Jerome's CD.

[Bellini48]

I am happy to announce that I have just acquired Jerome's audio CD from CDBABY.
And am now listening to the album INTO IMAGINED LANDS.
It's suggestive, atmospheric and quite an excellent production.
I'm all for supporting each other on this forum, and I do it willingly, having myself received full support from Jerome himself for my compositions.
Bravo Jerome! Lauda vincit!!!

[MAG2NYC]

This is so EXCITING! Thank you, Bellini48! Congratulations, Jerome!! Here's the link for anyone else who wants to purchase/download the cd!
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/auralscapes113

[Jerome]

Thx girls - the longest journey begins with a single step. I hope you enjoy it Gaby. As I have said before if anyone wants a copy, just send a mail to jerome@auralscapes.com Most of the regulars here will receive a free CD so I do not expect you to buy it. I am not in it for the money. It's just something I should have done 20 years ago but life got in the way. I will have to look up 'lauda vincit' !!!!

[ScottC123]

I really enjoyed listening to "Into Imagined Lands". Very cool.

[LMD]

Want to chime in on this; I listened to the album on CDbaby (or however much of it is up when you click the preview. It felt like it went on for quite a while.) and it definitely lived up to all the expectations I had built up for it. Great job Jerome. As we get closer to the end of the semester (and I don't have my parents nagging me about how much money I "don't" have to spend on music) I'll get around to actually ordering it.

[Jerome]

Thx one and all for your comments - If you leave a physical address at jerome@auralscapes.com I will send you a copy of the CD early next year - no charge. Please do not purchase the download. It has 8 of the 10 tracks. Wait for the CD instead. You can however do me a favour by spreading the word - there's no such this as bad publicity!

[Big Ears]

Absolutely great - I loved Auralscapes! With the synthesizer intro, I expected an album of extended notes, but in came a lively beat, imaginative melodies and constant changes of time signatures. Certainly, it is not languid and I found myself tapping my feet. I wish I had kept a note of the times of the different parts so that I could be more specific, but I lost track. There is so much to enjoy here: the symphonic elements, the occasional ethnic touches, the little Floyd and Oldfield motifs (without being blatant) and the overall feel. What makes the album cohesive is the effective use of real drums which drive the material from start to finish. The violin reminded me of Mostly Autumn's combination of Floyd and Celtic music. Was that real guitar I could hear? I am wary of committing myself as even David Coverdale thought Jan Hammer's keys were Tommy Bolin's guitar when he suggested the latter for Purple. In any case it worked!

Recently, I have heard some albums which, although made by excellent musicians, tend to over-rely on signature sounds from other bands. Jerome has avoided this, by ensuring the lion's share of the ideas are his own. The 'echoes' for example are a nice little touch, rather than an irritation, and the exotic parts make it original. There is a good deal of experimentation with the synthesizer sounds here, which one does not hear much these days. Perhaps being from the southern hemisphere, Jerome has been less inclined to use British and Americanisms.

Some questions: what are the instruments and have you played this material live to an audience? If the answer is 'no' to the latter, you should! Also, it definitely deserves a wider audiece. I have never posted on YouTube, but have you thought of doing so? Lastly, there is a magazine in the UK called Fireworks, which write predominantly positive reviews and, as well as detailing the big names, champion unsigned artists. It might be worth sending them a CD or mp3s. They are not underground and have a wide readership.

[Jerome]

I hope I am not pissing off regulars here by answering this thread and as a result you get to see 'Jerome's CD' sitting at the top of the pile every now and then but I am quite taken aback by some of the comments. Did not expect it. At all. It is a great reward to read positive comments from virtual strangers about your work. It inspires you to continue and try to create another chapter. Just got home from work (a manic day) so I will absorb your comments (thank you very much) and explain how I did this from a technical and personal point of view. Will post something about the process in the morning, the ins, the outs, the good bits, the mistakes and everything that goes with that. It has been a long, long process to get to this point. Mainly because I am a really stubborn bugger when I want to be. Much to my own detriment. It will be a lengthy description (even though I bloody hate typing) and hopefully it will give you some sort of insight as to what you are listening to. Or what it was I was trying to achieve. And yes, it is yours truly on a real guitar. I do not believe you can emulate a guitar with synthesizers - it just does not work. They both have their place - but one cannot replace the other. Just my opinion. Will elaborate tomorrow - just too damn tired to type anymore tonight.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Cant wait to read your next post Jerome.
And looking forward to receiving the finished product next year

[Jerome]

OK where to start!

