When I came to the point of realizing this record I was wedging a
bargain with my thoughts in between "What on Earth was I thinking when
getting myself into this" and self satisfying smirk that yells with
"OOOH,YEEEEEAAAAAH".
Start was a smooth ride, laid down the tracks in the simple
arrangements and send them to the guest artists, basically I wanted to
go with the flow of the classic jazz records as far as the recording
sessions were concerned, meaning I'd record first takes trying to keep
the essence of the experience from every artist.
The trick for me here was not to allow any of the artists to hear the
takes of each other so they wouldn't be influenced by anything else but
the basic arrangement.
From the beginning I picked my partners in crime carefully and
diligently waited until each had the right feel for the moment, this
provided some of the more memorable moments of my life.
Besides working with John Kakiay and Nenad Radosavljevic aka Ned
both of whom you know from "Coming of the light" there are few extra
interesting guest appearances.
Let me start of with Praful,
After getting in touch with Praful through mySpace I had a chance to
meet him on one of his gigs, we talked extensively and what a great guy
he is, we clicked and few weeks later one evening at the early hours as
I was about to check my mail one more time before shutting the computer
down, I received first takes from Praful, WHOOOA !!! I listened to that
super funky flute he sent me that you can hear on "Oh my love" and was
instantly blown away, literally and figuratively, so I sent him a reply
immediately and guess what, he was still there, recording. As the night
progressed I was receiving more and more files as we were chatting,
"this man is a genius" I thought "he's just pouring that stuff out",
and then a miracle, he sent me sax tracks for the "One more day" I'm
sure you will agree, that lick on the chorus is a thing of beauty !
Very soon after that a good friend and great guitar and cavaquinho
player Nelson Latif from Brazil came by to lay down some takes,
basically we wanted to record some Latin flavored guitars and some
cavaquinho in "Choro" style for what he is so famous for, what happened
during that afternoon was beautiful and so true to the Brazilian spirit
of his, as we finished with lunch he started playing on pots and pans
in my kitchen, man I just had to have some of that raw flavor, we
recorded that on track "Love is the way".
Just about the same time a week or two later another good friend Emil
Kunto an accordionist from "Mala Vita" had a free slot and he
complemented that very same track ever so beautifully with some
intricate Balkan melodies with a touch of Tango.
Speaking of Balkan, I have an immense pleasure of knowing one of the
most amazing jazz guitar players, Milos Dimitrijevic, who was there to
give me sound advice and help me out with improving my skills every
time I got stuck, his solo on "You & Me" is so smooth lyrical
experience that breathes with simplicity and sophistication.
Since I'm hooked to that warm and Latin feel, I couldn't have done
some of the tracks without the input of Randy Winterdal a man with whom
I had some of the most interesting musical conversations over the
years, funny enough he was working on his 2nd CD at the time "Alma di
mi tera" this naturally led to more musical conversations and was great
to share the experiences we build up since our last collaboration, I
always have good laugh with this guy, at one point during the session
he detuned "E" on his 4 string bass to a low "B" on "The other way
around" and we started cracking cause it was as if he was playing on
rubber, but laughs aside his sound and groove are exquisite as always.
Somewhere in this period another great bass player René Dissel had some spare time and this was a day to remember.
I met René few years ago when recording some sessions in Amsterdam, I
just couldn't stop enjoying playing with this man, he's so funky, raw
and sophisticated at the same time. I knew instantly he'd be someone I
had to collaborate with in future, so as I was writing my preliminary
arrangements I had him in mind. He listened to the arrangements in the
car on his way to recording session, came at "Silence Studio" and
recorded 5 tracks in record time, just as we were to wrap up I noticed
that he brought a bow with his upright bass so I asked him if he would
play one more take on "Under the Sun" with a bowed bass, geee, that
take was a pure magic if you ask me, you will hear René gasping with
relief and satisfaction at the end of that track.
Just as the luck would have it somewhere in the summer I received a
call from Elliott Randall, with whom I had only pleasure to communicate
through internet until then. Elliott was in Amsterdam for a Sound
Engineers convention and wanted to meet up, things that happened that
day... This man is a true legend and he was so kind to make my
acquaintance with some of the worlds most renowned sound engineers and
producers, soon before I knew it I was sitting with Geoff Emerick and
was having one of the more interesting conversations of my life, as our
conversation finished Elliott introduced me to Wes Maebe we talked a
bit and in midst of our conversation he stopped and commented "aah the
Tears for fears" I looked at him stupefied and tried to distinguish the
track in that clutter of noise in the room, and after about 10-15 sec I
heard it as well, I looked at him again and thought "this guy has to
master my record when I'm done he's got the ears of an elephant."
As the afternoon progressed and event was coming to an end, Elliott and
me took a short straw around Amsterdam and I asked him if he was
interested in collaboration, explained him the basic concept and he was
quite enthusiastic about it what made me feel in heaven. As he went
back home I sent him the basic arrangements and very soon I received
the musical response for "Move, Time won't stop" and "Conurbation".
What can you say about Elliott's guitar playing that hasn't been said
already, he's simply GREAT, and I feel very privileged to have had a
chance to collaborate with him.
Now, all I desperately needed were female backing vocals, but I had
no more time, record had to be finished, I needed someone who'd be able
to nail it in a crunch time, but I didn't know anyone, luckily my
friend Emil came through once again, he happened to know these lovely
three Caribbean sirens. Indira, Deborah & Nadine walked at Ned's
"Silence Studio" after a few days of prep and sang it perfectly, they
did exactly what I was hoping for.
I was done !
Well with recording that is :) now I had to edit the whole and then mix it down...
SO, I opened up sessions, imported corresponding tracks, pressed play
and instantly started hating myself, now for the very first time I
realized the amount of work in front of me. Every track was going each
and every way and I had to make sense of it all, bring it to life as if
everyone played together for years. My gut feeling was telling me that
I'm on the right track but the problem seemed as a steep mountain to
climb. I took a deep breath and dived into the unknown, after I was
done with the third track I changed my tune and thought this is the way
to go, suddenly the whole started making perfect sense and things just
started to fill each other, I could distinguish all the intricate
details I needed and place them where I wanted.
Two months went by and I was done with editing and mixing.
It was time for mastering :)
Remember Wes Maebe, well I still was. Called the man and sat up a
mastering session GHQ Sonic Cuisine. Meeting with him in London just
made that positive vibe take a firm root. We spent a great afternoon
and he pulled the best of analogue and digital worlds, to get that
specific sound of this record. After we were done we jumped for a cup
of tea at Elliott's place to share and brag a bit while anxiously
looking at his face to hear his judgement. He was all positive that
made a huge burden fall from my chest, cause last thing I wanted was
that Elliott Randall and other artists feel uncomfortable for putting
their trust in me.
I hope you will enjoy this record and have many memorable moments in life with it as I had making it!