Presenting ... The Changing Of The Seasons (waag_rel144) by George L Smyth

Each season has its own personality, some with aspects both loved and abhorred. However, these seasons do not start and end at specified times, but fold into one another, at times with fits and starts. We start awaiting a season to begin, then experience the season, and finally we feel it slip away.

The Changing of the Seasons is a set of four pieces, each representing a season, and each piece having three parts - awaiting the season, the season, and following the season. Each of the twelve segments offers its own theme, its own representation of the time of year, as it relentlessly moves through our lives.

While each of the four pieces can be played in any sequence, or alone, the recommendation is to start with Spring and end with Winter, like a year waking up and moving through to the point where it again falls asleep, restarting the cycle.

- George

On what is a miserable winter's day, I am proud to release the latest album from George L Smyth, entitled "The Changing Of The Seasons (waag_rel144)".

This is an album that could so easily be the soundtrack to a film ... it features engaging orchestration and scoring, and an effervescent expression that really helps to convey the nuances of the four seasons.

I find this album to be utterly captivating and have had it on repeat as well as interspersed with other modern classical work. I personally think it sits nicely with the work of Max Richter and Leonard Roseman; and makes me dream of the sounds Smyth could make with access to a full orchestra.

This is not Smyth's first release with weareallghosts, his album "Winterfylleth" remains a fave for this time of year and "The Changing Of The Seasons" is definitely cut from the same cloth: warm, accessible modern classical music with a minimalist edge and a romantic tinge.

I really hope you enjoy this album as much as I have and will, no doubt, continue to do over the years.

As before, my thanks goes to the wonderful waag community for their generous support.

- Thomas

Presenting ... The Pleiades and other Astral Overtones (waag_rel119) by George L Smyth

Image: "Pink Pleiades" by NASA / JPL-Caltech - PIA09262

After the warm reception of "Winterfylleth (waag_rel111)", I was eager to work with George L Smyth again and was delighted when he submitted this five-track album that was inspired by the heavenly bodies that easily define our concept of space: we look up in the night sky and can see the Bears or Orion's Belt, and in doing so we dream of what it would be like to be there.

Space has always captured our imagination as humans ... the pioneering spirit of adventure, the unspoilt beauty and the unforgiving environment, that otherness that we so desperately seek ... enhanced by the wonderful imagery produced by the likes of NASA and the futuristic vision of our favourite sci-fi writers and illustrators.

And it is with this inspiration that George L Smyth has created such a wonderful album. "The Pleiades and other Astral Overtones (waag_rel119)" is a fitting addition to the weareallghosts body of work and to Smyth's canon too, an hour or so of the most delightful escapism where the listener is transported to the very bodies the tracks are titled after.

This is truly music of the spheres ... of the constellations ... of the planets and moons above and around us. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.

As before, my thanks goes to Cousin Silas, Kevin Lyons & Tim Jones, and to Warren Daly … Adrian Nicholls ... Drew Miller ... and the wonderful waag community ... for their generous support. 

A 320kbps version of this release will be available, for free, over on Archive with a lossless version available here on Bandcamp for ‘pay what you want’.

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https://archive.org/details/waag_rel119

Presenting ... "Winterfylleth (waag_rel111)" by George L Smyth

Now here's something new: some modern classical music for you on weareallghosts.

I was approached by George L Smyth a wee while ago now with a couple of the tracks that now appear on this album. His email came out-of-the-blue (I'm not a big fan of unsolicited contact) but as he was a friend of Rebekkah Hilgraves and had featured on her show, I was willing to take time out to listen to what he had ... and I am so glad I did!

"Winterfylleth" is the Old English name for the month of October, it marked and celebrated the beginning of winter; and on "Winterfylleth" George L Smyth brings four pieces that each paint a picture of the coldest time of the year.

We kick things off with the warm, nostalgic minimalism of "Leaving My Thoughts"; it is a delightful piece of longform soundscaping that aptly soundtracks the more contemplative aspect of time spent indoors in winter.
From there we move to longest piece on the album, "Forest And Clearing", a soft, delicate piece that could so easily describe the first flurries of snow in a silent Narnia-esque forest at dusk;
After stepping quietly from the Clearing, we have "A Week Unknown" where there is a greater sense of urgency. Could these chords describe the bustle at the shops in the run up to Christmas, who knows? But there is a real change in tempo, a tangible sense of intention and of excitement portrayed.
We then come to the last track, the title track of the album: "Winterfylleth". It is a warm, confident piece of music; one that conveys a sense of making it, the work is over and it is now time to rest.

I really have enjoyed listening to this album and I hope you will too? It reminded me, in places, of the exquisite minimalism of Henryk Gorecki with the odd flourish that did put me in mind of David Alexrod. On  "Winterfylleth" George L Smyth has really demonstrated his musical talent and I look forward to more from him in the future. Welcome to waag!

As before, my thanks goes to Cousin Silas ... Warren Daly … Kevin Lyons ... Adrian Nicholls ... Drew Miller ... and the wonderful waag community ... for their generous support.
A 320kbps version of this release will be available, for free, on Archive with a lossless version available here on Bandcamp for ‘pay what you want’.

- Thomas

https://archive.org/details/waag_rel111