You made a wonderful and meaningful song with your lovely wife, congratulations you both are amazing

I remember hearing this one before, and it's always nice to hear you both combining your supreme musical talents.  Well done!

@user-369089703: Thanks a lot for listening and for your kind words!

enlightened lyrics, great vocal & arrangement.

Good song! Nice job on the mix too, well done.

PEACE GUITARS; composed mostly outdoors during the 2021/2022 summers. The music was inspired by grand nature, desolated places, silence … I often brought the dog during these sessions and she enjoyed lying beside me, watching birds or boats passing by ... Hopefully the music will echo such moments ... 

I did struggle with the composition, and it took a lot of effort to complete the circle. It is an imperfect but very personal piece of music. Thx for listening. 

And let’s hope for a Peaceful future, soon…

DS 23th September 2022 (Project initiated 17th Sept 2021).

PEACE GUITARS

Every year in December, the high fog in Vienna starts to weigh heavily, and I tend to forget what summer is like. I mean, literally, going out of the house without a jacket seems like such a distant memory to me that it could well stem from a fairy tail.
In this song, I wanted to capture my essence of summer. A meadow with a plentitude of different flowers, undulating in a breeze of wind. A short rain shower that clears the air and leaves a fresh scent. Lying in the grass, running through it and simply embracing nature. And the melancholic certainty that it is still so many months till I cann enjoy this again …

Composition-wise the piece consist of three variations @ 0:0, 1:01 and 2:42 which level off into different directions after the initial same 9 notes in the beginning. 
In each variation, after some bars of intro, the right hand is shifted versus the left hand so that the „1“ of the right hand comes 1/8 resp 1/16 before the respective „1“ of the left hand. With that offset I try to evoke the feeling of the blossoms moving like soft waves in the wind. 
The tension in the piece comes besides some syncopics also from the gradually increasing metrum in the left hand – from ¼ in the beginning to the subsequent 1/8 pattern starting @ 0:10 that builds the left-hand structure for most of the piece on to the intermittent faster segment @ 2:11 ff with 1/16 metrum.

The piece has been recorded on a Roland FP-90
The picture was created with Stable Diffusion and postprocessed in a very brute way in Powerpoint ☺

Summer Meadow (Solo Piano)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/3ROhTHrVNxzfcoLKJvhTbY
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjIFwZ_Puog


The inspiration for this track is a vision where I am not sure whether it is a faint memory from some childhood holiday or whether I have dreamt it  :
Standing on the edge of a rocky cliff, gazing out at the tumultuous ocean below. The waves crashing against the rocks with a thunderous roar, the force of the water sending a spray of mist and foam high into the air. In the distance a lone lighthouse
overlooking the scenery. A glimps of the power and majesty of nature and our own smallness in comparison. 

Composition-wise: The piece consists of three parts (@0:01, @0:59, @1:45) that always start with the same 5 note-motive but then develop into three distinct variations with different characteristics but throughout the track there is a certain sense of dramatic scenery.
The left hand is throughout the piece mostly in octave jumps (which became quite challenging condition-wise at the end of the piece) that segment the 4/4 beat into groups of 3-3-2 (the only notable exception is the part @0:35ff with its chromatic baseline).
The right hand alternates between lyric parts such as in the beginning or @0:59ff and rhythmic syncopic parts such as @2:30ff that leads to the final where the right hand preceeds the left hand by a beat to create a sense of energy.

The track has been recorded on a Roland FP-90 and mastered in Cubase by adding compressor, reverb, a Stereo enhancer and fiddling a bit with the EQ. 
The picture was created with Stable Diffusion.

Lighthouse On The Rocks (Solo Piano)

Inspired by Amarok! Global Presence! Riffs of the 70s!

This recording is the result of my most ’guitar-intensive’ period ever. It came as a reaction to what came before it, a period where I focused very much on the classical guitar but a moment came when I was fed up with polishing small details in my repetoar. One day, I felt an incredible hunger for riffs, for steel string guitars, and for going back to (progressive) rock music! I always loved the rock of the 70s, considering it as ’Mount Everest of the music history’ (classical music excluded here). An era where everyone was incredibly ambitious, when everything had to be handplayed, and when the broader audience had some considerable attention span ;)

I started to explore some riffs on my CORT steel string guitar, which had been collecting dust in a corner for a long time. It soon gave me the opening riffs and some additional riffs (e.g., around 5 minutes into the track). I quickly worked up the bulk of the track and got maybe half of the track done in just a few weeks (not counting later polishing, when I re-recorded some bits to get the sound I wanted). I got a vision of the completed track, a long progressive one - yes, for sure inspired by Oldfield and YES (favorites from this era!), but it was easier said than done to complete the track. Considerable work remained, as I was about to learn….

It was incredibly hard to finalize the composition and I almost gave up on it. I arrived at a moment where I seemed to have promised too much and where the Ear demanded some serious further action; many permutations tested, but nothing seemed to work. In the end, due to all this, I lost some control of the files (e.g., a key solo guitar is badly panned but I seem to be unable to find the raw data needed to fix it).

Extremely much work went into the last months, on a mission to crack it! Late nights, tinnitus, frustration! :) Finally I think I found what I needed (but who am I to know).. I had to accept some slightly less than perfect audio at some places: does it matter? Not to me, but the listener is the jury. I decided to go for attitude and energy rather than anything else… I hope you will enjoy what I discovered!

I doubt that cold-blooded perfect ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ever will replicate what a desperate Dave J. Svensson sounds like, late at nights with all controls turned to 11 on a scale from 0 to 10 …. ;)

The SHAMBOLIC GUITARS were:
- two 6s steel: CORT (rythms!) and OVATION (main recurrent theme!)
- a 12s FENDER (colour!)
- three electric guitars: IBANEZ (now sold), PRS & SCHECTER (dirt!)
- two classical guitars: CORT, KREMONA (clarity!)
Plus, a ROLAND keyboard (for some pads), and various hardware effect boxes.

