Song: Old Man and the Sea II

This track would go into our upcoming “The Mangrove Tree” album. Thanks to panu moon for granting me permission to release this under a CC-BY license.

OLD MAN AND THE SEA II

Old Man and the Sea II by Ivan Chew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore License. Please credit to “Ivan Chew – MyRightBrain.wordpress.com“. And I’d appreciate if you also credit “panu moon – www.myspace.com/2panumoon2“.

This song was inspired by panu’s celtic-sounding guitar piece.

panu moon is an Atlanta-based songwriter, and popular ccMixter contributor. I’ve never met him but I kind feel like we’re friends.

I got to know him from our interactions at ccMixter. He gave me some tips on mixing and mastering tracks.

Making friends from music.

This is what it’s all about.

man + sea
Originally uploaded by sgrace

Additional details of this track at MyRightBrain.

~ Ivan

Song: Good-night Not Good-bye II (2009)

Another collaborative effort made possible with Creative Commons and Public Domain materials. And most of all, some very talented and generous people.

I’m dedicating this song to a perfect stranger, who’s a close kin of this friend.

It’s also a dedication to all those who’ve experienced the very human feeling of loss and grief. And of closure and remembrance.

It’s never Goodbye.

GOOD-NIGHT NOT GOOD-BYE v2.1

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore. Download at ARCHIVE.ORG. As long as you link back to this post, feel free to copy/ file-share/ distribute/ remix this track. Please credit to “Ivan Chew – MyRightBrain.wordpress.com” and the following authors:

• Dan O-Connor’s instrumental track, “Love Letters” (by Dan O’Connor – Free Music By DanoSongs.com – licensed under a Creative Commons ATTRIBUTION 3.0 US license).
• Words from two poems: “CAELl” by F. W. Bourdillon & “GOOD-NIGHT” by C. C. Fraser Tytler. See: http://www.archive.org/details/lovesoldsweetso00unkngoog – Public Domain; Not In Copyright.
• Vocals by MyVanillaWorld – myvanillaworld.wordpress.com

Peace. Originally posted by .m for matthijs under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Huge thanks to MyVanillaWorld for providing her excellent vocals to this earlier track. Details, here.

~ Ivan

New Beginning 2009 – Music Video

This Music Video is dedicated to Siena Malia Silverburn. I wonder if YouTube will still be around by the time you’re old enough to make sense out of this. Anyway, welcome to the World! BTW, you have very cool parents. See if you can spot your mommy in the video


LINK

This MV is based on the song “New Beginning (2009)” by “Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew. StarfishStories.wordpress.com“. This MV is licensed under a Creative Commons ATTRIBUTION 3.0 Singapore license. You are free to use/ distribute as long as you credit this MV as follows:
======================
“New Beginning 2009 (Music Video)”
by Ivan Chew – MyRightBrain.wordpress.com
======================
Feel free to email me if you’ve further questions. RamblingLibrarian@gmail.com. The full video can downloaded at www.archive.org.

Not least, my thanks to the generosity of the following (credits in order of appearance in the MV):

1. “Summer Play Time“. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
2. “Driving under the Golden Gate Bridge“. By: Ivan Chew. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore
3. “Josh Street Movie“. Creative Commons license: Attribution 2.0
4. “Graffiti artists – Street Art in LA“. Public Domain.
5. “Festival of India – Extras“. By: bh Ezequiel. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
6. “Streets of San Francisco: view from a tram (2008)“. By: Ivan Chew. Creative Commons license Attribution 3.0 Singapore
7. “A tuk-tuk rallye in streets of the Bangkog city, Thailand. (2002)“. By: “amateur creator”. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
8. “Pattaya in the night. Amateur short movie. (2001)“. By: “amateur creator”. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

~ Ivan

Songcraft is Two!

Congrats to the folks at Songcraft.

They’re TWO!

Celebrated their 2nd anniversary recently.

[Source: Songcraft.wordpress.com]

Looking good, Jeremy. Looking good.

