Bob Dylan and what nots....

It's amazing how time gets by...

So I've been spending time working on some new pieces and also considering playing around with other's work.  I'm not one to think much about covering things - but I did start tinkering about with an old Bob Dylan tune.  Knocking on Heavens Door.  It is an amazing short song but haunting.  I never could listen to Guns & Roses cover it back when... but I did hear an interesting version in random recently.  However, I have no idea who it was who did it LOL!

Anywho... off to oatmeal land....

Peace,

Anthony

Release of, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (A. Fasolo Remix)

So all day I've got an old Carpenter's tune running about my head and it won't stop...  Help!

I've uploaded and released both my version of the German pop group New Concept's, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and their reinterpretation of my release, Dreamer's Guardian today.  I had a lot of fun doing this for them and I am in total awe of what they did with Dreamer's Guardian.  They rocked out with it and I couldn't have asked for anything better!  Both of these songs are available to listen to through my Facebook, Myspace and through www.AnthonyFasolo.com.

My version is quite a bit different from the original as I chose purposely to not listen more than once to their original.  I didn't want to be swayed or overly inspired by it.  I wanted to simply take their vocal tracks which they provided and build and alternate melody and feel to the arrangement.  There is nothing uniquely new to this approach, but it was important for me.

One thing that I knew was that I was not going to be making a standard remix as is, dance, techno what have you.  There is a lot of this already and I don't believe that was was they were looking for as they had asked me to do it because they liked my style and sound.  So far, my sound is anything but dance and techno.  So I stayed true to my own ear and even tried to incorporate some elements of their 80's pop influence into it as well.  I handled my sound creation and arrangements much the same way I imagined it would have been done during the later 80's while not letting it become overtly 80'sish. 

This remix was a bit of a beast at first.  I had somehow managed to create almost forty tracks!  But so it is in the beginning.  So many ideas, but many have to be cut away or else it's too much.  In the end it was 27 tracks and I believe that to be modest.

I'm considering releasing a purely instrumental version as well, without the vocals but not immediately.  This remix is supposed to be released on an upcoming ten year annivarsary compilation album that New Concept is putting out in the next few months.  That is very nice! They are a great group of fellows and I wish them many many more years!


What next?  Well that is always a very good question and the answer?  Well, I'm back in my studio fleshing out ideas for a cd of some kind.  Which direction I will take with this is up in the air at the moment.  I do believe it may be a bit minimalist in comparison to the remix.  I'm thinking of incorporating narratives in some fashion.  So hold unto your hats... I may actually throw my own voice on something.  Scary thought tain't it?

The Myth of Music Ownership - O'Reilly Broadcast

The Myth of Music Ownership - O'Reilly Broadcast

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No Need To Come Up With Original Quotes... Someone Else Probably Already Has.

"There is _no_ theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth, an open-air art boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art."

Claude Debussy

The Gossip Band

So I was reading the online version of Seattle's, The Stranger when I saw a mention of the Portland, Oregon band The Gossip and fell in love with their sound and attitude!  Give them a listen and rock a bit.

BBC The Great Bleep Forward

Oh a wonderful BBC audio program on the rise and influence of electrconic music and synths in contemporary music!  A must listen :)  Go here if you wish!

World of Noise Anniversary Show Up For Streaming

Yes dear friends, Doug Lynner's 1rst Anniversary Show is now available for streaming in it's entirety. You can hear one of my compositions, Dreamer's Guardian in the first half of the show. Doug's theme for his first anniversary was to celebrate music and musicians of today whose current works are influenced by 80's synthpop as well as to explore the evolution of the genre.

The link to the stream is:

http://neatnetnoise.com/radio-show/category/radio-show/show-14-first-anniversary-show/

It was an honor to be featured amongst such talented people, please stop by and give a listen. If you like 80's influenced music you will certainly be in heaven!

Peace,

Anthony

Join Me Tonight On Doug Lynner's, World of Noise Radio Show

Dear Friends;

I will be amongst other chosen artists on tonight's, Doug Lynner's of World of Noise Radio Show. My track, Dreamer's Guardian has been selected to be featured with other artists on his 1st Anniversary Show on http://www.flashbackalternatives.com.

There will be an online chat as well and you can tune in via the website at the following url: http://www.flashbackalternatives.com

The show Airs tonight October 8th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern time (US) and again at midnight.

I hope you can tune in to listen and maybe drop a line as well!

Peace,

Anthony

I Will be Featured Amongst Other Artists on Doug Lynner’s World of Noise 1st Anniversary Show

Dear Friends;

I've just been contacted by Doug Lynner of World of Noise Radio Show to inform me that my piece Dreamer's Guardian has been selected to be featured with other artists on his 1st Anniversary Show on http://www.flashbackalternatives.com, an Internet radio station based in New Jersey, USA.

