Birth of our CD

This project was two years in the making. I remember having dinner at a French restaurant in Bali a many years ago and hearing some amazing music that had eastern vocals over western ambient synth sounds... the album turned out to be Buddha Bar and it led to my friend, Murray, and I to track down as much of this East-meets-West music as our hard drives could hold.

Once we had a huge collection of esoteric music I came up with the idea of doing our own CD. Now came the hard part of tracking down record labels and negotiating licensing deals and rights. Luckily we found Creative Vibes who license and distribute many of the artists and labels that we love. They agreed to help us produce the CD and the tireless Georgie Zuzak tracked down and licensed some of our rarer and more exotic artists.

You'd think it would be easy to make a compilation CD... but dealing with artist's managers and record labels is very tedious and political... we had to drop four incredible tracks simply because one record label kept dragging its feet... I guess we're talking about artists here and money isn't their only motivation. But still, music wants to be heard and it won't be heard sitting in some obscure CD that is beyond impossible to buy... and the record labels wonder why people download music - if we can't buy it then what other choice do we have but to download it!

Let me share with you the story behind the tracks we chose for the album...

A Local Artist

I first saw OKA at a charity event for the Bali bombings. These guys were amazing and incorporated modern rythms with traditional Didgiridoo sounds and lush synth pad sounds. These guys are an international quality act and even though I wanted more Asian influenced tracks their music really fit with the 'atmosphere' I wanted to create with the CD.

I chose the song 'Chihuly'as a nice way to change the tempo of the CD and introduce a distinctly Australian ambient feel. Chihuly is unique because it was named after the man who created an all glass didgiridoo for Stu - who plays it on the CD. The OKA guys were fantastic to work with and continue to create amazing music on the Sunshine Coast and travel extensively in the USA and Canada performing in large concerts there.

'Quiet Letters' - my most favourite album.

Huw at Creative Vibes sent me Quiet Letters by Bliss and it blew me away. I don't know how to describe it: it's accordians mixed with strings and lush vocals from Sophie Baxter of Zero 7 fame combined with some interesting African vocals all wrapped up in a web of beautiful atmospheric synth pads.

You can hear all the above in tracks like 'Kissing' and to see how a blend of Western styles and African vocals then listen to 'Right Here'. When the record label heard about our project they generously said we could use two of their songs... and that is why we have two songs from the same artist on this CD. But both these tracks really work well with the mix and help change the mood of the CD as you move through the songs.

Asian Music from Argentina?

It's 1.00am and I get a phone call from Murray telling me about an amazing collection of Eastern ambient music from an Argentine DJ called Alejandro Seoan. Somehow he'd stumbled upon an obscure website webcasting this amazing music. By 2.00am I had the names to some killer tracks never before heard in Australia.

The power of the internet - an Argentine label that could never get a distribution deal here in Australia can now make itself known around the world. I was able to eventually but the CDs (from Germany... don't ask why) which enabled me to license three incredible tracks

Georgie was a genius in being able to license these three great artists from a record label in Argentina and hopefully you will be able to buy the whole range of CDs from this label in the near future.

A blog leads us to two tracks

If you don't know what a blog is then you should check out the Spirit House Blog. Basically it's an online diary where you can write about the things that interest you and publish these thoughts to the interenet. I love blogs and stumbled across an interesting guy talking about his music collection which is how I heard about Karsh Kale and MIDIval PunditZ. Luckily the guy was streaming these songs and they sounded perfect for our CD.

So I bought the two CDs from Amazon.com and fell in love with 'Light up the Love' by Karsh Kale which features some amazing Indian Vocals over some harmonic Bass and some traditional Indian Instruments. Karsh Kale is a DJ out of New York and blends instruments and vocals from India into interesting mixes.

'Saathi' is one of the quieter tracks by MIDIval PunditZ, and features a traditional vocal backed by the Sarangi, played by Ustad Sultan Khan, which sounds like a mix between a sitar and violin. MIDIvaL PunditZ mix Indian ragas and vocals with electronic music and are winning fans around the world.

It's great to see these modern musicians incorporating music and instruments from their cultural heritage... I can't wait to hear what DJs from Vietnamese background will do with music, instruments and vocals from the areas that their parents or grandparents fled from.

Nitin Sawhney...

Talking about Karsh Kale and MIDIval PunditZ made me realise that music, like cooking, is an evolutionary process. It's easy to develop on ideas that others have created before you... and I guess Nitin was where it began for traditional Indian instrumentation to cross over to the mainstream. I fell in love with 'Letting Go' the first time I heard it a few years ago. What I loved the most was the English vocals followed by an Indian chant that sounds weird on paper but works beautifully acoustically.

I wanted this song because it reminded me so much of one of my favourite groups, the Colonial Cousins, who wrote schmultzy 80's style love songs and combined them with classical Indian ragas and chanting... a bizarre mix and incredibly hard to find. Who knows, one day I will try to get the rights for it here in Australia. Nonetheless, 'Letting Go, is the closest thing I've heard to the Colonial Cousins and I'm glad to be able to share it with you.

Angel Tears to the rescue...

I get the news that one record label just keep dragging their feet responding to our emails and licensing agreements so we drop them. Which is a pain because they had 3 songs I wanted. Luckily, Creative Vibes were contemplating distributing a group called Angel Tears and sent me their catalogue to choose from. I found a great song called 'The Dreaming' which has the right groove and beautiful vocals.



Based in Israel, Angel Tears' songs have been featured on some of America's most popular TV shows including Sex in the City, Third Watch and The West Wing... their music blends beats - and lots of 'em- Asian and Middle Eastern vocals, violins, sitars, Tibetan flutes... basically if you can blow it or play it then Angel Tears have used it on a song at some point. Mellow synthesizers swirl amidst the elements, bringing everything together into a cohesive package.

For those of you doing the math in your head you may notice that one song does not replace the 3 songs from the record label that let us down. It was around this time that we heard back from the Argentine label and were able to license their tracks which gave us four songs to replace the three that we missed out on.

Atmosphere +

Murray loves his atmospheric music... we're talking about a guy who has the atmosphere sound track from the movie Blade Runner which is all rain, traffic noise and other ambient sounds from the film... so I've got the headphones on and he hits me with Ulrich Schnauss. We're talking some real ear candy and all six and a half minutes of Blumenthal seem to be a perfect way to set the mood to finish the album.

No Asian grooves or eastern chants, just an artist who is a legend at atmospheric music and a track that you can really get lost in.