It has been a productive month. Not only did I finish Landscape 7: Mountains, but I am half way through my goal for July, to compose Landscape 8: Palm Glade. On the recording side of things I re-recorded some of the bass parts for Landscape 3, and recorded the bass part for Landscape 5. I am also halfway through recording the bass part for Landscape 6. Finally, I took some time this month to revise the solo parts for the first six Landscapes.
A few days ago I had a recording session with Musiversal for orchestral parts for Landscape 4: Sand Dunes. It went well, but I have not received the files from them yet, let alone taken the time to edit them. Therefore, this month I’ll be sharing Landscape 4 without the orchestral part. However, don’t be disappointed because not only do they contain Carl Bugbee’s guitar tracks, but they include harmonica tracks that I recorded.
I used some professional development money I had left over at the end of the year to buy a Swan bass harmonica and a Hohner Chromonica 64. This latter instrument is nearly identical to a Hohner Chromonica 64 that my father bought when he served in the Navy during the Korean conflict (though he served in the mediterranean). Thus, this instrument is pretty special to me. I have my father’s Chromonica, but it needs about $200 of work on it to bring it back into tune. I intend on having the instrument repaired in the next year or so. The Chromonica 64 is a four octave instrument, and is played by none other than Stevie Wonder. While the Swan bass harmonica is built in China, and is significantly less expensive than other bass harmonicas, as you’ll hear from the recording it has a really fat, robust tone to it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the realization of Landscape 4, and I’ll update you all on the progress in a month or so.