I can’t believe this is my 200th blog! Quite an achievement for someone who is not a writer! I remember my producer telling me that part of having a website was to blog and tell my friends about what I’m doing and what projects I’m involved with musically.  I was so daunted by the idea of writing – not only writing – but writing about myself.  How does one write about one’s projects, ideas and thoughts without focusing overly upon the ‘self’.  I have come to terms with one thing which has helped a lot.  Remembering why I started music in the first place – it’s what I love to do and if it’s able to transform souls and uplift others, then I have accomplished what I set out to do.  There are times that I observe different paths that other musicians are taking but I try to always bear in mind what is my goal and purpose.

For my 100th blog, I gave a gift of music called ‘Rose of Love’ and for the 200th blog, I’d like to share another gift from my upcoming CD, ‘Glimmerings’ (a piano instrumental CD) entitled ‘Reflection’.  Thank you for joining me and supporting me in all my projects.

You can listen to ‘Reflection’ below:

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Please feel free to download it and share it with your friends using the link below:
http://www.elikamahony.com/music/gifts

2012 is here and I’ve been thinking about my future goals for my music projects (I’ll talk more about this later). So far I’ve released 5 albums and it has been an incredible process of envisioning an idea, planning, reflecting, creating, collaborating and recording. Of course, it hasn’t come without its challenges. I love the way my dear friend and musician, Katharine Key, describes the whole process of making a CD and the details of what it entails in her blog.  She talks about creating a song and how much time, effort, patience and creativity it takes to produce a few minutes of music.  I highly recommend you read it to gain a better understanding of behind the scenes and what takes place for a song to be produced.

My most recent album, Glimmerings, is quite different from the rest as there are no vocals – just piano and 2 tracks that include cello parts (‘Realization’ and ‘Final Journey’).  It surprises people to know that it was the most challenging CD to record of all the albums released so far because the piano needs to shine on its own (no hiding behind the vocals or other instruments).  Playing the pieces required hours of practice.  There were times I would sit at the piano and rather than playing the same piece over and over like I should have, I felt compelled to compose a new one instead!  That hindered many of my practice sessions and prolonged the recording process of the CD.  Many of the pieces on Glimmerings are quite technical and there were times I wondered whether I’d be able to play them because of the amount of practice they required.  The key to completing the CD was focus and discipline and I’m thrilled I managed to complete it.

Some of the songs have a definite rhythm to them (Summer Storm, Reflection, Evanescence, Commencement), and I was encouraged to use a metronome but found it quite stifling at times because I was afraid it would potentially hinder the emotional feeling of the song.  In the end, with the discipline required, I managed to persevere in using a metronome and produce the emotion that I wanted.

I hope you enjoy Glimmerings.

As you know I’m really excited that Glimmerings is on the threshold of being released.  The discs have all been made and sent to the printers for packaging.  I hope to have it in my hands in a week or so.

The liner notes on the CD tell the story of a soul’s spiritual journey.  The journey is reflected in the titles of the individual tracks of the piano pieces.  These are the titles of the piano pieces below.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on what the titles could mean to you.  The full story is written in the CD jacket.

1.   Commencement
2.   Awakening
3.   Glimmerings
4.   Dawning
5.   Daybreak
6.   Reflection
7.   Summer Storm
8.   Realization
9.   Beloved
10. Enchantment
11. Evanescence
12. Final Journey

I will be giving away one of the songs on ‘Glimmerings’ as a free download.  To receive the download, please join the mailing list below (if you haven’t already) and I’ll be sending out an email in the next few days with the details:

In my last blog, I shared the cover of Glimmerings, my upcoming piano instrumental album (I have posted it again below for those of you who missed it).  The CD includes 12 instrumental songs, some of which were composed 10 years ago and some very recently were created on the spot.  For the spontaneous compositions, I would sit at the piano and play whatever came to my heart.  These pieces are very special to me because they were gifts of inspiration.  I simply sat at the piano and did my best to get out of the way so inspiration could flow through me.  It truly is a magical process.  I have shared one of these spontaneous pieces, entitled Commencement, in another blog for you to listen to and I share a little bit about the theme and why I composed it.

Glimmerings is being replicated right now and packaged in the next week or two.  It has been submitted to online stores (and will take a couple of weeks to show up on iTunes and other digital networks) and is in the process of being uploaded onto my new web store.  I look forward to sharing it will you when it’s ready.

Glimmerings, my piano instrumental CD, is almost complete!  I checked the color proof for the cover today to make sure the hues of blue are correct and was happy with the result.  We are now waiting for a sample of the CD disc to make sure the colors are accurate and then the process of duplication and printing will finally begin. In about 2-3 weeks everything will be packaged together and then we’ll set a release date.

I’m thrilled to show you the cover below.  What’s most exciting about it is that it’s a photograph of a nebula from outer space so all the colors are natural and gorgeous (a nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in space)!  There are more photos inside the package from other angles of the same nebula which I can’t wait to share with you. The photos are stunning!

As the CD will be released and sold in China (as well as in the West) it will be bilingual and so we had to follow strict Chinese duplication standards for publication.  It took time to find a design that I was happy with that followed the correct standards of the publisher without cluttering the cover with too much information.  The writing on the cover will be in a lovely shiny, embossed silver (the photo doesn’t do it justice).  I especially love that there is a little glimmering dot just on the ‘i’ of Glimmerings!  The beauty of nature is quite breathtaking isn’t it?!

I have learned to listen more closely to my intuition.  Today I had the strongest urge to record the vocals for a song I’ve been waiting to record since May of this year when I composed it.  This song is close to my heart because of the melody, the lyrics as well as the language.  It is sung in English and Spanish and is a duet with talented musician, Ali Youssefi.  We are working on this project long distance as I love his style of guitar and the emotion in his voice and felt that our voices are compatible.  Ali recorded the guitar and his vocals in a studio in Haifa, Israel and sent me the files to work on the vocals in Beijing, China! (How I love modern technology)!

So today, for no reason, I suddenly felt a strong feeling that I should record the song.  It felt like the right moment.  Often when I’m required to record vocals for a certain song and I’m not quite in the mood, the feeling and emotion don’t come so easily and it sometimes takes a long time to achieve the vocal results that I want.  I have learned to seize those moments when my heart wants to sing.  Of course there are some challenges in working with this spontaneous method but I’m very lucky to work with a producer that is flexible and understanding of my needs for recording (thanks Jarome for sacrificing and making me a priority today)!

As a result of listening to my intuition, today’s recording session went very smoothly and efficiently as I was able to connect with the words and the emotion in my voice was expressed with more fluidity and ease.  Here are the lyrics for the song which are from the Hidden Words of Baha’u'llah.  We are looking for a title for this song so please share your thoughts if you have any after looking at the lyrics below.

“O Son of Being! Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.” ~ Baha’u'llah

Meeting Ali in Haifa, Israel for the first time - April 2011