NOTICE BOARD
NOTICE BOARD
One Bright Pearl available to purchase NOW on vinyl
I am delighted to announce that my EP One Bright Pearl is available to purchase NOW on vinyl – and at 45rpm super-good quality… plus a stunning cover!
The cost is just £15 (+ £5 p&p in the UK) and in making a purchase, you will be actively supporting the development of the project. Here is a link to the order form. Many thanks indeed for your interest and your support!
The EP features 4 tracks – two songs (co-written and performed with the remarkable and amazingly talented up-and-coming star songwriter/singer/rapper, Addi P) plus two instrumentals written by myself.
The four tracks are:
Side A
All is Madness, All is Sane - ft. Addi P (4:36)
Dusk, 14th and 2nd (4:40)
Side B
Faces (Free From You) - ft. Addi P (4:28)
Garden in Summer, Steve Gadd Remix (4:45)
Featured musicians include:
Addi P – all vocals
Martin Ditcham – drums and percussion
Steve Gadd – special gust drummer on Garden in Summer, Steve Gadd Remix
Sinéad Walsh – flute and alto flute
Hannah Williams – French horn
Jonas Persson – bass
Recorded and mixed by Jonas Persson at Berners Street Studio and The Loft, Barnes. Martin Ditcham recorded by Jacinto Kawage. Midas Amazon Studio, Belém, Brazil.
Steve Gadd recorded at Wackerman Studios, Las Vegas, USA. Engineered by Rob Katz.
Mastering by Ed Woods
Sleeve design by Alastair Graham
Produced by Julian Marshall
A&R - Matthew Trusler (Blue Cloud Music)
Of the EP, Julian says:
In brief, the Garden in Summer - Steve Gadd Instrumental Remix track, which formed part of 1982/3 Garden in Summer project, inspired me to create more tracks in a similar kind of ‘filmic groove’ style – cousins, if you like, to the Garden in Summer EP. The result is this EP, One Bright Pearl. This is a special 12” 45 RPM Vinyl and digital release - my first vinyl release since 1983!.
So why is it called One Bright Pearl? This is a zen teaching phrase: a koan. A frustrated monk, seeking enlightenment and getting nowhere, leaves the monastery, heads for the mountains and badly stubs his toe on a rock. The bleeding is profuse. This immediately triggers an enlightenment experience and leads him to declare ‘all life is One Bright Pearl’. What does this mean? That the gift of life comes with the recognition that it must include all aspects of experience.
This also relates to Jung and the idea of shadow: that we cast-out ‘unwanted’ experience - personal, familial, societal, global - at our peril. The very danger that these qualities will come back to haunt us in even less palatable ways. But One Bright Pearl is no zen or Jungian teaching EP! There’s a playfulness evident, here… where the above ideas may simply infuse the songs and instrumentals with a variety of thematic flavours... after all, we live our lives in a kind of tension of opposites, don’t we..?
Addi P and I really hope you enjoy it!
Out now!
Garden in Summer Steve Gadd Remix
Garden in Summer, Steve Gadd Instrumental remix - coming soon
Hi all
I’m super excited to share with you news of the upcoming release of our Garden in Summer, Steve Gadd Instrumental remix.
It will be released by Blue Cloud Music on Friday July 7th - available on all major digital platforms.
Steve Gadd is one of the best-known and most highly regarded session and studio drummers of all time, recognized by his induction into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1984. Gadd’s performances on Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “Late in the Evening” and Steely Dan’s “Aja” are examples of his style. He has worked with an extraordinary array of musicians from many genres including Simon & Garfunkel, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Jon Bon Jovi, Bee Gees, Chick Corea, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Kate Bush and Dionne Warwick.
Here’s a link to a short trailer to whet your appetite!
As always, if so inclined, do feel free to share widely! Your support is invaluable and so very much appreciated.
Cheers for now,
Julian
The garden gates are open!
Friday 19th May saw the full release of our Garden in Summer EP, along with a specially commissioned animation by Ciaran Walsh. This EP features four spoken word tracks performed by the brilliant actor, writer, director Avigail Tlalim with music by me and texts by Gertrud Kolmar and Emily Louise Bland.
Following the EP release, we will be releasing an instrumental remix of the lead track, Garden in Summer, featuring our very special guest musician, drummer Steve Gadd. Steve is, as you may very well know, one of the world’s truly great drummers, known for his playing with many of the most well known and most loved artists: Paul Simon, James Taylor, Steely Dan and Chic Corea, to name just four. Steve’s understated approach to our instrumental remix opens up a wholly fresh approach to the track.
