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Running a 66 piece orchestral session with StaffPad…

I recently had a 66 piece orchestral session and decided to produce all scores and parts with StaffPad alone. This is stretching the pu...

Friday, November 18, 2005

MIDEM 2006

I've just put the finishing touches to travel and accomodation details for my first visit to MIDEM in Cannes next year...



Which is an international music conference.

I'm really excited about it. I've already arranged to meet our Artful Recorded Music Library distributors from Japan and Taiwan who we have known for a long time but never met. I'm also hoping to meet people from new and exciting territories for the library, as well as some new contacts for licensing Chillville tracks to.

Here are a few details from out MIDEM website page...




SMOOTH MINIMALS (ARTFCD18) from The Artful Recorded Music Library is a collection of electronic and acoustic minimalist themes and atmospheres for science, mystery, landscapes and documentaries. Includes 0:29 versions. 50 tracks.

MINIMAL BEDS - MAXIMUM IMPACT


No Mans Land

Double Helix

Stake Out






CINEMATIC (ARTFCD20) from The Artful Recorded Music Library contains a wide variety of orchestral themes for drama, whimsy, action, adventure and emotion. Includes 0:29 versions. 50 tracks.
BIG SCREEN SOUNDS


Town And Country

Rustic Dance

In The Shadows


I've started a special MIDEM blog over HERE so please pop over there for updates as time goes on!!!

I'll be posting write ups on our Paris and Dublin trips soon.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Focus on The Essence

The Essence
The Essence is a British ambient writing collective between Garry Judd, Nick Ryan and Jay Reynolds. Their style is rooted in the ambient and chillout genre with tracks such as Wunderland, Monsoon and Euphoria evoking a deep emotion.

Over the past few years ESSENCE tracks have appreared on Chillout compilation CDs in the USA and worldwide. Albums include SPIRTUAL CHILLOUT, FRENCH KISS, LOVERS LOUNGE, CHILLOUNGE (Intentcity Records) and SAHARA LOUNGE (Musica Alternativa). Now is the first time a full album release of THE ESSENCE has been released.

This album contains a rich mixture of vocal and instrumental tracks. SERPENTINE is a cool and stylish track with a sexy late night beat with a irresistable sultry vocal. WUNDERLAND sooths the spirit with it's chill out vibe and hypnotic beat.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

New bass

Went into a Soho edit suite yesterday to watch a few pictures from one of my latest jobs and popped into a bass guitar shop on the way.

I was trying out a lovely Warwick Streamer JazzMan fretless V...



(I know that the pic above is of a fretted, but you get the idea!!!)

Well, it happened that just as I was trying the bass out, I got a call on my mobile to let me know that I'd had one of my library tracks placed on an advert. This would cover the cost of the bass, so I had to have it!!!

It's a beautiful instrument and had a fantastic warm tone which can be very flexible with liberal use of the onboard EQ and pickup combinations.

My fingertips are burning, but I'm happy!!!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

New Chillville album releases!!!

We've been working very hard on our new album releases. Here they are...Click for more details...

Gaia - earthspirit

The Essence

The Heavens

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Espresso

Wow...It's been a while since the last post...Just been hectically busy...Some new commissions...New library releases...Working on Chillville. The chillville website ( www.chillvillemusic.com ) now has ringtone and wallpaper downloads for mobiles...Isn't technology amazing!!!

I still have to finish my account of our Paris trip (Great fun...Very cool city). I'll post that soon, hopefully before our next trip overseas which is to Dublin to meet our Irish distributors. That'll be the last one this year, but we intend to visit Cannes (MIDEM), USA, Czech Rep and Italy next year.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Ich bin ein Berliner...For a day or two

Just by way of catching up again, here is something I wrote about a visit we made to Berlin in October 2004 to POKOMM a music trade show (For which I bought a suit!!!)...

We landed at Shonefeld Airport and were immediately confused as to where the train into town was. What you have to do is jump on a shuttle bus which takes you over the road to the railway station. Standing on a cold, windswept and ugly ex-eastern-bloc railway platform wondering what to do next isn't an ideal introduction to anywhere!!!