There will be an online chat taking place with Doug Lynner hosting, which will include many of the artists featured. I intend to be online to take part during both October 8th shows.

If you wish to listen to the show as it airs, you can visit the site http://www.flashbackalternatives.com and listen to the stream from there and if you wish to take part in the chat all you need do is login/register as well.

The show Airs on October 8th, 2009 at 6pm Pacific time/9pm Eastern time (US) and 9pm Pacific time/ October 9th, 12am Eastern (US).

The show will also air again on October 11th, 2009 at 6am Pacific time/9am Eastern (US)

After these original three broadcasts on the station the show will be made available for on-demand streaming at the show’s blog located on http://neatnetnoise.com/

I hope you can tune in to listen and maybe drop a line as well!

Peace,

Anthony

30th Year Anniversary Edition of the Fairlight CMI

Wow 30 years! I so very much wanted one of these machines way way back when, but that was the equivalent of wishing for bottled sunshine. Now it is thirty years later and Fairlight is talking of releasing the Fairlight CMI 30A Edition to mark the machines anniversary. Check it out at their page here!

New Concept Remix Arrangement Complete An I Am Happy

One thing I can honestly admit about myself and my work is that I am seldom happy with it but tonight is different. I spent a mass of time this evening after full moon working out the final details in the arrangement for my version of New Concept's, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter and I am very very happy with it. Of course there are things that could be different if I had a lot of time to work with it, but then that is always the case with our work. I go back sometimes and listen to previous things I've done and hear "missing" elements that I would love to add to them, but I stop myself. I let them be, what they are - no sense dwelling on the past. If I waiting until something was "perfect", it would never see the light of day. As I work very slowly...well you might begin to see the dilemma.

I wish I could share with you some of what I've done with this remix, but since it would be highly inappropriate to do so until New Concept is ready to do what they need to do with it. I will wait until next month. I am excited about it, and am even more excited about your feedback.

Until the next time,

Peace,

Anthony

New Concept Remix Update

I've just heard from the fella's across the pond in Germany having just submitted the pre-mixed version of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter remix and they love it. I'm so happy. I'll be mixing and ironing out some details with it over the next two weeks and off it goes for inclusion on their October cd release.

Peace,

Anthony Fasolo

Almost There With New Concept's Remix

Yes, I am almost there, rounding the bend, jumping the cliff... close. It's been an interesting experiment working with someone else's vocald. I've been reinventing, restructuring, re-everything. I can say that the remix does not sound anything at all like their original release of Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. From the beginning I purposely avoided listening to the original so as not to be too influenced by it. I honestly haven't listened to it since I first started working on it about a month ago. I can't say I remember what it sounds like - is that awful? How ironic would it be if I were to listen to it right now and find that it's not that far from it a I think? Oh the trauma! Anywho... I won't listen to it, until I am finished. It was a promise I made to my muses :)

Ironically, all I did use that was provided was some of the vocals, both lead and background vocals. I had intended merging some of their original instrumentation into it, but it just never came to be. I found a melody line and chord progression within their vocals that originated with the backing vocals initially and went from there. Heavens and hurricanes by the time I was two thirds through composing and arranging I had managed to have almost 40 tracks! I've since pared it down considerably and I'm hovering at 2o somethingish. at the moment.

I've developed some issues with the Alesis Fusion as of late and I am not happy with it at all. As wonderful as it can be, I have to have it looked at because their appears to be a short in the volume rotary knob, not to mention some unresolved OS issues that are driving me to the brink. Needless to say, it's become one huge and heavy midi board and that's it. I also found out that Alesis has ceased production of it and that is a shame. Nuff said.

I am awaiting with gleeful anticipation for the updated Mac OS, Snow Leopard and also the recently released upgrade, Logic 9. I shall have both delivered to my door Friday and I will sit waiting in anticipation to meet the delivery man at the door in my fuzzy night robe and bunny slippers.

Logic may help me resolve some time stretching issues I have with some of the vocals. Yes, they work with the tempo relatively well, but I would like to change the stress of certain lyrics or syllables and currently I haven't been able to do that - Logic 9 will allow me to do that. Yes Yes Yes!

Until next time!

New Concept Remix Taking Shape

I'm working on the remix and it is beginning to take shape. It spoke and said, "let me be down tempo retro 80's influenced ethereal." So, I sat and thought about it for a tad and agreed. I'm using one of my favorite sound styles which I've managed to incorporate in many pieces in some form or another - phasing and flanging. But in this case, a more retro traditional string synth phasing - it just drips for me.

