We are eternally grateful to Abbey Road Studios who have agreed to master Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador.  It is an honour for us and for the project that the studio that made the Beatles’ albums and has such an incredible history will be handling the mastering for us. Onwards and upwards!

Just started humming a Michael Jackson song in the kitchen and my b/f said ‘That’s my favourite Michael Jackson song.’ So I asked him what the song is called - Human Nature: “Why, why? Tell them that it’s human nature”. I’ve had it in my head all these years without knowing its title or that it came from Thriller. So I Googled the guitar chords and had a go at playing it - it is beautiful and sad and his voice is astonishing. RIP Michael Jackson.

Several of us in the Ginkgo Music team will be going to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London on the 30th July to see a new chamber opera about the relationship between Charles Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle during its historic five year voyage of discovery. The opera is called The Weather Man and Opera North’s blurb says: “As Darwin developed his theory of theory of natural selection, FitzRoy became an ardent creationist, and the two friends found themselves divided by the 19th Century’s greatest intellectual faultline. This fascinating new chamber opera by composer Paul Clark and librettist John Binias explores the opposition between science and spirituality through spoken voice, baritone, and string quartet.” I’m really excited about it! If you are intrigued by contemporary music responses to Darwin you may also be interested in the Darwin Song Project.

Oh Lordy, at last

Jorge Drexler’s producer is sending us a song tomorrow(ish), so they have something for us. Phew!

Plus we have a string quartet recording the backing track for Vania Bastos ‘The Rain Makers’ on Friday the 3rd of July; Ben is hard at work as we speak on this.

So we may have ALL recorded material in end of week commencing 6th July - how cool is that?

I’ll keep you posted

For Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador Brazilian producer Ricardo Severo has written a powerful and incantatory song for Vania Bastos called Os Fazedores de Chuva (”The Rain Makers”) inspired by an ancient Inca myth about Inti-Illapa, the Weather God who drew the rain from the Milky Way.  With no direct reference to the myth in the song, it ties in beautifully for me (scientist) with recent work suggesting that chemicals released by equatorial forest trees cause rain-clouds to form.  Clever trees.  We’ve been struggling to work out how to approach the recording.  Ricardo’s piano-based first recording begins with isolated notes suggesting raindrops.  Now step forward Benjamin Rous, Ginkgo Music’s very own web technician, whose day job is musician & composer with an interest in Schoenberg.  Out of the blue Ben has been inspired to write parts for a string quartet, or perhaps two violins and a cello.  I can’t wait!  The challenge is to get the recording done asap so that it doesn’t impact on the completion date.  I’ll keep you posted.

I’m writing to you whilst drinking coffee in a cafe in Canterbury - thumbs up to Boho Cafe, the very lovely people here very kindly provided me with the caffeine I needed after managing to slumber my way straight past the sign on the door that clearly said Closed.

So now I’ve woken up a bit, I thought I’d write to let you know what’s going on with the orchestrations for the upcoming CD release. In fact, I’m having a bit of a frustrating time of it - I’d really love to be fully immersed in the project; I love the music and feel very connected to why we’re producing this CD. Since I last wrote to you though, I’ve started a new job and it’s very full on.

I recently met with our producer, Peter. We listened to some of the tracks he’s recorded so far and some ideas we’ve both had for string sounds to complement the vocals and guitar. Valentin’s track is nearly finished now and Peter’s made a first draft of the strings for David McAlmont’s song. Peter and I agreed that it’s important not just to write string parts that sound lovely but also that match the structure of the song and ride its contours.

Won’t be long before we’re organising the recording session for the orchestra - I’ll write again then!

I am always a little apprehensive about recording new Ginkgo artists, partly because I don’t know them and partly because I worry my game is up, they’ll see me as I am, a fraud, a scheister who can’t get it together.

Maybe it’s all because I am Danish.

The Nextmen turned up on my doorstep, all 3 of them. 2 blokes and a girl, I figured, in a fight against me they would definately win but since we were here to make music I quickly forgot about that.

They were wildly enthusiastic and friendly, me a little nervous. I made them a cup of tea and after disposing of the wet tea bags in the bread container I showed them the flat. They walked straight into the living room and said hello to my wife Mel who made fun of their names and asked them if they were American (good to have a funny wife, it creates an easy vibe).

