5 posts tagged “acoustic”

This piece is based on some morphing textures on an electric guitar, a simple looped acoustic guitar motif, and viola. This is the longer version of what was originally a 40 seconds intro track

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Photo by cayusa

This is a folky, pastoral instrumental inspired by the recent return to Anglesey - and memories of Welsh collie Bryn - mentioned in my post about Red Wharf Bay.

As a child going to Anglesey to see my grandparents each summer, the car journey from Liverpool always seemed impossibly long until we crossed the Menai bridge, connecting Anglesey with North Wales, and I knew that we had nearly arrived - and my excitement and anticipation could finally bubble over. My grandparents' old sheepdog Bryn evidently experienced similar emotions regarding the bridge - whenever he was in the car with us, he would acknowledge it with a celebratory bark - and so we came to refer to it as "Bryn's bridge".

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Photo by benlove79

Cuatro: Download the mp3

I was given a cuatro in Venezuela by my friend Hernán, who surprised me with it on my 21st birthday. It hangs on a wall most of the time now and I got it down for this one. I was taught the basics by a bloke called Migail who used to always carry one with him round Carabobo university. The joropo music it's associated with always reminds me of another friend Omar, who was from the plains where it originates, and his sparring partner Miguel who introduced me to lots of Latin American music including Silvio Rodriguez, for which I will be eternally grateful. We had a memorable weekend in Omar's village once which included an outdoor party that got "stoned off" (the host's ex-boyfriend in disruptive mood), a vivid cock-and-hens based explanation of local morals from Omar's Dad, and some serious inter-village fighting late on, broken rum bottles and all, that was remarkably forgotten about down at the river the next day.

If this track was real música llanera it would have a harp, maracas, a 6/8 time signature and possibly a wailing, borderline grating vocal - but it has none of them (though I did look unsuccessfully for the right kind of harp sample). You're guaranteed to hear the music - very loudly - if you ever get a bus in Venezuela, especially in los llanos. The vocal numbers are best avoided early in the morning, though the instrumentals can be lulling

Photo by Liz Henry, creative commons

Meta: Download the mp3

A song originally about an old violin teacher called Meta [meeyta], weekly visits, old performance photos on the wall, and the woozy feeling from the always-raging gas fire

Revisited a couple of years later, slowed down, cut up, and orchestrated in reason

And lyrically turned into a more suggestive and sinister song of a honey trap, with the leaky old gas fire now central

(with apologies to Meta)

Photo by pellaea, creative commons

Jara: Download the mp3

A guitar line taken from another song, and turned into the heart of an instrumental

The slightly muffled, haunting sound of the classical guitar bringing back memories of the first time hearing a recording of Victor Jara

Photo by antitezo, creative commons