Lament for the Whales (again!) - Featuring Rikkie on guitar

Hi,

A few weeks ago Rikkie (the artist formerly known as morenoise) posted a version of one of my older tracks, Lament for the Whales, with some of his beautiful acoustic guitar improvised on top. Well I'd been meaning to go back and re-record the orchestral version of the track and this prompted me to make the effort... and this is the result.

The music is here: http://soundcloud.com/purplerhapsody/lament-for-the-whales-2012

I recorded the orchestra, piano, choir, and percussion; did a rough mix; and then sent it off to Rikkie for him to work some of his guitar magic on it... and then when he sent back his fantastic guitar line I did my best to mix it in with a whole orchestra (which I'd really like some feedback on please... it was pretty hard and I think my ears stopped hearing the subtleties after a while).

So a HUGE thanks to Rikkie (TAFKAM) without whom this version wouldn't even exist... and without whom the guitar would sound like a plastic virtual knock-off...!

Cheers,
Terry.

Terry, this is gorgeous.  I liked it before, and I like it better, now.  It's both majestic and poignant at the same time.  Your use of dynamics takes this over the top.  This was worth the wait and effort.

Holy cow. Remarkable colab. Outstanding.

This is stunning..that first guitar line into the oboes made the hair on my arms stand up. Gorgeous melancholy piece, beautifully arranged, and it really builds into a majestic climax. What a superb collaboration.

Sweet. nice job gentlemen.

Hi,

Thanks everyone for taking the time to listen and comment.
Lynn: Glad you like it better than the previous version - really pleased we didn't end up making it worse!

Shad: Thanks!

James: Goosebumps, eh? That's made me well chuffed! I absolutely loved working Rik's guitar into the arrangement and trying to get a bit of flow from one section to the next. This piece of music definitely wouldn't be as good without him.

Wookiee: Thanks Chewii!

Thanks again, everyone.

Enjoyable & calming....exclllent piece! - Shawn

Wonderful orchestration!

Beautiful, Breathtaking, Inspirational.
 

Hi All, thanks for listening, glad y'all like it. Terry did good, hope the guitar didn't ruin it. ; )

Rik

I personally think this is to good to disappear quitely : )
 
 Rik

Rikkie


I personally think this is to good to disappear quitely : )
 
 Rik

I don't know... these new forum members with their inflated opinions :-)

Sorry Sir, it won't happen again ; )

resplendent! you should try to see if you could license it to the Blue Planet series.

Everything fit together so nicely. Very lovely piece of work. Congrads to you both.Peace be with you. Blessings, John

What perfect collab partners, both of you with your incredible talent.  Just beautiful, both of you.  That's cool that his part inspired you to do the orchestration even better, Terry.  I think it paid off.  Lovely! 

Excellent work there Terry and Rik! This has everything it should. Wow!

The only thing I can suggest is to automate the guitar so it doesn't get buried when the whole orchestra is playing.

This is great work indeed!

Absolutely splendid, breathtaking, and lovely!

Majestic to the uttermost!

10/10 orchestral phenomenon.  Best orchestral I've heard in a long while!

Well Terry, I'd say you've out done yourself on this one! The orchestration and choir really bring this together nicely.
Would have liked to hear some fancy guitar riffs or broken chords from Rik but the single note plinking seemed to serve the song well. I liked his outro a lot.

Hi,

Thanks again to everyone for listening and commenting, it's sincerely appreciated.

ABeautifulVirus - thanks for the comment - and thanks for the idea, I'll look into it.

John - thanks! I'm glad it all fits, I was quite worried about mixing the guitar with the orchestra.

Janet - thanks for the compliments! I'd been toying with the idea of re-recording a couple of my tracks from an unreleased orchestral album (Lament for the Whales is one of them) and when Rik improvised his first solo over the top of the old version it just fired off so many ideas about how to arrange it for orchestra but giving his guitar much more focus and spaces for it to integrate into the arrangement. He's good, isn't he?

Robert - Thanks! I was a bit worried that the guitar was getting lost in the louder parts - but at the same time it's completely unrealistic for a guitar to be louder than an orchestra at full blast so I wasn't completely sure what to do!

Philip - thanks for being so effusive! A wonderful collection of adjectives which have probably never been combined together to describe my music (so it must be Rik's influence on you!)

Scott - Thanks! Rik's guitar really does suit it but it's probably my fault that there aren't fancy guitar riffs or broken chords as I did most of the arrangement first and then he added his bits on top and in-between. Next time (if Rik's up for it) it would be an idea to give him more of a blank slate.

Thanks again everyone.

Cheers,
Terry.