Back up to London at the weekend to finish off the vocals for Far and Forgot. Last weekend I was playing the lute at a small festival in Chicester with my friend Mike Hobson. I believe it went well.
All being well, we should get all the vocals for Willow Hill done this weekend, which means things are really beginning to take shape. The drums are pretty well finished and I reckon they sound great; if everything goes to plan (?!@?) the bass tracks will be done the week after next and that just leaves the guitars and some exotics like cor anglais and cello.
A wee bit more about the guitars. Because I tend to write orchestrally, the guitars don't really play very guitary things and are often asked to play weird and wonderful lines that are very tricky but don't sound it. This is very apparent on The Man Who Sold Magic; a very guitar oriented track that doesn't sound like normal guitar stuff, if you catch my drift. It isn't that I don't like guitarish lines, I'm no mean blues player though I say it myself, it's just that I see this music as a gestalt, as the Germans would have it, and the guitars are part of the overall sound. Beedle will have his solos though. My life would be a misery else.
Goodnight.
Love
F

Off to St Ives tomorrow to record three drum tracks with the inimitable Mr. Brooks. Brides of the Wind, The Man Who Sold Magic and Willow Hill. 
I suppose Willow Hill gives the strongest clue to what Far and Forgot is all about, at least as far as I am concerned. 
All my songs are protest songs in one sense, and Willow Hill is a protest against what has become known as reason or rationalism. It's all very well talking about an age of reason, but perhaps we need to ask what is really meant by reason. Willow Hill is a song about magic departing from England; magic and mystery as symbolised and embodied by the faeries. 
I have often got into trouble over my affiliation with the faeries, or the Sidhe, or the Shining One's, or the Tuatha de Danaan. It was at the root, I believe, of my leaving the Enid. Aerie Faerie Nonsense was RJG's insisted name for the second album.
So I suppose Willow Hill is me saying I am not sure that facts are the truth, and what is so very important is that which we do not know; the mystery, or perhaps The Mystery, after all it is probably That Which We Don't Know that is going to save us from ourselves, if anything is. 

Well then, here we are. Somewhat later than I would have liked, I own, but nevertheless here we are. "What has been going on?" I hear you ask "How does the album progress and develop?" As with all ventures, there are unexpected little twizzles and turnabouts that cause a chap to deviate. I blame Gurdjieff and his cosmic law of three.
However, the vocals have been done on all but the last track. Brides of the Wind and The Shining Hour are now vocalled, if you will allow such a gerund. As expected, Hils has turned in a sterling performance on both songs and her friend Jenny Russell, has joined her on The Shining Hour. Jenny is a soprano you see, whereas Hils is an alto. The Shining Hour is a duet, almost operatic in in's style and the two voices combined make a lovely sound. If I write so that Hils is at the top of her register, her voice takes on a vulnerable and silvery quality that matches Jenny's soprano beautifully. Jenny can hit a top e flat. That is quite high.
Anyhoo, a word about The Shining Hour. It is a sort of second movement in as much as it takes a minuet and trio form. The story is a re-working of the Tam Lynn/Thomas Rhymer legend where a handsome young blade is whisked away to Fairie by the Queen of Elfin. The King's Daughter, who generally seems to be called Margaret or Janet and always wears a green kirtle, comes across the unfortunate young fellow in a wood or some other appropriate place. Often there roses and all sorts of shenanigans going on, but I will draw a veil over those. So Janet or Margaret vows to rescue your one, and learns that she must wait in a certain spot (the mill bridge in the Shining Hour) at midnight on either May eve or Hallow 'een. This she does and sure enough all goes to plan and she regains her lost love. In the Shining Hour, however, the young chap is a whit disgruntled at being rescued. He was perfectly comfortable in Elfin and the Elfin Queen was no minger. So now it's his turn to wait by the mill bridge until the Elfin Court shall ride again and, hopefully, take him back to the hollow hills with them.
There, that's that explained. On Monday I shall be journeying afar to visit Young Master Brooks and his tubs of thunder. The plan is to get all the drums done on Monday! Wish us luck.
Lots of Love
F xxxx   

Well then, recording in earnest. Vocals for Brides of the Wind and The Shining Hour, some acoustic guitars and possibly lute. We shall be at Neil's in Crystal Palace for the weekend and all being well, Hilary being the professional that she is, we should get done most of  what we set out to get done. I'll try and get some photos and post them next week.
Sweet Dreams

Good evening everyone and welcome to the Secret Green blog. I shall do my best to keep you up to speed with how Far and Forgot is progressing and see if I can give some insight into the process of making an album like this.
As I write, pretty well all of the orchestral parts are written. I tend to write for orchestra rather than for piano or guitar as I find often things get lost or muddied or otherwise discombobulated in the transition. So the orchestra forms the foundation of the whole album. I'm aiming to have five tracks  
on the album, laid out in some sort of symphonic form. A big and bold first movement, a more introspective second, a scherzo, a sort of intermezzo movement and a long last movement. The track titles that follow that scheme are:


Brides of the Wind


The Shining Hour


The Man Who Sold Magic


Seeds of the Sun


The Disenchanting

1. Willow Hill
2. Lyonesse
3. Broceliande
4. The Faerie's Funeral

And that is the basic structure. There is still much to do. Today I've been writing a Cor Anglais solo for the last movement. It's great knowing that Tony will be playing a real Cor Anglais on the album proper. 


I have also been fretting about the sound of the string samples. I'm afraid that the strings on To Wake the King sounded pretty scratchy and artificial. I'm experimenting with layering different articulations to create a more organic sound but it's still not right. My dilemma is whether to bite the bullet and fork out for another string library, to use in conjunction with the one I have, not instead of, or to just make do. The strings are, however so important that I don't want to compromise too much. What do you think?
Guitar parts are another issue! I seem to write guitar lines that are very difficult to play. Because I write orchestrally, the guitars very often have to play quite uncharacteristic lines. This leads Mr Beedle to curse me. I don't blame him.


As I have mentioned elsewhere, there is a story, or a concept if you like, to this album and it follows on from the last. It isn't an analogy and although it has a very particular meaning for me, I don't want to shove that meaning on to anyone else. I'd rather that the piece as a whole has a certain individual applicability and be open to anyone's interpretation or not.
Having said that, I suppose the titles are quite specific.



Any feedback, comment, suggestion or piece of advise that anyone would like to contribute would be most warmly welcome.


Speak again soon.


Francis xxx

Far and Forgot - From the Lost Lands: Hello World! I am now beginning to get excited abo...

Hello World! I am now beginning to get excited about the new album, Far and Forgot (From the Lost Lands). I shall use this blog to keep everyone up to date and to try and describe the various processes so that everyone who wants to can feel involved in the recording; however, now it's a bit late and I need to be up early to got to my other job up London. Speak soon. Love and Light,
Francis x