Tempest

Last month's show went great! Photos came out a little blurry, but Elim caught some pretty good video. I have ones for Dangerous Curves and Shards. He also caught a wonderful rendition of If You Only Knew by Gardening Not Architecture.

Because of the show, I did take some time off to work on my set. But once the dust settled, I started work on a new piece by the name of Tempest. It took me several weeks to complete, but I'm happy with the results and I think you should download it.

Download Tempest

Special Credits go to the very talented Suonho who recorded the Underwater sound used at the beginning of the song. You can find more sounds like these on Freesound, who uses a Creative Commons License for all of their sounds. Awesome site!

Nyght '09 and Cozmic Pizza Show

Upcoming Show

I've been a little quieter as of late, but been a lot has been happening behind the scenes. Next Monday, I'm opening for Gardening Not Architecture at Cozmic Pizza. So most of my free time has been centered around practicing my set and putting the finishing touches on a remake of Nyght for my album. I also have an original piece that I've also been working on, but put it on hold till after the show. Other than posting one song a month, my muse has no set schedule. Her goal is to have fun and send me little bursts of Shelly-inspiration along the way. :)

Not much else to say other than I think this is a kickass version of Nyght and you should download it.

Download Nyght '09

Special Credits go to: Andrew Potterton who recorded the Ticking Sound used both at the beginning and end of the song. You can find more sounds like these on Soundsnap, who uses a Creative Commons License for all of their sounds. Pretty cool site!

Shards and Hope's Flame

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings…
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.

- Buddha (Dhammapada)

I've completed two projects this month, the first one being a new version of Shards as well as Hope's Flame which is a simpler piano arrangement. It's become a year tradition to do a new version of Shards. For one thing, it demonstrates my musical advancements and also shows a reflection of the previous year. From my 8-bit sounding string version, to the first record piano rendition to this one - I feel that it reflects a steady progression of the song. This one makes me think of a travelogue, like in Universal Fables - but with the bittersweet melody of Shards and a strange determination.

Download Hope's Flame and Shards '09

Special credits go to: Corsica_S from Freesound for recording the sounds of the children playing at the end of Hope's Flame. Click here to download the original sample.

As a trend, this seems to be a productive time of year for me. I've started on putting together an actual album and found a site that will create CDs on demand. I don't have high expectations, it's mostly to serve as a personal portfolio and be able to submit my songs to Pandora or the local college station. The one thing that I do like about the service I found is that they will automatically create a UPC Code for your CD and list it on Amazon which I thought was pretty cool. I also ordered an external terabyte drive so I have the ability to backup all of my project data and be able to do a reformat of my laptop in the next several weeks. My dear friend Poppy came over last week to do a photo shoot, so I can have pictures to use for album art and the website. I'm excited to see the photos, she does fantastic work and is a very talented photographer. You can view her photography and learn more about Poppy here.

That's pretty much it for updates, enjoy the tunes and let me know what you think. Feedback is always appreciated!