Knocking On Heaven's Door
by Bob Dylan

( Dedicated in memory to Fabien March 2015....shine on bright soul )

SLIDE CALIFORNIA

by Vaughan Hoy - January 2014

This is the first new piece of music going into 2014.  During a late night experimenting in the studio, I was thinking about a car accident I had many years ago in northern California on a road called Winding Way.  The road was wet, I was in my old beater of a 59 Thunderbird which weighed 2 tons, coming down a forested hill on a steep curve that dipped.  A bunch of kids had just got off a school bus and were walking down my right hand side of the road.  I felt the front end start to slide, cranked the wheel hard to the left to avoid hitting the kids, shot across the road smashing through a wood fence and sailing over a 35 foot cliff into a beautiful Japanese garden below which was part of a sprawling residential property.  Unscathed, no one hurt, I sat in the car in silence for what seemed hours……but only seconds……..and gave a prayer of thanks for being alive.  I don't remember how the story went after this memory fragment.  The music structure is inspired by the work of Robert Fripp, King Crimson and The League of Gentleman, groups that Fripp was a part of.  There are two counterpoint guitar scale patterns played on a Taylor 616 CE electroacoustic layered with non-looped solo tracks.  Vocals are not looped.  I hope you enjoy this Berlin club inspired Drum + Bass piece.

Bron-Yr-Aur

by Jimmy Page 

Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti

There are two instrumental pieces that I love and feel say everything about the power and beauty of the acoustic guitar, John Butler’s ‘Ocean’ and Jimmy Page’s ‘Bron-Yr-Aur’, so named after Robert Plant’s 18th century cottage in rural Northern Wales. After blistering and exhausting concert tours Plant and Page retreated to this country setting in 1970 where Page composed this piece which was recorded for Led Zeppelin lll but not released until Physical Graffiti in 1975, Led Zeppelin’s 16 times platinum 6th Album.

For me, Bron-Yr-Aur is an amazing meditation on the physics of music and the cosmic and spiritual potential and beauty music holds.

I Found A Reason

by The Velvet Underground

In 2012 I came across a re-make version of The Velvet Underground's 'I Found A Reason' on UTube performed by Cat Power. The video that follows her version of the song is of American surfer Daize Shayne. The original song is a much longer piece written and performed by The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed and John Cale) somewhere around 1970. What struck me is how Cat Power changed the song, shortening it by eliminating much of the lyrics and minimalizing the song to two verses and chorus' that repeat themselves but change slightly. I found it moving and powerful in its simplicity and emotional content, and watching the video that accompanied it which is in slow motion gave it tremendous poetry. What I have learned from this, is that interpretation is a thing unto itself, a unique artistic moment, completely valid as a restated or new expression of something created previously by another artist, something often classic or enduring in itself. The reinterpretation of this song made me think about how many classical artists for example have played Bach's music each with different interpretation. Glenn Gould for example recorded Bach's Goldberg Variations at the beginning and end of his career and they are both dramatically different, each reinterpreted based on where he was emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually in his artistic tenure. I was compelled to learn this interpretation of this song in the vein that Cat Power has reinterpreted it.