The piece is in a roughed out composition point and has a definite melodic structure, yet it differs quite drastically from the original composition by it's creator New Concept.

More as more becomes.....

A Work Day

Not too much going on today that requires massive details LOL. I'll be working on the dub/remix for New Concept this afternoon as soon as my coffee kicks in then off to see Julia and Juliet with some friends. It's a rainy, thunderboomer kind of day and the perfect one for concentrating on production.

Working on Remix for German Pop Group - New Concept

Hullo and greetings on this fine (is it summer?) day!

I was recently contacted by New Concept, a German electro pop group about remixing one of their releases, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. They had heard my release Dreamer's Guardian recently and liked the feel of it.

The song is a great pop song, very tight and well produced and here I'll be dissecting it and piecing back little by little something a little less poppy (perhaps). I love pop and I can easily go down that direction, but since the song already exists originally in that manner, I will instead be toning it down somewhat and finding a middle ground between the obscure and the accessible.

I received all the tracks for it the day before yesterday and I am now spending time getting to know them as they exist divorced from the original recording. I decided that I would only listen to the original once or twice and then not listen to it again until I rough out a concept of my own based on what they have given me. I don't want to be to heavily influenced by the original song structure, or overall sound. As it is, I am only currently using some of the vocals and backing guitar lines to arrive at a different feel and then creating new instrumentals separate (or layered with originals) as I move along.

It is such a flattering thing to have someone hear your work and then ask if you would do something with one of their own pieces. Thank you Marcel and New Concept for letting me have that honor.

Games Without Frontiers Remix

Well I'm nearing the end of remixing Peter Gabriels 1980 release of "Games Without Frontiers". It was a great educational process as well as joy to work with one of my favorite songs by PG. I won't say that I'll have it ready for uploading to the RealWorld site for access in the next week or two. It's usually at this stage I set things aside for a bit and then go back to them to fine tune, mix and master, so I hope to have it up there within the month.

Games Without Frontiers Remix

Sadly I missed the deadline for the remix competition of Peter Gabriel's song Games Without Frontiers (only one of my many faves from him). Unfortunately for me, I found out less than a week before the deadline and as it turned out, the deadline was earlier than I realized as the judging portion of the competition was included in the final date. I am going to pick it up again and continue to finish it. I had been a bit reticent about it since I have so many other pieces of my own I would like to complete and I was afraid that missing the deadline would mean I would not be able to make it available for listening (as that IS the point isn't it? LOL! Well I found out that despite the competition has passed, I will still be able to upload a remix to the Real World site and then embed a link to it so others can stream it if they wish.

I would never make it available otherwise for fear of infringing on copyright and I have oogles amount of respect and admiration for Peter Gabriel to ignore that.

So, when it is finished I will keep all posted and provide a link so you can listen to my interpretation.

Peace,

Anthony

Peter Gabriel "Games Without Frontiers" Remix Attempt

Peter Gabriel through his organization "RealWorld" is offering his song "Games Without Frontiers" to be remixed in honor of this Summer's X Games.

PG has been a tremendous influence on many artists, in many genres. He has been a major influence of mine since I was a young teenager. I can honestly say it was a direct result of his experimental and unique approach to music that introduced me to more eclectic tastes in music.

Real Word has made the individual tracks of the original recording available for download to be used in remixing. Everything from PG's vocals to the individual lead lines and bass parts.

So I've taken the challenge and have begun working on my own rendition of his song as of last night. Unfortunately the contest deadline is July 15th, and I only found out two days ago that it began in early June! I cannot say I may make the deadline in time, but at the very least I'm going to give me best to honor the song and pay tribute to one of my all time artistic hero's.

I have never really considered doing a remix of an existing work aside from perhaps recreating some songs to play for my own enjoyment. So my approach to this is part experiment and part bliss! This was the first Gabriel song I ever heard. I fell in love with it the first time I listened to it while waiting in my mom's car as she ran into the grocery store.

I am purposely staying away from remixing this song into a high tempo drum and bass type trance mix because that isn't the type of work I do. However, I do wish to stay pretty true to the original melody structure and rhythm but in my own style.

Well that is all on that for now. I made serious headway late last night (until 4am) and I hope to have as productive a day or evening today as well.

Wish me well!

Peace,

Anthony Fasolo

Hmmm Technology

So, I'm trying to figure out how to get this very nice music player from ILike to work on my website, but I'm having a terror of a time with it. It seems to work lovely with Blogger, but not liking IWeb all that much. I must be doing something wrong. I will fuss some more tomorrow, and maybe - just maybe finish remixing an older piece that . . .well. . . needed remixing. Ahh, I'm sooooo behind.