Ok everyone, high time for another update!
Let's take it from where I left off two months ago, shall we? Me & Erik Linder commenced work on & later recorded his parts in September. We decided pretty early to give the guitar more of a supporting role this time around, we both felt like it'd be a nice change since the guitars were pretty dominant on Luna Nueva. There's hardly no guitar leads or solos here, but don't despair! There's quite a bit of tasty comping happening!! Erik even managed to sneak some "Matinee Idol"-octaves into one of the songs, dunno if maybe that's his way of paying back, haha!
[Missing image] Erik in action.
Due to conflicting schedules we couldn't record the horn section in October as I had planned, and unfortunately November didn't work out either, so now we've postponed it to early December. Because of this, Kristian Persson has had to drop out, however, he's introduced me to another great trombone player, Peter Fredriksson, who will be replacing him on this project. If you have a minute, please check out his page, there's some great music to be discovered there!
Instead of recording the horn section, October/early November saw me getting together with Oskar Nilsson & Jonah Nilsson for some vocal sessions. Now, I've been a big fan of the Pat Metheny Group for a long time, and when I was in writing mode for this album I pictured some PMG-style chanting on two of the songs that I thought would make for a nice addition. So I got these two fantastic singers onboard for the project to add that flavor, and they did a brilliant job! I'm also into a lot of vocal music & groups like Take 6, New York Voices, The King's Singers, Manhattan Transfer, The Singers Unlimited etc., and one of the songs just seemed to beg for some a cappella-singing! This gave me the chance to have a go at arranging for voices, which is something I've always wanted to try, but never really had an opportunity to do before. I had lots of fun with it, and as expected, the guys delivered (no surprise there)! I think it turned out very cool, hope you dig it once you hear it!
[Missing image] Oskar & Jonah exercising the vocal cords.
What else? Oh yes, Andreas Ekstedt has finished the percussion tracks - there's some seriously hip things going on there! He's been experimenting a lot with different ideas and the stuff he's added to the mix really brings out the groove & overall feel of the songs he's featured on. Strange how big a difference a little bit of percussion does, huh?
Also, in order to save time I've spent some days with Karl Persson pre-mixing (setting sounds, levels etc.). This means that as soon as we've recorded the horn section in December, we'll be able to mix & master the album quicker, which consequently means that you'll be able to get your hands on it a lot sooner! Peachy, ain't it?
[Missing image] Karl working his magic.
Alright, I think that's all for now, I will be back with more in a few weeks, until then - Happy Thanksgiving & take care!
Best,
Johannes