Rehearsals are going well and we are now at the crossroads of learning the pieces our wonderful composers have written for us (we can't wait to share them with all of you) and preparing for the recording of our 'ANIMO two' Album.
Recording is set over 4 days in November at our Eden's Hill Studio with Adam Bertenshaw at the helm, as always. Let's hope that by then we won't have to keep the glass doors open for Covid reasons- we did freeze 3 weeks ago and that was in July!
Our concert at Hellens with Martin Bills, Wendy Nieper and Eve Loiseau was postponed because of Covid-19 so while we are waiting to hear of the new date, we are discussing video and audio recordings of a few of the songs (they are so beautiful!). Martin is busy working on a quartet that will involve Singers and Animo; watch this space!
We are starting to seriously consider using YouTube's Premiere or live streaming to release our 2020 commissions as singles. It's a case of the mountain coming to Mohammed...
We want each new commission to celebrate and showcase our composers but hopefully too, our sound as it grows and develops with each piece. You will be able listen to samples of our recordings on our website and Soundcloud and we will, of course, make the full tracks available on all the most popular online platforms as before. We envisage having those tracks released by early January 2021.
We've already had some great online sessions with our composers and we hope to find time to work with one of our composers to record their pieces written for Music Library. Some of our composers are already seasoned contributors to these banks of music material for any mood, style and genre. This is a fascinating world that was unknown to us before we started commissioning new music and talking to composers about their processes. It's an entirely different world for composers than it is for instrumentalists.
We are excited about the future even though it is uncertain. We want to share our music and vision for how music transforms lives. We need more music, art (madness?) to explain what's happening now in our world.
Next week we are starting our home recordings (video and audio) so, no doubt, Sarah will be posting on Instagram once again with snippets from our rehearsals. I have always found rehearsals fascinating; more so than the final result. It was one of the reasons I loved turning pages for other pianists - but that's another story.
Be well and look after your mental and physical health. Listen to 'ANIMO one' for calm and inspiration. Doctor's orders!