Time to make music and was blown away by their level of musicianship. We recorded all 3 of them at the same time live in my bedroom (idea for album title: live from the bedroom!!!) Brad on Fender Rhodes, Dominic on acoustic guitar and Zarif lead vocals. We had some problems with the Fender Rhodes, it did’nt cut through properly but we went ahead with the recording anyway, my attitude was a bit like, “hey it’s rock’n'roll” and I was keen to get something recorded.  They nailed the track first take and after fixing a few rhodes parts afterwards it was time for another cup of tea. I had a good chat with Brad (chat with Brad is a good rhyme), he and Dominic are also producers. Sometimes putting 3 producers in the same room can be a recipe for disaster and again I was amazed how well we were able to communicate without the typical schoolyard competition, I really liked all 3 of them a lot. Zarif is an incredible vocalist and in her field probably one of the best I’ve worked with.

And so it was time to finish, they left and I cleared up. It took me 3 hours to set up for the session and one hour to take it all down. Weird how it seems easier to undo something than to do it - it took several years to build the twin towers and a couple of hours to tear them down which is actually quicker than it took for me to setup my studio for the Nextmen.

On Friday I am going to my good friend Andreas’ studio to put the rhodes through a guitar amp and record it back into the track, then off to have a drink.

Hope this was interesting.

We’re delighted to announce that The Nextmen have been given the go ahead by Universal Music to record a new acoustic version of one of their songs for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador.

The Nextmen, aka Dom Search and Brad Baloo, have been producing, mixing and DJ-ing all across the world. Influenced by their eclectic DJ sets, their current and third studio album, ‘This Was Supposed To Be The Future’, revels in everything from reggae, dancehall and hip hop to funk, soul and rare groove.

The Nextmen were recommended to me by palaeoclimatologist Professor David Beerling back in June at the Hay-On-Wye Festival of Literature. David, whose book The Emerald Planet examines the role evolving plants had in shaping the atmosphere during the last 3.5 billion years, gave a brilliantly lucid and beautifully illustrated talk entitled Fossil Forests and Climate Crisis, following which I asked him, over a jug of Pimms, who he would like to see on our Ecuador album. The rest, as they say, is history… or soon will be.

Two years ago I joined the Ginkgo Music team to produce a 14 track CD with different acoustic artists.It took some time to get the Ginkgo vehicle into the right gear but I think we’ve gathered a first class line up.

One of the things I’ve found particularly satisfying on this project is the fact that the music is so performance driven. I remember our first recording session with Kate Walsh. She sat down, played the song four times and that was it: a real rock’n'roll moment dressed in singer/songwriter clothes (if that makes sense to anyone).

And Devon Sproule, who generously came all the way from O2 venue (where she was supporting Lucinda Williams) to record her track. I should mention we later added pedal steel guitar player BJ Cole on Devon’s track who agreed to give his time and playing in support of our cause. He also entertained me with tales from the road and I discovered he worked on some of my favourite David Sylvian records (David Sylvian and I once shared the same hair style).

Dobet Gnahoré and her guitarist/husband Colin came over from Belgium and we worked in more detail on this track adding percussion and even some backing vocals. Being a guitarist myself I couldn’t help noticing Colin didn’t make one mistake the whole day (how does he do it?).

Cibelle is another artist I was really excited to work with. We recorded her track really simple, voice and guitar. I love the recording we’ve done, it sounds really intimate and fresh. Great voice.

Who else can I mention? Martha Tilston, Nathan Ball, Alan Lacroix, Morgan Szymanski, Valentin Gerlier, they’re all great. I’ll write more about them next time. Right now I am looking forward to the session with David McAlmont who is someone I’ve thought very highly of for some time.

Best

Peter Larsen (producer, Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador)

About two and a half years ago I was teaching a piano lesson at the Conservatoire (Blackheath). My adult student (who seemed to have plenty of talent but very little application to his piano studies) showed me some publicity material for a project he was setting up. The project sounded great, but I noticed that they had no website so I offered to help, as web programming is another string to my bow, as it were.

Dominic gave up his piano lessons and I joined the growing team at Ginkgo Music, making lots of great friends and discovering some amazing music that I may not have otherwise found. Anybody that knows me will know that it’s not often that I say things like that - but this music is genuinely high quality stuff, whilst still being open and engaging.

Two years down the line and I’m in another piano lesson - or at least I’m in my teaching room at St Dunstan’s College waiting for my pupil, who is late. Whilst waiting I pull out my headphones and grab a sneaky listen to a track our producer Peter has sent me that morning, entitled “This is the Waltz” by Valentin Gerlier. I’m completely entranced, so when Georgina arrives (rather late and a bit out of breath) I just smile and offer her one of the headphones… “Coooool!”, she says and I tell her about the project and what I’m up to. I trained at the Royal College of Music as a composer and orchestrator and I’ll be adding some orchestral touches to some of the tracks on Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador - an exciting project for the summer! I’ll keep you posted how it’s going…

Ben