Jeremy’s the founder of Songcraft. As he wrote in the songcraft blog post, he started the group and basically let it evolve. He did share with the group, after one Songcraft meetup (when I was a regular attendee), that he had some plans. I sensed that he’s a systematic guy with some sense of where to take Songcraft. But what’s unknown is the turnout (including who were the people who might attend) and the sustainability.

Some things one will never know until it’s tried.

And so far, Songcraft’s been a pretty cool proving ground/ support group for those interested in showcasing and performing their songs in front of a strangers.

Personally, I think they ought to try starting a regular podcast series for songcraft. I know some of the regular Songcrafters, including Jeremy, are Mac users.

Hey people! GarageBand!!!

~ Ivan

Song: The Mangrove Tree v2

We dedicate this song to our friends A. & S.

“Live long and prosper”.

THE MANGROVE TREE v2

Listen/ Download the higher quality track at www.archive.org.

• Original composition: Adrian Loo
• Guitars: Adrian Loo
• Re-arrangement, additional instruments & sound engineering: Ivan Chew
• Photo credit: Adrian Loo www.flickr.com/photos/lekowala

The Mangrove Tree v2 by Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at starfishstories [at] gmail.com.

This song was composed and performed entirely by Adrian. He emailed the initial version to Ivan, who decided to do a little re-arrangement, editing, remixing and sound engineering (based on the ideas expressed in the song). Adrian also specifically asked for the Gamelan to be incorporated (you hear bits of that at the start, middle and the end).

Here’s Adrian’s original version:

Adrian elaborates:

… I was mucking around with my guitar the other day to discover some tune that would come naturally to me.

I picture a mangrove tree out in the open sea away from the main mangrove forest. its about existence and being true to oneself however odd/insignificant one may be.

We live our lives trying to hard to be significant to have a certain ascendancy. I think the fact is, everyone is interconnected so like the insignificant mangrove tree, one may find a mudskipper, a tree-climbing crab on its back, humans using it for charcoal, the stilt-roots as hiding places for fry.

The mangrove is salt-tolerant and pan-tropical, it has to adapt to the anoxious silt substratum by aerial roots that have to come out of the oxygen poor mud to take in oxygen for respiration. The mangrove is also viviparous, meaning the seeds are germinated on the parent tree and are already miniature plantlets waiting to be dispersed and once they take root, development is already underway.

“Anoxious”, “substratum”, “viviparous”… Heh, Adrian’s PhD in biology shows, doesn’t it?

Enjoy!

A Singapore Starfish Story: Su The Bandit

There’s many things I can write about “Su The Bandit” aka Carrie.

First, I’ll let her music speak for herself – please listen to her songs here.

One thing I’m careful is not to give too much away about Carrie. I’m only mentioning things which she has (gradually) made public.

Carrie’s starfish story
I’m not sure how she discovered my other blog. But she did, back in Aug 07, and left me a comment for this song.

Naturally I introduced her to Songcraft. Over a few emails, I learned about why she wrote and composed her songs. Turns out she’s a working mum. I can say this now because she’s blogged about why she recorded her songs and why she continues to make music.

To be honest, her comment first appeared like spam! I mean, the comment simply said “Holy potato. Could I link up with you?” lol

But I clicked through the URL she left in the comment, which led me to her music.

I’m not ashamed to say that I fell in love with her music the first time I heard it.

Like how one could fall in love with life; when one looks at a flower. Or clouds in the sky on a quiet afternoon.

Carrie’s music is nothing like what Adrian and I compose. Her work has a more jazzy feel. But at some level, I think it’s the same.

Contemplative. Personal.

Most of all, I find myself connecting with her music because it seemed to me like her Starfish Stories, through music.

At her Myspace page, she says:

Hi. I have never played in a band but I like writing songs. Between jobs, I had a midlife crisis of sorts contemplating things I did, things I never did. Lost loves. Yoof. First love. Time. How quickly it passes. I came up with a list of things that I wanted to do before I conk off and decided that I would just do them without thinking of the consequences or feeling malu about it.

Thanks, Carrie.

For throwing your starfish into the sea.

