Aethellis: Northumbria release

There was a minor setback for the masters of the new Aethellis album Northumbria where when converted to formats where compression is employed, the tracks displayed some increased vocal sibilance. Concerned with this issue, the "offending" tracks were re-mastered and sound great in any format now. Whew!

The tunes are being submitted for copyright and when I return from a vacation later in September we'll begin releasing tracks for streaming and downloading online followed by CDs being made available.

Unfortunately an event scheduled for today (September 17th) was cancelled at which the band was performing. We were really looking forward to it but that's how it goes sometimes. Fortunately another performance was picked up just prior to that cancellation, this one at the Harford Fall Fest, Bel Air MD on October 15th. There will be copies of both the original and new CDs available there during our performance and we'll be playing tracks from both albums.

Then time to hunker down and learn more new material and prepare for the CD release concert!

Havre de Grace gig

Just a quick note to say THANK YOU to all the folks who braved the rain and came out to the Havre de Grace Seafood Fest. We had a great time playing on Saturday (August 13th) and were genuinely touched by the standing ovation and calls for "one more song!" Just goes to show you when Charlie Daniels plays the night before it gets the crowd geared up!!!

"Saint Augustus" video

Finally got the "Saint Augustus" video online and created the new Aethellis video channel on YouTube. Next up will be the live video of "Djibouti" and soon a "Northumbria" video to coincide with the release of the new album. Whew!

Recording "Sounds Good"

"Sounds Good" is the last track on the new Aethellis album and last Thursday I recorded Erik's bass part for the song (he is co-author of the tune as well). Last night we recorded Mike Harrington on drums at Mark Van Natta's studio. Mike has a funny Keith Jarrett-like way of humming the music while he plays! So we did 3 takes and he minimized the humming by the end of the session. He may do that live but we'd never notice!

Chris Marks is scheduled to put his guitar parts down in the next week or so for "Sounds Good." His parts will nicely compliment Mark Van Natta's guitar bits as they do totally different things in the tune.

Dyan Brown has had to postpone recording her vocals for a while so I'm focusing on polishing up my vocals on a few of the other tracks and getting some mixing underway. I'm determined to have this all wrapped up by year's end and the plan is for a concert in early 2011 to debut the new material live. So stay tuned for upcoming Aethellishows! It's shaping up to be a busy year!

Northumbria update

All the main parts for the new Aethellis album, Northumbria, have been recorded. There are just some vocal parts to record along with some bass, guitar and drums on the final track (by Erik Marks, Chris Marks, Mark Van Natta, and Mike Harrington respectively). All these are scheduled to be done in October after which mixing will commence.

So things are taking longer than planned, but then again I've expanded the scope of the new album and the process of adding new things pushed the completion date back. That said, most keyboard tracks are pretty much pre-mixed so that should shorten the overall completion time.

The track listing has been firmed up and is as follows with approximate track lengths -

1. Northumbria (Hall, 10:48)
a) Northumbria
b) Mephisto Breeze

2. The Awakening (Hall/Van Natta, 3:27)

3. Van Diemen's Land (9:58)
a) Dire Need (Hall)
b) The Penal Colony (Van Natta/Hall)

4. Without A Sound (Hall/Gill, 5:30)

5. Celui Qui Soit La Bosse (Hall, 2:54)

6. Exchequer Prague (Hall, 3:16)

7. The Peace Path (Hall, 10:09)

8. Sounds Good (Hall/E. Marks, 4:44)

Sure there are some shorter tracks (and to some that's not PROG!) but they are more in the vein of eccentric miniatures rather than standard pop tunes (not that there's any thing wrong with pop tunes, eh?). The closest any song comes to a standard pop tune would be "Without A Sound" which is sort of a prog ballad, if you will.

I plan to release the full version of "Northumbria" as a single along with a music video of the first section.

Also in the video front, from the the first album, "Saint Augustus" will be released in December along with a new version of "Hubris." I'll be retooling "Hubris" as it was rendered for YouTube with their bandwidth, file size and video resolution limitations back in 2007. Things have changed rapidly since then. I have the original footage and will get a high quality re-render and put out the revision by year's end.

Jazz Fusion - Aethellis : "Djibouti" live (end section)

While we're in the process of preparing two new Aethellis music videos ("Northumbria" and "Saint Augustus") I thought I'd get this little live clip of the band up which was recorded last year by my wife Cheryl. It was to be an outdoor gig at St. James in Parkton, MD but the rain dampened that endeavor.

It features our whacky guitarist Mark Van Natta doing his bizarre jazz fusion lead. Take heed, this is the LIVE version - there's no such lead on the album version!

Play the video from our Facebook pages.

Bait and Switch TV vids

I've been working on episodes of the satirical Bait and Switch TV show for a few years now, doing music, sound effects and voice overs. It's been really taking off online with several videos really making an impact on YouTube (see below).

My epic production Beside the Manor Selby had its theatrical premiere at Imagicon in May. It'll have its online premiere later this summer and plans are to also have available on DVD at Amazon.com

Oh the Aethellis front, the new prog rock/electronica album Northumbria is coming along nicely and is on target for completion mid-to-late Summer. I'm also working on two new promotional videos, one for the title track of the Northumbria album; the other for "Saint Augustus" from the first Aethellis album. They are thematically related and both pertain to particular events of the 7th century.

Here's a sample B&S video -