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Stephen 08/10/2020 Stephen 08/10/2020

'We Could Have, We Should Have, We Didn't'

Reposting this here as it has words.

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'We Could Have, We Should Have, We Didn't' from 2008. Perhaps my sixth album, recorded in Southampton, Brighton, Bristol and County Cork over one rather chaotic but very productive summer with many friends. Several of the songs were written with @k_mcclement and she played beautiful guitar and piano and of course sang wonderfully on everything. Lawry @birdengine sang on anything I could get him on around this time, @samagramsam played signature electric guitar, at Penflick in Brighton Lewis Shaw played drums and Daniel Clark brought the fuzzy bass along too. Later at home in Ireland I put this physical thing together and included in each copy one crow feather from my growing collection. I washed dozens in the bath and the scent of dusty, musty strangeness has somehow never left me. Last summer at a falconry display near Stuttgart a large northern raven flew low above my head and there it was again. I asked the falconer about the particular and peculiar smell of crows and he replied with the explanation that they weren’t like us. True enough. ‘We Could Have, We Should Have, We Didn’t’ is an excessive messy collection but I like the looseness. 14 songs, covers of @lizgreenmusic and @sonsofnoelandadrian , long things with lots of guitar solos, backwards vocals, slow drums, birdsong everywhere and much bravado. But listening to it by chance today I was surprised how it kind of clomps along and I'm fond of the momentum and the naive energy of the thing. I didn’t really know how to put it all together so I put it all together and moved to Berlin. #thegreatpark #woodlandrecordings #wecouldhaveweshouldhavewedidnt #kristinmcclement #homerecording #tractor #diylabel

A post shared by The Great Park (@thegreatpark) on Oct 8, 2020 at 9:13am PDT

Stephen 22/08/2020 Stephen 22/08/2020

Julia Laura 'I Lock The Door Upon Myself'

This is my buddy Julia’s second album, which I recorded and put together over the last year or so. I recorded her first album too, a simple acoustic collection that we put down in a few afternoons, but this time Julia had written songs with space and parts for more instrumentation. We set up in three or four houses last summer in between travels and when we were able to meet. Her friend Mark Timmins had some great electric guitar parts so I started with recording the two of them playing the songs together at his place in Nürnberg in the few hours before his girlfriend finished her shift. Later, in Bayreuth, Josua Bauer (Vincent von Flieger / Nick & June) played some horn parts and accordion and later still, at Julia’s parents house in Fürth, Elena Steri sang some backing vocals whilst her folks quietly prepared dinner in the kitchen. I think there’s also a couple of songs that Julia played in my little bedroom in Fürth on there too. I like to record this way, in rooms where there’s a chance for coffee and books, things placed carefully on the wall. Also a window of opportunity whilst the house is quiet, some gentle pressure on things.

Early one morning Julia went out with Mina Reischer and they shot a roll of medium format film by the river in Nürnberg. Mina works on a lot of the artwork for the label and is something of the house portrait maker.

photo for cover BETTER_VERSION_COVER_FRONT.jpg

I mixed it in a couple of different places and then a few weeks ago we got together in Stuttgart and cut paper, stamped pictures and made some copies of the physical edition. Julia sang a couple of songs and I filmed them, like this:

It feels a bit like the album started at a gallop and then lost a little wind towards the end as the different elements and people involved were kept apart by distance and the virus. But recently it’s been brilliant to meet and wrap it up and finally make it available for everyone. I know Julia has new songs and new sounds she is hearing and perhaps there’ll be something else coming from her soon.

Anyway, we made this fine thing together and it’s out now.

Stephen

ps - Julia and I are playing in Nürnberg next weekend - 29.08.20 at Luise.

listen and buy at bandcamp

Stephen 21/07/2020 Stephen 21/07/2020

HOME TAPING IS MUSIC VOLUME 4

My song, ‘DOWN DOWN DOWN’ is available on the latest Woodland Recordings release ‘HOME TAPING IS MUSIC VOLUME 4’ which is out this Sunday and available to pre-order now right here:

BUY AT BANDCAMP

Here’s the full track list, I’m in good company.

01 / FLORIAN VON AMELN / A KEY FIGURE
02 / REMENY / STILL BLEEDING
03 / SQUALLOSCOPE / ROEBUCK
04 / BIRD RADIO / CARDILLO
05 / PÁRAMO / MADEMOISELLE CHAR
06 / LUCY DAY / SNOW
07 / BIRD SEANCE - BLINKING INTO THE SUN
08 / THE GREAT PARK / DOWN DOWN DOWN
09 / DIE GEISTER BESCHWÖREN / EL MALECÓN
10 / JULIA LAURA / PESSOA
11 / THIRTY POUNDS OF BONE / SING (MADRON VERSION)
12 / DAVID HOPP / GOWNS
13 / TWENTY-ONE CROWS / KINGS
14 / STEFANIE & JULIA / MAGISCHE METHODEN
15 / (YOUNG) PABLO UND DESTRUKTION / DÍA DE LAS CASTAÑAS
16 / M. BUTTERFLY / ROOK, RAVEN, CROW
17 / MÄKKELÄ / CHELSEA HOTEL (D. BERN)
18 / THE DIAMOND FAMILY ARCHIVE - COME IN THE SPRING
19 / FARE / BROWN SOFA DEMO
20 / SAINT WOODPECKER / SORROWFUL WILLIAMS

This was quite the thing to put together and is a wonderful, dense collection. I hope you all give it a listen and perhaps find some people that are new to you.