I am super excited by this project and am very excited to be sharing it with you all.
I also very much appreciate your support in spreading the word. If you feel so motivated to do so, sharing tracks with friends truly helps the project to move forward and find new audiences.
The EP tracks are released on all good digital streaming services. Catalogue Number: ORC100237.
Here are full credits, fyi:
Garden in Summer
Julian Marshall - featuring Avigail Tlalim
Tracks: Garden in Summer, Sunlit Hour, Canopy, Yours Is The Heart
Music composed and produced by Julian Marshall.
Texts by Gertrud Kolmar and Emily Louise Bland.
All tracks performed by Avigail Tlalim.
Performance director: Anastasia Bruce-Jones.
Garden in Summer animation by Ciaran Walsh.
Special guest on Garden in Summer instrumental remix: Steve Gadd.
Recorded and mixed by Jonas Persson at Berners Street Studio and The Loft, Barnes.
The text for Garden in Summer is taken from Philip Kuhn’s and Ruth von Zimmermann’s translation of Welten, by Gertrud Kolmar, published by Shearsman Books – used with permission and with grateful thanks.
Text for Sunlit Hour, Canopy, and Yours Is The Heart by Emily Louise Bland.
Cover art by Rod Nelson, ARE. Used with grateful thanks.
Guest post on The Culturium
I shall die as most will die; the rake will pass through my life
And comb my name back into the soil.
Light, speechless, childless, I shall stare weary-eyed at the barren sky.
—Gertrud Kolmar
The above quotation, taken from the German-Jewish poet Gertrud Kolmar, was what I read back in November 2007, which woke me out of a long creative slump and back into action—and in such a way, so I thought, that I was neither expecting nor seeking.
The occasion was that of visiting my cousin, Kate, and her husband, Philip, in Winchester, shortly after their return from a visit to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. They brought back a museum guide. I picked it up, flicked through and found myself stopped in my tracks by Kolmar’s quote. I don’t even know why. The quote is beautiful but “stopped in my tracks”?
Something sparked deep inside me and, before I left for home, I had determined not just to find out all I could about this poet of which I’d never heard but to set one of her poems as a cantata for solo soprano, two cellos and small choir: exactly the kind of attached, over-intentional thinking I’d generally advise my students to avoid at all costs! So, who was Gertrud Kolmar and how come I’d never heard of her before?
The Human Spirit: Interview with Roxanna Panufnik, Julian Marshall and Toby Young
You might like to see this interview that we did at LJS St John's Wood in March. Roxanna Panufnik, Toby Young and myself – hosted by Judith King. A real pleasure it was, too!
Julian Marshall and James Gilchrist interview each other
Presto Classics has kindly shared this conversation between Julian and James discussing The Angel in the Forest.
‘JM: What do you remember about the first time we met… when you came down to see me when I was living in Totnes? (One thing I remember is that you literally refused to let me pick you up from the station - insisting on walking the 1.5 miles - both ways. Impressive, I thought - unless someone had already warned you about the state of my car).
JG: Oh my! What a lovely question! Well, I remember the incredibly warm welcome, and the house, which seemed so much a home, and the artworks everywhere, and Arabella, and tea and chat and how enthusiastic you were about Kolmar and the whole project. Gosh, it was a while ago now, and so much has happened since. Funnily enough, I don't remember your car at all! And I like walking. I think I am not very good at accepting help, which is a big failing.’
Meet the Composer: Julian interviewed by Frances Wilson
Have a read of the recent interview with Julian on the Meet The Artist blog! It begins:
Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?
I was very fortunate growing up in a musical family to be surrounded by music from the very start of my life – before, actually, as my mother was a cellist and was playing a lot when I was in-utero! From a very young age, I’d sit in my brother’s room and listen to music for, literally, hours a day. And my brother being almost twelve years older than me, meant that, age five he was seventeen – so the roster could include Miles, Mozart, Stravinsky, Stan Kenton, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Buddy Holly, Basie… and on and on. It was all just music to me. Magical, incredible mystical stories that seemed to evoke experiences in me beyond my tender years.
Hear my work
You can hear a variety of my work by heading over to Media.
If you’d like to make a comment about any of the music you listen to, do please consider writing something in my Guest Book. Your comments are much appreciated.
Introducing The Welten Project
A brief introduction to #TheWeltenProject with founder Julian Marshall - a short film by Anastasia Bruce-Jones.