Female singer/lyricist/poet sought for accordion-and-laptop project, collaborating with established electronic/experimental musician in Edinburgh
Under the name Belvedere Mountain Express, I have previously released two full-length CD albums on my own Pigeonhouse label. Apart from the vocals, the sound sources were all electronic, being a mixture of both melodic and noisy synthesiser sounds, and samples taken variously from the environment and from obscure foreign films. The vocalist/lyricist with whom I collaborated on that project has long since moved on to other things in life, so I am now seeking somebody new, for what may well develop into a rather different project.
Having recently acquired an accordion, as I had intended to do for some time, my most recent compositions are taking on a slightly different character. In addition to there being spaces for vocal melodies, there are also spaces for the accordion, either accompanying the vocals or alternating with them. I believe the combination of electronics, accordion and vocals will make this quite a distinctive project, and it may be interesting to play live, as a ‘laptop-and-accordion’ band!
I am not necessarily looking for an experienced singer. You may in fact regard yourself primarily as as writer of poetry or lyrics, but if you believe you can sing too, and would like to try out an unusual musical collaboration, please have a listen and consider getting in touch. I could provide the melody lines and you would only need to provide the words and voice.
Alternatively, you may already have experience of singing with a band and be looking for a new project. Although I still want to do all the actual music and production, I am happy for the vocalist to decide where on each track to sing and to come up with the melody lines. In fact this is how I worked with my previous collaborator.
To decide whether you might be the person for this project, please listen to the ‘fragments’ at the links below. (Ignore the titles, which are nothing more than codenames for abstract compositions.) Note that, since I do not yet have the right kind of microphone to record the accordion, these fragments only contain sounds of electronic origin, maybe with a sampled accordion sound in lieu of the real thing. Nevertheless, if you like these fragments and think you might be able to put words to one or two of them, either with your own melody or with a little help from me, then please do get in touch.
You may also wish to visit the Belvedere Mountain Express MySpace page, and also listen to the one-minute samples of the album tracks which can be found under the ‘listen’ tab of the Belvedere Mountain Express web site, to see whether you like the music which I composed previously.
The current working ‘band name’ for the new project is Parker Swells, although I’m open to better suggestions, and would even continue to use the name Belvedere Mountain Express if it seemed appropriate.
I live close to the centre of Edinburgh, so I would really like to collaborate with somebody who lives within easy travelling distance of Edinburgh, if not in the city itself. Commitment and enthusiasm are more important than experience, but it is vitally important that you actually have the time to devote to this project, meeting fairly regularly once a fortnight or thereabouts at my home studio. So, if you have a very busy lifestyle and might not be able to commit to doing music, this is probably not the project for you.
If you are interested in collaborating with me, please send an email message to info(@)parkerswells.co.uk or just reply to my Gumtree ad.
Thank you for listening …
Howard of Belvedere Mountain
Express
Edinburgh, Scotland
March 2009