Exploring a New Style
Recently I spent about a week in Vancouver recording new songs and working intensively on other projects in Jarome’s studio. Opportunities to work together in person are rare, so this was a wonderful chance to finally record and finish songs we have been waiting to complete.
In a previous post, I mentioned that we will soon finish a Chinese spiritual CD with several accomplished musicians including Cheng Lin, Phil Morrison, Keith Williams, Jin R, Lily and Siria Rutstein. We just released Rose of Love about a month ago which will be included on the CD.
I’m excited to tell you about the newest songs as they are quite different in style from anything I’ve recorded vocals for before. The songs are a New-Age, Latin-infused, Middle-Eastern style. It has been fascinating recording for these songs as I have been exploring what my voice can do to suit the style. There have been challenging moments when recording them because the style is so different from what I’m used to singing and the lyrics are original so I had to get the feel for them as I sang them. We hope to release several of these new songs as digital downloads quite soon so that you won’t have to wait till we release the whole album.
One of the songs is about the struggle between our spiritual nature and our attachments to this world. I love this song because of the rhythm, the lyrics and the flamenco guitar which is one of my favorite live instruments. Eric Harper plays the guitar infusing the song with gorgeous rhythms on top of Jarome’s lovely composition. It has been a thrilling journey exploring this new style of music and incorporating harmonies and rhythm. I’ve been so looking forward to adding more percussion to my music – after all I was raised in Kenya which is full of wonderful African rhythms!
Tags: Chinese spiritual CD, flamenco guitar, Latin, Middle Eastern music, New Age, recording, spirituality
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August 1st, 2009 at 5:52 am
Dearest love elly
so longing to hear your new music. Can’t wait for its release. you have a starving world out here who need this kind of nourishment. Bless your heart my love
August 12th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Dear Elly,
I was listening to your songs this morning for the first time and I must tell you I was completely moved by your voice and your piano playing. We need more of this kind of spiritual music.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Thanks so much Jaleh and Jane for your encouraging words. Can’t wait to share all the new music.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:26 am
[...] Ok… so I want you to imagine this genre of music: dream electronica, mixed elements from ambient, trip-hop and classical orchestration… This is the kind of music I’ve been doing vocals for lately (in addition to my own music). It’s a music project that is very different from anything I’ve worked on before (it will actually surprise many of you). The album is called Beyondsphere from the VAST DAYS collection and is produced by Ali Kesanto. Ali found me on twitter and soon after decided to hire me to sing vocals on his music (I have shared more about that story on another blog). It’s amazing how opportunities come up in life when you least expect them sometimes and Ali’s twitter message came at a time when I was very ready to experiment with different kinds of music (Jarome and I have also been working on some new original music which I look forward to sharing more …). [...]
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
can’t wait to hear your new music!
January 29th, 2010 at 7:43 am
Very Dear Jerome
Thank you for your loving encouragement and your wonderful support of our precious Elika’s music!