The Story Behind the Project
What started out as a conversation between friends ended as a transatlantic collaboration, involving ancient stone places and 21st century digital technology.
Andy and Dan met a few years back, while playing music at an event of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval and Renaissance living history group. They quickly discovered that they had a mutual love of old music, sometimes done in new ways. They also achieved a level of mutual “musical comfort” very quickly.
As the years passed, Andy, having been a voice and music technology major at Ball State University, had pursued and achieved a degree in recording engineering. Having studied in both Muncie and Liverpool, he accepted a position as the head of the department and an instructor in audio engineering and studio production at West Suffolk College in Bury St. Edmunds, England.
Dan had left his full time medical professional position in the pharmaceutical industry, and had decided to work only part time in order to explore musical performing and songwriting in a variety of musical genres. After some e-mail and phone conversations, he accepted Andy’s invitation to come to England to do some serious recording work.
Over time, the concept of the album evolved: Andy and Dan wanted to do some very old songs, and to do at least some of them in the ancient places of Bury St. Edmunds. But instead of doing “documentary music” they wanted to shape some of these songs in a way that would be better understood by the modern ear, and also to include some original material that Dan had written. They exchanged song files and comments via the internet for some months before they felt ready to record, and Dan traveled to Bury St. Edmunds over Easter of 2006.
Despite all their preparation, some material was done with a fair degree of spontaneity. For example: the arrangement for Maria Marten wasn’t finalized until the night before recording it; the percussion on A Bachelor’s Life (hand clapping) was a last minute thought; Henry Martin (complete with rowdy pub crowd) was recorded at Moyse’s during the last few minutes of scheduled recording time, with a completely improvised arrangement; and the list goes on!
Andy and Dan knew from the start that some additional tracks of instrumental accompaniment would be added, back in the States as well as in Bury. But due to a last minute technical glitch Dan had to catch his outbound train without the master recordings in his hand. Twenty-first century technology to the rescue: Andy sent selected master tracks over the Internet, via FTP sites, to recording engineers in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Canton, Ohio, where our guest artists added their tracks. These tracks were then sent back to Andy in England, for final edits, mixing, and mastering. The actual CD was then produced in New Jersey.
The resultant collection is thus truly a combination of the old and the new; the sounds of old and new music, sung in an ancient place in England, brought to your ear with the best of electronic technology. They sincerely hope you enjoy White Swans Black Ravens.