In production with Jacqueline Tolken

 

Late in 2022 I was contacted by Song For You, and ended up working on a track written by the owner: Adéle Tolken. You can see detail of that post here and here. In that post, I mentioned that Adéle said she is also working with her sister, Jacqueline Tolken to perform vocals for Song For You. I remember when Adéle spoke to me initially and talked about Jacqueline, that coincidently a few weeks before, I've discovered Jacqueline on Sound Cloud. After listening to some of her performances there, I actually messaged her at the time and shared how I loved the soul in her voice. And here we are now from an unrelated event, working together! Maybe it's more than coincidence that we are all connected now, the music universe seems mysterious sometimes.

So, the track that I worked on for Adéle, recently had the vocals performed by Jacqueline for Song For You, and it is filled with that blues vibe I found on her Sound Cloud profile.

Jacqueline is a seasoned artists with lots of experience and skill, and her vocal performance becomes one with the music. This is the kind of person that really makes producing for me worth while. I can't wait to get going again on this production.

But don't listen to me getting all hyped up, go check her out for yourself: Jacqueline Tolken

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Production in progress for Sammy Scott

[EDIT 5 March 2023: This project has been cancelled. Sadly, I realized I'm not the Producer that Sammy needs and if we continue, I might just frustrate her. In order to fly, a bird needs to be free. Best of luck Sammy, with such a talent I know you will make a difference in this world.]

I've "digitally" met Sammy at the end off 2022 and after our first Zoom meeting, we both felt that we should put our heads together and collaborate on a single for her.

Sammy has good singing skills, and while she is open minded, she knows what she wants. We've been busy working towards that goal in the last few months, and making progress.

I believe the determination will pay off in the end, so make sure to keep an eye out for this this vocalist.

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Completed production of Valor

It is probably just my age, but in the last few years I've started getting into short cinematic orchestral pieces, and have been enjoying it ever since. Even though I really know jack-shit of classical music, and probably all the time break all the rules, I'm not letting that stop me and ended up creating "Valor".

The piano part formed the foundation, and was actually a project where I experimented with my piano chords, that I've abandoned about 2 years ago. I discovered it recently again in my lost and found section on my digital audio workstation. After listening to it, I decided to resurrect it and pushed through to finish the music.

There are only string instruments in this piece: piano, violas, contra bass and of course - my favorite, a solo cello. I played the (fake) cello using Friktion, made by Reason Studios. Such an amazing piece of software. The cello ended up becoming the focus of the song, as it contains something humanlike. I don't understand it, but I just love it! It took a lot of work to express the feeling on the cello, but I think it came out alright.

There is no percussion, so some dramatic stabs strings had to help with a simple rhythm on most part of the track.

In the last section, I've used the "Lucy" computer voice from Emvoice to perform soft melodic "oohs", to add more emotion.

But, the original and truly remarkable artwork was yet another pencil sketch made by my brother, more than 2 decades ago. It is part of a few of his drawing that I have "acquired" since that time (and he probably forgot all about them). The saying is "a picture paints a thousand words", so there you go. And you thought this instrumental had none? How this guy never got his art works to be displayed in an art gallery, is just beyond me. This drawing came in handy to set the scene for this track - in fact, it might just get more attention than the music!

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