I used to play guitar covers with a group of friends years ago in a pub in Cape Town. Rodriguez, Dylan, Young - all that sort of stuff. Just a handful of acoustic guitars. And while that was always enjoyable and I do like all these artists, the music I was really into was Floyd, Oldfield, Vangelis, Yes, ELP, Jean Michel Jarre etc. Anyway, I was moving jobs, contracting and enjoying life so there wasn't much time to sit down and concentrate on doing a big project that would ultimately require years of work and a small fortune to complete - if I had known how long it was going to take I would probably not have started in the first place - ignorance is indeed bliss. Anyway I moved to Ireland after I got a phone call from Intel asking me if I would consider a contract in Ireland. Because work was non-existent in SA at the time, I agreed and came over to the Emerald Isle. That was 14 years ago and I am still here - did not think I would be. When I left SA the whole music technology thing was kicking in but I had not got to grips with it yet. After about 5 years in Ireland I was in a PC store and I saw a software package from Steinberg called PRO52 - an emulation of the famous Sequential Circuits Prophet synthesizer. I bought it wondering what it would sound like and once I installed it on my PC I was hooked. Suddenly the possibilities were endless. I realized that I was now in a position to actually try and compose something and have full control over the entire production.

The light bulb went on.

It took me another couple of years and another job change to get to grips with the technology, find the right workstation (I have been through 4 to date!) and buy and learn all the ins and outs of new hardware synthesizers and effects processors mixing desks, mandolins, banjos, amplifiers, effects pedals and a small fortune in VST plugins and software programs etc. etc. The list is endless. I estimate (conservatively I might add) that I have spent about 80,000 Euro to date on everything.

Right - that's the background to the project.

As for the project itself I started off with a simple piece - just 2 alternating notes on the PRO52 VST synth that seemed to match the mood of the snow falling outside. It was winter and I was living in a rural part of Ireland. It took me so long to finish this introduction to my project that by the time I was happy with it, spring had arrived.

The light bulb went on again.

I now started thinking in terms of creating a large piece with four movements - each representing the four seasons and 'Scenes from a Solar Cycle' was born. Yes I do know what a solar cycle really is but it is a play on words. There are twelve tracks in this project

Winter Sequence

Polar Storm
Across the Siberian Plain
Below Zero

Spring Sequence

Awakening World
Biorhythmic
Into Eden

Summer Sequence

Meadow at Morning
Saharan Haze
The Endless Evening Sky

Autumn Sequence

Leave in Flight
Skeletalscape
Sea of Darkness

So I composed the twelve tracks listed above, and because I am a person who is easily bored, decided to start a second project while this one was still going on as a kind of diversion. So 'The Hypnotic Motion of Tides' was born and away I went down that road for a while. This project is all about the sea and all things related to it. And while on that road I started reading a lot of books about mountaineering, maybe subconsciously thinking about how I was going to conquer this 'little' project which was starting to turn into a large nightmare. So 'Mountain Mantras' was born as well. This one is loosely based on the IMAX movie 'Everest' which I had seen in a theatre in Cape Town many moons ago.

The light bulb was now starting to overheat a little.

I continued on all three projects at the same time for a number years - bear in mind I have quite a demanding job and some days you are just too tired to apply yourself to creative pursuits - the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. At some point I decided that I was rather curious as to what people would make of this music. Is it any good at all? Would anyone actually buy it? So I put a couple of individual tracks up on CDBaby and while they did sell, I realized I had made a mistake. People who listen to this sort of material normally want an album's worth, not single tracks. They want something they can immersive themselves in for a period of time, not just a couple of minutes.

So I thought, right, I still have not finished any of the projects to my satisfaction but I do have a whole lot of completed tracks - why not try compiling them into a sampler CD and that would give people a chance to sample my work and if they like what they hear that might purchase the projects once they are complete. Most of them are pretty close to completion now anyway. And that is how this CD/EP was born. It is a selection of tracks from the three projects previously mentioned. I tried rearranging the sequence of the tracks many times before I was happy with the overall flow of it.

And that, in a nutshell, is how Into Imagined Lands was born.

For the artwork - you only see a fraction of it on my website - I wanted to depict the fact that I had actually summoned up the nerve to release something, hence the diver 'taking the plunge' into a sea of imagination (the mind's eye) with a vivid almost psychedelic backdrop - an image of a place called Antelope Canyon in Utah USA. So I fiddled around with various images for weeks - stock photos from iStock - until I came up with what you see. Being a lifelong Floyd fan, I have always been impressed with Storm Thorgersen's work and I have to admit that the cover of Richard Wright's 'Broken China' had a lot to so with influencing my final choice and composition. My goal was to make a simple but striking image - only you can be the judge of that.

So the tracks for this EP are

Prologue (from 'Mantras')
Across the Siberian Plain (from 'Scenes')
Under Waves (from 'Tides')
Manta Ray in Motion (from 'Tides')
Flying Over The Frozen Sea (from 'Mantras')
Saharan Haze (from 'Scenes')
Loss (from 'Mantras')
Epilogue (from Mantras')

The tracks for the CD will be

Prologue (from 'Mantras')
Across the Siberian Plain (from 'Scenes')
Under Waves (from 'Tides')
Manta Ray in Motion (from 'Tides')
Flying Over The Frozen Sea (from 'Mantras')
Meadow at Morning (from Scenes')
Saharan Haze (from 'Scenes')
Biorhythmic (from 'Scenes')
Loss (from 'Mantras')
Epilogue (from Mantras')

So that's the background info - next post will be about the actual tracks, ideas behind them, instrumentation etc. and the colossal mistakes I made putting it all together.

The light bulb is now just glowing contentedly...........