Artcover by DS, featuring the guitars listed above.

//Dave, 6th October 2023

SHAMBOLIC GUITARS

Long time ago in the Scottish Highlands. A tribe that lives in a rough and harsh surrounding, strengthened over generations by the unfriendly environment. The borders of the tribes territory are not exactly known. In particular, in the North, the saying goes that vast areas of unoccupied lands will belong to those that first dare to claim it. So a small troup of currageous military men sets foot to the Northern Frontier ...

Composition-wise: The piece explores the change of atmosphere when the same motive is played with different accompaniments. The same theme can be found for instance @ 0:00 ff,  0:23 ff and 1:05 ff. The accompaniment increases in intensity and rhythm for these three instances, ranging from a meditative intro over a – to my ears – tribal dance or chant towards a first  climax of the piece which might make a good soundtrack for a battle in the Scottish Highlands. The track then settles down to the second theme @ 1:33 which again is repeated with much more agitated accompaniment @ 1:55 ff. 

While the track is in general in 4/4, it raises the tension by sometimes breaking the metrum into more unconventional rhythmic structures. This holds in particular for @ 0:46 ff where the metrum changes to a succession of ¾, 4/4, ¾, 6/4, 6/4, 4/4, ¾, 4/4, ¾, ¾, ¾ and then reverts to the original 4/4. Also @ 2:09  there is in insert of a ¾ bar and at the very end @ 2:30, there is a 2/4 break just before the final chord. 

I did some Youtube Shorts in Case with more details on some composition tweaks that I used in this track:
Varying the Accompaniment: https://youtube.com/shorts/7HAWSz2Mg14?feature=share
Breaking the metric structure: https://youtube.com/shorts/tUvaq8D6nUo?feature=share
Ligature Bows: https://youtube.com/shorts/-WBf6Du040g?feature=share
Keeping the attention until the end: https://youtube.com/shorts/qnJl5BQ4yxU?feature=share


The track has been recorded on a Roland FP-90 and mastered in Cubase by adding  reverb, a Stereo enhancer and fiddling a bit with the EQ. 
The picture was created with Stable Diffusion. 

The track can also be found at 
Youtube (including the scores): https://youtu.be/FIQZc7JakvQ
Spotify: spotify:album:5YG7dpoBElKImcbmX7eWTU

The Northern Frontier

The Northern Frontier (Solo Piano)

This is a much longer musing that usual.  About a 9 minute improvisation, which I cut down to 4.5 minutes.  I just took out the repeats and practice bits. I didn't give it a title because it's not finished. I hope you enjoy it. AND,  I want to thank every single person that has followed me or listened to my music on SoundCloud for such amazing support!  You have no idea how much this means to me at this time in my life.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024! ❤️❤️❤️ Jennifer

A Musing #9

This improvisation started out as a holiday song.  "Musings" are my sketch journal like a painter.  Most are complete songs with some interesting twists.  Thank you for listening!

A Musing #8

To pray means: to leave the Father's throne like a
child of a king to new deeds.

From A Distance

Welcome 2024 | REMIX

We all wonder what's on the other side, and is it heaven?  How quickly will you run to get there?  There is hesitation, ambivalence... and fear.  And then there is light, beauty, and a hand reaching out to carry me on this dance to heaven.

Slow Dance To Heaven

We are all one - but most of us have forgotten that ...

Music and original lyrics: Alf Schumacher (https://soundcloud.com/spektralfarben)
Vocals and English translation and adaptation: Kirine (https://soundcloud.com/kirine11)

LYRICS: 

(1)
All the humans on this planet
Are the same and yet unique
Every human being is special
And oneness is what we seek.

No one's better than the other
And no one is further ahead
There are no chosen people
Strive to be awake instead.

(Chorus)
We are all one
And we're all part of the solution
We are all one
Like drops of water in the ocean.

(2)
No god is better than the other
What do we even know about gods?
We just trust in some ancient hearsay
But is it true? What are the odds?

We act against Mother Nature
And destroy life with our strife
When we don't even know who we are
Or what our purpose is in this life.

(3)
When will we finally awaken
From this neverending dream?
When will we find our way back 
to ourselves and in life's stream?
 
The answers that we are seeking
Are already in ourselves
We just need to listen closely
And everything will make sense.

----------------------------
Technical data:

Piano: Kawai ES7
Organ: Uhl X3-2 + Neo Ventilator
Strings and acoustic guitar: Korg Pa3X Le
Bass: Native Instruments Komplete
Drums: SuperiorDrummer 3
Recorded and mastered in Samplitude Pro X3 Suite

iTunes

We Are All One (feat. Kirine)

Music is like painting - with an invisible and endless spectrum of colors which can only be heard and felt.

Alf Schumacher is a hobby composer, musician and certified audio engineer and living near Hamburg in Northern Germany with his soprano wife "Kirine".  

His tracks show a great variety and often a colorful mixture of (progressive) rock and blues, orchestral pieces, ballads, piano tracks and atmospheric melodies. The process of creating music and songs begins and develops from the heart and the soul, building up soundscapes from emotions - and hopefully generating emotions within the listener. 
Alf’s main focus is on the keyboards: he’s playing piano, "Hammond" organ and synthesizers, but partly also guitar and bass guitar. Everything is recorded, mixed and mastered in their home studio.

Learn more about Alf at: www.spektralfarben-music.com and you're welcome to also visit Kirine's website: https://www.kirine.me

If you like their music and are interested in a collaboration, just get into contact!

We Are All One (feat. Kirine)

Spektralfarben

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