September update
The last recording made in the old premises in London during lockdown one, was “Washed Up in Essex,” An album of “Tall Tales” about the history and geography of Essex. Since moving I have now put the album up for streaming via CD Baby and started this long overdue Studio Website. On the Home page you can find example tracks from the album and excerpts from all the other projects mentioned here. Building a soundproof studio in a new location was a gamble, but so far it has paid off. Since moving Bushwood Studios from London to Essex several new projects have kept me busy:
My long-time friend and collaborator Dave Willetts began recording “Please Look After” in December 2021. After recovering from Covid, he discovered that his steroid intake had inspired the writing of a whole album’s worth of material! Once drums had been added to the initial guitar and vocal tracks, Duncan Boon and John Garwood recorded guitars and bass to give the vintage sound that Dave wanted. Keyboards, percussion and backing vocal followed as well as a guest vocal from Sarah Fox on “Octopus & the Shell” There is now a great video of this track on YouTube and the whole album is available for streaming. There are plans to perform the whole album as a benefit for the National Covid Memorial Wall: https://nationalcovidmemorialwall.org/ later in the year.
Jazz trumpet player Claude Deppa had recorded his album “Snake” with a quartet some time ago. It has been a joy to mix these tracks, which have been beautifully played and recorded. There is now some talk of adding more horns to the originals.
In June the Grand Union Orchestra, under the direction of composer and band leader Tony Haynes, celebrated its 40th anniversary with two gigs at the Hackney Empire. Featuring a 30-piece ensemble from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America the show was videoed and a 48-track recording taken from the desk, to be mixed and edited here before being added to the edited video. 48 tracks of 2 ½ hrs were loaded onto the Mac for each of the two shows. The video is now available to watch online and some further work on this will provide the soundtrack for the upcoming DVD. www.grandunion.org.uk