In the Silver Mines

I recorded my friends playing acoustic guitar and upright bass in a beautiful sounding old church.

What started as a demo has grown to be a full-on album of songs by John Siqveland (pronounced 'sick villain') called From St Clem, and this is the first mastered track. The whole record will be released on July 15th.

I rented some nice mics*, and recorded John on guitar and vocals, and Lucas Alm on upright bass. Then I added a gogama, an instrument like a bassier mbira with small hacksaw blades as metal tongues to pluck. With the theme of mining and work, it ended up sounding to me a bit like the tick tock of a clock, and the picking of a pickaxe. Brian Tester added some subtle synths and brushes to the track, and mixed and mastered it. I'm very excited about this project!

*good lord, Royers and Neumanns are amazing

• play
• pause
• min volume
• max volume

posted by umbú (5 comments total)

Nice work, sounds great. Your vocals?
posted by multivalent at 9:38 AM on July 10, 2022

Thanks! No, John Siqveland is on guitar and vocals. I recorded him and added the West African mbira-style instrument.
posted by umbú at 4:54 PM on July 10, 2022

This isn't usually my sort of thing and I'm not a musician so I don't have great context, but damn if that isn't a gorgeous soundscape you guys have created
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 8:48 PM on July 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Thanks for such kind words, I'm always feeling, Blue. Brian is truly a wizard at the mixing board.
posted by umbú at 7:34 AM on July 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Very nice! The guitar, percussion and bass have a good groove going on.
posted by offog at 7:05 AM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]