Music Production: The Art
Alargo & Alan Brown
These projects were immensely satisfying for me both technically and artistically, with each involving enough artistic tension to keep things honest.
Considered ‘piano ambient’. The piano takes for both Alan Brown albums were recorded in a single day inside the concert chamber of the Auckland town hall, using their full sized Steinway grand. A busy Queen Street was mere metres away, which, as a close listen will reveal, added to the ‘ambience’ of the recording, a bit of character.
‘Evocative cinematic soundscapes’ is one description that has been ascribed to the music of Alargo. Recorded live in the studio. For the acoustic instruments Kingsley plays, which are tonally pure and perfect in themselves, a flat response omni-directional microphone was used (an Earthworks QTC50). This yielded uncoloured capture, which required no equalisation at the mix down stage.
Mixed by yours truly here at Bird Song, the third Alargo album ‘Obscura’ was released in late 2021.
To hear audio examples, click on the images below.
Alan Brown: Silent Observer (2015)
Alargo: Central Plateau (2016)
Alargo: Primacy (2017)
Alan Brown: Composure (2018)
Alargo: Obscura (2021)
Terra Firma: 5 tracks
An erstwhile group of like-minded souls from the Bay of Plenty with a marvellous songwriter/singer/guitarist at the helm, Pete Newitt. He let me loose on his songs, primarily as arranger, then producer, engineer and 2nd guitarist.
This was the first time I’d had so much creative freedom with an artist and working with these ladies and gents was a joy.
Dating from 2002, I truly feel this music is timeless.
Recorded at The Bus, Devonport, Auckland.
To hear audio examples, click on the image to the left.
60 Cycle Hum: ‘Eruption’
P.W. Streekstra & Barry Blackler as 60 Cycle Hum. This heavy yet joyous production was driven by pure instinct, with minds wide-open. It started with a ‘blind’ drum take by Barry, recorded to analogue tape with the vari-speed set up a few percent, thus the big pitched-down drum sound on playback. Barry’s drum take, which has great musical shape, provided a platform upon which it was easy to build, thus the guitars and most of the other layers are my fault.
Many thanks to Miriam Clancy (vocalisations) and Tony Lumsden (bass and feedback bass) for their generous and tasteful contributions.
To hear the audio , click on the image to the left.
Other links…
In this link, the ‘Ulläng junior’ piece (an edited version of a longer piece) was produced by Tom Ludvigson, Graeme Gash and yours truly: https://open.spotify.com/artist/74d9gL6OoNMio71ZTYmhTq