Songs and ballads, old and new: Acoustic music from the 15th to the 21st Centuries, recorded in the historic environs of Bury St. Edmunds, England.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Traditional Folk, FOLK: Modern Folk



Details:
White Swans Black Ravens is a collection of songs and ballads: traditional pieces as old as the 15th century, new arrangements of familiar ballads, and original songs written in the 21st century. It was played entirely on traditional acoustic instruments, and recorded with state-of-the-art digital equipment in the Medieval / Modern market town of Bury St. Edmunds, England, where the echos of a tangible past mingle with the sounds of the present. Some songs were recorded entirely or in part in Moyse's Hall, built by the Normans in the 12th Century and still in use today as a museum. In the Great Hall at Moyse's, we created a precision acoustic "signature," then digitally applied this to other songs to capture its unique sound.

We hope that this diverse collection brings you pleasure, as the experience of creating it did for us!

Visit our website www.swansandravens.com for more information.


About Daniel Bouwman and Andrew Guy:

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 âmusical comfortâ very quickly. After some e-mail and phone conversations, Dan accepted Andyâs 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 âdocumentary musicâ 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 wasnât finalized until the night before recording it; the percussion on A Bachelorâs Life (hand clapping) was a last minute thought; Henry Martin (complete with rowdy pub crowd) was recorded at Moyseâs 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.