“...with percussion including hang drum, marimba and mbira from the legendary Dame Evelyn Glennie and production and arrangements from esteemed composer and orchestrator Chris Warner, Immersive Stories more than lives up to its billing, encouraging the listener to get lost in its myriad moods, which extend from brooding and tense to dreamy and mysterious.”
A new collaboration
What a thrill to be asked to compose and produce on another new writing project with Audio Network and two fantastic musicians and composers. Cardiff based musical innovator Sue Verran and the legend that is Dame Evelyn Glennie are a match made in heaven when it comes to discovering a kaleidoscope of new musical colours, textures and stories. Before I came onboard with this exciting album project, they worked together at Dame Evelyn’s percussion studio. During a Herculean improv. session tons of wonderful sonic discoveries were captured, and these were to form the foundations for what later became IMMERSIVE STORIES
Sue Verran
A dynamic, creative musical innovator, Sue is a storyteller and emotional string tugger which is at the heart of her writing. She runs Bronze Butterfly Productions, and has also made fantastic musicheard on major brands such as Sony Playstation, Diet Coke, Boots and Ikea.
Off to Abbey Road
My role as producer and co-composer throughout this project was to assist with the sculpting of these fabulous soundings pieces laden with dramatic, storytelling potential, whilst retaining all the spark and originality of Sue and Dame Evelyn’s musical personalities. We decided that the addition of a string octet and some additional vocals and piano lines would really help consolidate the sweep of moods across the whole album. As ever, it was a great to have the opportunity to lay down the strings at Abbey Road.
Immersive Stories
Mixed by the engineering wizard that is Rob Kelly (who I also worked with on my Twisted Tonality album), the album takes a spin round a whole neighbourhood of moods and emotions. From the lilting ‘Shimmers Hope’ (with the specially re-programmed piano) to the wiry ‘Silver Spider’ (just what is the time signature?!) and the exotic ‘Mystery Express’, every track has its story to tell. Do take a listen - head over to Spotify or Apple Music at your leisure…