich

Simon & Me

This piece started life as a 2 minute field recording sent to me by Salvatore.  And then it grew.


music & Mix: @hamb-1
music noises & mix mastering effects: @salvatorenuccio

A Movie Down Spaces [collaboration with salvatorenuccio]

music & Mix: @hamb-1
music noises & mix mastering effects: @salvatorenuccio

Episode 3 [collaboration with salvatorenuccio]

Firecraft  "episode 4"  [HamBa&salvatorenuccio collab]

WB Yeats poem, recited magnificently by my friend Hamilton Bailie. When I first heard this recorded version, I went straight to the piano & improvised the basis of the orchestral backing in one pass. It was a truly inspirational moment as the music just fell off the ends of my fingers. I then went back & added all the strings, horns & other orchestral instruments to fill out & back up the overall feel of the poem. Really enjoyed doing this project (the first collaboration Hamilton ever did) & hope to produce a lot more using his fabulous resonant vocals.

The Song of Wandering Aengus - Ft HamBa

This is a collaboration between myself & a fantastic musician in England who calls himself "HamBa". He sent over an idea based around a percussion backed piano solo. I added a double bass, rhythmic piano chords & a few bluesy piano riffs. I pulled it back into a 12 bar blues format & then finally added some cool saxaphones to give it some melody. Lets hope you'll want to eat "Green eggs and HamBa" anywhere!!!!

Green Eggs & HamBa

A collaboration with Hamilton Bailie. HamBa supplied the lovely vocal recitation of an Irish poem "The Stranger's Grave" & vocoder sections. I supplied the electronic musical backing. Something slightly different from my other work, but lots of fun nonetheless.

The Strangers Grave ft. HamBa

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

At the Hawk's Well is a one act play by William Butler Yeats, first performed in 1916 and published in 1917. Once again I have completed a lovely collaboration with HamBa from the UK, who is a magnificent orator & brings to life words on a page like no one else I know. After receiving the recitation, I proceeded to improvise my piano line, while listening to the words being spoken. This gives me the purest way to connect the music inside me, with the words I am hearing & the story I feel they are telling. All I'm trying to do, is support the pictures I am seeing in my mind with music. If you like this sort of project, please scroll through my page & see the other collaborations we have recorded over the years. Also visit HamBa's soundcloud page for his own solo projects as well.   https://soundcloud.com/hamb-1

Hawks Well 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/