Luckily, we found ourselves in the company of an equally confused, but German speaking lady who found out that you had to go downstairs and buy a ticket which you then validate by putting it into a little machine on the platform which stamps the date on. This seems true of all train tickets. We got a day ticket for 5.60 ('ish) Euros each which lets you play on the trains and busses in the center all day. We decided to get a taxi back on our return which cost 26 Euros as we wanted to make sure we didn't get lost and turn up late!!!

We changed from the overground train to the U-Bahn (Tube...There seems to be a U-Bahn and an S-Bahn) at Alexanderplatz. We noticed a strange but not unpleasant aroma as we walked around the station which we eventually identified as cigarettes and sausage. We got a bit lost trying to find our platform and were approached by a smiling policeman who asked us where we were going in German. Not feeling confident enough to reply, I tried, "Sprechen sie English, bitte???" to which he replied, "A little," and he directed us to the platform, even running after us to correct us when we took a wrong turn. This little kindness really perked us up.

We eventually arrived at Potzdamer Platz and our hotel, the Ritz-Carlton which is stunning. It is pretty pricy on the face of it, but when you compare it to what you'd get in London for the same price, it's fantastic value. We left our luggage there as we were too early to check in and went for a walk.

This is where we were confronted by the sheer size of the place. When I was looking at the map before we went, I thought it'd be quite easy to walk round, but the scale of the map was bigger than I thought. I suppose that because the place was pretty well smashed up during the war, there are big gaps between the places of interest, so be prepared to use the tube or taxis a fair bit if you want to 'do' the place in a limited amount of time.

We had some fantastic food (Always tricky for a vegan)... I can recommend Samhedi, which is an asian veggie restaurant, as well as the food (And cocktails!!!) at the Ritz. The beer is fantastic...It takes a very long time to pour, but it's worth the wait!!!

The hotel called my mobile when the room was ready and we returned to find that our luggage was already in our room. It was the most stunning hotel room we've ever stayed in and everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

POPKOMM went well...Got some great new contacts...We met a distributor from Lithuania who was interested in distributing us there and also in Latvia and Estonia. We also me our Dutch distributor for the first time although we've been doing business together for years!!!

More sightseeing the next day...Went for a big walk along Unter Den Linden to Alexanderplatz, which is a big ugly example of 60's eastern-bloc building but very atmospheric and beautiful in its own way.


On the way to Alexanderplatz. It's the back of the Berliner Dome over the Spree.

Everywhere was very clean and the people were friendly...Especially after attempting a few words of German by way of introduction. Actually, I found that I was managing more and more complete transactions in German as my confidence grew and the German I learned as school (35%) began to dredge itself up from the depths of my memory.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

Here is something I wrote on our return from Copenhagen in March...

Getting from the airport to the hotel by train was dead easy. With one exception, everybody we met spoke fantastic English...All you have to do is say "Hej (Pronounced 'Hi' with an extra 'ee' on the second part of the dipthong), do you speak English?" and you're off. I did manage to get in a few vaersgos, taks and taler de Engelsks and other bits and pieces I'd learned before the trip, but no many people understood me!!!

The Palace Hotel was nice...Elegantly tatty. The room was nice and large with dark wood pannelling...It was a bit like living in a victorian railway carriage.


Raadhuspladsen and The Palace Hotel

We met our distributors who were very funny and charming and really knew their stuff business-wise. After a chat at their office, they took us for a quick tour of the sights of Copenhagen by car....A fantastic way to see it, as the traffic was very light. It's a lovely city...Lots of high pitched roofs...Very Scandinavian looking. At 6pm on a Friday evening, the roads were virtually clear!!! We then went for dinner. Our new friends had found a fantastic buffet vegetarian restaurant called Riz Raz (Kompagnistræde 20, 1208 København)which I can thoroughly recommend to all. We went back a few times during our short visit...It's fantastic to find a restaurant which dishes up such tasty vegan and vegetarian food.

