I'm still trying to
put into words how I felt at the recording and practise sessions.
You are very special and make powerful music. I'd like to
hear more.
Hilary
Keris' sister
Pusher of wheelchair
Mopper-upper-of spilt drinks
From: Frank Gunkelmann
To: smac@smacdonald.com
Subject: WorlDream-impessions at ConThirteena
Lots of people, lots of voices, high emotions...
It was not possible to stand the rehearsal without being
moved.
But the recording: goosebumps - shiver - gulp - takeyourbreathaway
- almostaheardattack - feelsogood - feelyetbetter - crylikeababy.
And it was not easy to stay silent for some seconds after
the last note, to get a good ending of the recording - but
then yeeehaaaah!
Filkers freaking out in joy!
IĞm looking foreward to do it again at FilkContinental in
Germany! (And looking foreward to hear the final version on
CD!!)
WorlDream project-Fan
Franklin
WorlDream rehearsal / recording at ConThirteena
Even before I had gotten to ConThirteena the crazy
idea behind this WorlDream project moved me immensely. I was
looking forward to the actual thing very much.
I had already heard the song before, as I had downloaded
the mp3
file. However, this song definitely needs to be sung by a
roomful of people, only then it get's the drive it needs.
I was surprised at how much of a difference it made! Due to
the song being a bit too high for me, I was doing a harmony
version throughout the whole song, which sounded ok.
The rehearsal session was ... ahm ... interesting. Apart
from being thrilled by the sheer emotion overload of the situation,
lots of people doing wonderful harmonies on the spot and Steve
standing on a chair in front of us playing the guitar and
looking overwhelmed (wonder why? I wouldn't manage to sing
a single note if a roomful of people would sing my own song
back at me!!!), I was most fascinated by the timekeeping issue.
Lissa did a sterling job on drums to keep the beat, but what
will happen at a con where you don't have a drumkit or a percussionist
person loud and insistent enough to "stop the masses" from
getting carried away? This is a thing likely to happen with
this song, as it just sort of "carries" you. I am not entirely
convinced that the mixdown of the different convention parts
into one song will go smoothly, but of course I dearly hope
that it works out (Well - I'm not an engineer, maybe there
are ways to balance the speed, unnoticed). However, I feel
that it should be made very clear before every recording session
that people should not necessarily listen to Steve's guitar
playing but to the drummer / percussionist. I am not convinced
that it works better if Steve uses the timing track himself
- I think it's too hard not to get influenced by the enthusiastic
atmosphere with, say, 60+ people in a room singing this song
from the bottom of their hearts ... - but that's just my feeling,
maybe I'm wrong.
The recording was yet again different. The atmosphere was
much more tense, but in a positive way. You can always "feel"
the excitement of the singers when doing a recording (which,
in my opinion, is a good thing, it gives the voices a little
extra "kick"), and this came together with the spirit of the
song, "being one voice", "belonging together" - it was just
fabulous. Chris Conway did some really good improvisation
on tin whistle - wow (or "groovy", as Uncle Chris would say)!!!
In the end, it was very hard not to break into immediate cheering
and applause but to wait a few seconds so that the tape could
be switched off.
Overall I can say that DOING these recording sessions creates
so much togetherness that the project has definitely fulfilled
its purpose, no matter how the final product will sound.
Katy Dröge