Stephen 01/05/2020 Stephen 01/05/2020

New album out today

My new album, ‘bottle the grief’ is now available on Bandcamp here.

Eight new, quiet songs recorded in the L.A. Signorina pizzeria in Stuttgart at the start of the lockdown and released in digital and very limited physical editions.

Here’s some (barely) moving pictures.

I hope everyone’s doing ok, will have more music very soon.

Thanks for sticking around.

Stephen

Stephen 25/04/2020 Stephen 25/04/2020

slow go the dark days

Last night in the room where I recorded ‘bottle the grief” - to be released this Friday the 1st of May. If you feel like pre-ordering it now that would be super good and if you feel like subscribing to receive the physical edition and a whole bunch of other music from me that would be even better. Either way, stay well and stay in touch please.

Stephen 18/04/2020 Stephen 18/04/2020

bottle the grief

Hi everyone

I have a new album of eight quiet songs that’s available for pre-order now and will be released Friday the 1st of May.

‘bottle the grief’ was recorded over three evenings in the back room of L.A. Signorina in Stuttgart a few weeks ago. One or two of the songs were written just after Christmas but most of them come from the first days of the lockdown when I was in Switzerland and then Stuttgart.

I have in mind to record some of these songs again with other musicians when we’re all able to move about a bit easier and these nights were always just about trying some new things in a good sounding room. The songs came full of words but light on tunes and it’s not perhaps the most sonically exciting thing to listen to. But as with all things it’s just a record and what was written and made and there’ll hopefully be more to come soon.

The album is available digitally through Bandcamp here and this time the physical edition is exclusive to those signed up for the Bandcamp subscription. There’s a few reasons for this - clearly putting together a physical release is a little difficult at the moment and I also just wanted to make something very intimate in a small edition. I’m also obviously not playing concerts at the moment so there’s really little opportunity to sell a lot of CDs. But if you choose to sign up for the 15€ subscription I’ll send you a copy, plus you get 6 albums to download from my back catalogue and the previous two subscription only releases. If you stay subscribing you get a new release every month. I think it’s a fair deal and it certainly helps me out a lot at the moment.

Please click here for more information at Bandcamp.

If you would prefer to use Paypal that’s absolutely possible and I have a page with a button here.

Anyway, the album is available as a hand stamped CDr with a hand typed cover and lyric sheet in a 100% recycled sleeve, sent to you wherever you are. You’ll also get a digital download of the album in a choice of formats whilst you wait for that to arrive.

A song ‘a carrion call’ from the album was posted to my Bandcamp last week as free download. I wrote this and played it twice and this is the second take. Didn’t have a final verse, just goes like that. You can listen and grab that here:

Here’s a very simple lyric video for the Youtubes.

All in all I recorded about twenty songs in the restaurant and the other half of them will most likely be next month’s Bandcamp subscription. Acoustic, different versions of songs I’ve previously recorded, like ‘The Hills Are Alive’, ‘Boys, I Am Worried’ and ‘SUPER GOOD ADVICE’. They all hang together as another thing somehow.

This is what I’ve been doing, hope some people are into it. Let me know please how you are doing and if you have any questions about any of this stuff.

Take care

Stephen

Stephen 15/04/2020 Stephen 15/04/2020

Julia Laura 'SPAWN OF HELL'

I’ve been recording Julia Laura’s second album for Woodland Recordings over the last year or so and we’re finally ready to begin sharing some of what we made. Here’s ‘SPAWN OF HELL’ over on her Bandcamp page:

And here’s the video she put together:

I also made her first release with her, have played shows together and she’s writing new songs all the time. More to follow for sure. Go listen.

Stephen

ps - new album from me coming in two weeks, news in a few days.

Stephen 15/03/2020 Stephen 15/03/2020

‘Now Wash Your Hands’ now free

My 2011 album is now free to download because of you know what. Here.

I’m still in Switzerland after a week of cancelled shows and with more ahead seemingly not taking place.

Stay safe everyone and let’s see us soon.

Stephen

Stephen 19/11/2019 Stephen 19/11/2019

Three songs from Luzern (free download)

I’m slowly getting my shit together after a hectic few weeks of concerts and working on new projects. Just this week we finished the debut album by Geneva, which I recorded and produced and is out now through my label, Woodland Recordings. A lovely little collection of songs in a delightful package - have a listen have a look:

I know, I know - somewhat off topic. Stay on target.

So here’s three songs from a house concert I played at Neda’s lovely place on the hill above Luzern in Switzerland a few weeks ago. Neda takes care of The Phrontistery space in the town but this evening she invited me up to her house to play to a small audience there. Was a wet night, the rain lashing down and I played a collection of slower things, or at least the songs came out in different shapes this night. Here’s three of them edited together - listen separately below or click the button for a free, simple download from Dropbox.

FREE DOWNLOAD

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A post shared by Ne Da (@wonder_wagon) on Oct 29, 2019 at 10:52pm PDT

As I said, I’m catching up with things and this weekend my next album ‘St Arbogast’ will be sent out to anyone who pre-ordered it and available to listen in full and buy from my Bandcamp right here.

I’m not lying when I say half of the first edition of 100 are gone so please pick one up kind of quick if you’d like one of those. I’ll write more on that before the weekend I’m sure.

Thanks for sticking with me and please have a lovely week.

Stephen