On Saturday, we did some sightseeing on foot and had a coffee and beer at one of the cafe/bars in Nyhavn. There are lots of butane heaters around and also the cafes have a blanket on each seat to wrap yorself up in...Very cosy!!! I noticed people were having a lager with a little shot glass of something. I asked the waitress what it was and it turned out to be Gammel Dansk, a bitter...I decided to give this a go soon!!!


Nyhavn

On Sunday, we went to Malmo by train over the Øresund Bridge which links Denmark to Sweden. Malmo is much quieter and more spread out than Copenhagen. It was also bloody freezing!!! We met our friend who has moved to Sweden with his new Swedish wife to start up his own music business there (His claim to fame is that he was Chesney Hawks' bass player). I havent seen him for about 10 years, so it was great to meet up. We drank Swedish pear cider...Very tasty, but very sweet. In the evening, we met one of our composers in Copenhagen for a chat.


View from the Øresund Bridge

On Monday, our final day, I finally got to try Gammel Dansk and beer. The Gammel Dansk is VERY bitter and strong, but sipping the beer after is like drinking liquid gold...Delicious.

So, Copenhagen...I can thoroughly recommend it. Prices are more or less the same as here in the UK. I have to say that sitting in Nyhavn wrapped in a blanket watching the world go by with a beer and Gammel Dansk, I was as happy as I've ever been.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

No peace for the wicked!!!

Well, I was hoping for a bit of a rest after the last job, but I got a call from a director I've worked with many times before who needed some music for the show he's working on. I had to make a flying visit to the edit suite in the city to see some clips. The idea of the show is that they train up celebs SAS style and have them do 'missions.' Looks like a really funny show actually!!! I'm not complaining about the work, though...I know I'm lucky to have it!!!

So, I've been busy over the weekend (And I'll be working on the Bank Holiday tomorrow too) to get as much finished before our visit to France on Thursday. There was also a couple of tracks to finish off for the DIY show I've been working on.

We also had to dispatch our latest disk to France and w had a call from someone who is starting a production music distribution company in Israel. He has a library of his own, so we may be able to distribute him in the UK. For those who don't know, production music is where CDs are produced and sent free of charge to producers/directors and if they use a piece of music on their show, the library gets a royalty.

We have distribution all around the world...In fact I called our French, Danish and South African distributors last week and I hope to catch up with our Spanish company next week.

I'm looking forwrd to the French trip...I've been practising the language for months, but still find it a bit daunting. We were lucky on our trip to Copenhagen in march, because our distributors spoke superb English...In fact English was spoken very well by all of the Danes that we met. I'll write more about the Copenhagen trip when I get time...Jane and I had a fantastic time and we really enjoyed the company of our new friends, our Scandinavian distributors.

Anyway, back to making noises!!!

Thursday, May 19, 2005

On the fiddle.

The violin session went very well...Fantastic musician!!! I thought I'd have to spend a lot of time editing one of the pieces in particular as it included some very repetitive and intricate patterns, but she played it first time!!! This meant that I could deliver a CD to the dubbing suite in Shepherd's Bush at Tuesday lunchtime. I took my laptop and Oxygen 8 keyboard just in case there were any tweaks that I could do on the spot, but the dub had been moved to Friday, so there was no rush. Tx date is 18th July at 9pm on Channel 4.

I treated myself to a fine lunch at Aroma in Shepherd's Bush Green and popped into the BAFTA bar to read the FT before coming home. I also got Le Figaro to practise my French for our visit to meet our production music distributors in Paris at the beginning of June.

Today, I had a call from the director who needed a couple of tweaks due to script changes, so I'll upload them tonight for the editor to take into the dub tomorrow.

I've just got three more tracks to finish off New Homes DIY which will be on Discovery soon.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

The first post!!!

Well, I thought it was about time that I started one of these things!!! I'll be posting about what I'm working on and how things are going at The Artful Corporation Ltd. which is the company I run.
I'm working on a Channel 4 documentary called 'The Middle Classes' at the moment...Delivery day is tomorrow, although I have an extra couple of days to record a violin session which should be fun!!!

Anyway, I'd better get composing as I've one more piece to record and then three more to compose and write the dots out for the session tomorrow, so I'll be back soon.