~ Ivan

Airani digs our Starfish Stories songs

Recent email from a mutual friend:

Hey Adrian, Ivan,

I put on my speakers and turned on my iTunes to cancel the background noise in the office. The starfish stories tracks came up and I realise that some of them are pretty soothing as background music!

I hadn’t paid attention to which ones are specifically soothing. I’ll try to take note next time.

Cheers,
Airani

Thanks, Airani!

Heh, some musicians might take offense at their music being classified as “background”.

That’s not the point, I feel.

Our friend found the music soothing.

That’s all that matters.

~ Ivan

A Quiet Afternoon

A Quiet Afternoon

Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

Did this song quiet a while ago. It was a raw version with just 2 guitar tracks and I passed it to Ivan to add to it. Since he bought a bass, I thought it would be nice to fill the background with some lower notes. He also added some nice acoustic guitar fills to it.

Its a mood piece. I did it while meditating on a quiet afternoon. Reaching mindfulness and letting my thoughts drift across my mind. While I sought and felt the peace, fleetingly random thoughts would punctuate the mood. It was mindfulness and thoughtfulness rolled into one. Strangely this song also evokes a heavy pensiveness. I think those were worry-laden days when my wife was pregnant with Leea.

I have been experimenting with a pure guitar sound and exploring a more unique style than the usual drums, bass, rhythm and melody/lead kind of structure. I think it started with tunes like Seabreeze. I don’t really work with a basic beat but rather let the tune carry its own rhythm. Its then over to Ivan to interpret the rifts and then do some magic to it. Its a bit more challenging for Ivan but I am pretty happy with what he’s done to improve it and yet retain the sound. Finding something that’s straight from the heart is a purer expression of both roots, culture and mood. So the music although a bit raw is more close to home for me.

It took me a while to post this as I was finding the right moment… [Ivan rolls eyes]. It had to be a quiet afternoon.. But it isn’t really quiet today but I think I have settled into a kind of peaceful mindful state. Something hard to achieve but I did it. The secret: I haven’t watched TV since Monday. Its only three days but what a difference it makes. My time has not been stolen and I can savour each moment, each crying moment from Leea more intensely and mindfully. TV steals time. Ahhh.. its raining now and the sound of the rain is soothing.

A song dedicated to my bandmate Ivan for his patience and philosophy.

~ Adrian

Lunarin, at the Esplanade

Free concert.

If you weren’t there, too bad.

You missed a nice, tight, solid punchy gig.

Their brand of Gothic Rock.

I like.

My fav Singapore rock band.

And apparently a favourite of quite a number of people too.

As always, your sets seem so short lah.

Can’t believe the 45 minutes rocked past just like that.

Nice one, Lunarin.
[Update: Youth.SG interviews Lunarin, 27 May 08]

~ Ivan

Mash-up: One World (2008) – Firdaus on vocals

Woah.

Firdaus blew me away with his version (with vocals) of One World, posted just a few days ago.

Listen!
ONE WORLD (Firdaus on Vocals)

Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

I say!

He’s done a very nice job doing a this remix. He’s edited the start slight. I know, ‘cos I played the song but you probably wouldn’t have detected it.

Firdaus was worried that I might be unhappy or something; that he might have messed up my song. Dude, why would I be? It’s all in the spirit of collaboration.

Besides, the song is released under the attribute-SHARE-ALIKE-noncommercial creative commons license.

Good or bad mash-up, I wouldn’t have minded.

BUT IT IS GOOD, and I. Am. Simply. LOVING IT.

I’m bobbing my head as I listen to his version. It’s like, he GETS what I was trying to convey through the song and the choice of title.

One World.
One Family.
One Life.

His vocal melody aptly expressed what I had in mind but wasn’t able to sing. AND THEN SOME.

Man, I’m having the goosebumpy feeling.

Mash-ups like this is precisely what I (and I’m sure Adrian as well) had hoped to achieve, when we decided to release music online.

Thanks, Firdaus (and also to those who bothered to listen and leave comments to the song).

One World.

~Ivan