Hello friends and visitors. On this page you'll find various downloads, stories, and images all emanating from "Maestra's Studio-In-The-Woods" in eastern Cincinnati. Scroll down to hear some of my newer compositions. Also visit www.perfectjewishcouple.com and www.sharisilks.com for other types of work.There's lots more to come here too, so please check back as I build this site, tune by tune. My goal is to get at least one version of each of my compositions & produced pieces up (that's 100+ and counting... more bubble out every day.)
Enjoy !
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Kisses Me With Light --- a worldbeat jazz tune (c) Shari Lauter 2011 | Kisses Me With Light is my most recently completed tune. I wrote, engineered, and produced the piece in my studio in the woods, using Digital Performer 7.21 with the help of brilliant performances by several of my closest, way talented friends. One important aspect of the engineering & production is the chiaroscuro nature of the production: many or the tracks were recorded throughout, then I subtracted what I didn't want in specific sections, bringing the sounds from the dark fullness of many things happening simultaneously to the lightness and space of specifically shaped sections, each with its distinct character. The other key aspect is the assemblage I used to construct the lead vocal and flute parts. Each of those reflects inspired performances, giving me excellent raw material to work with. For the vocal, I combined pieces of 6 different vocal tracks to create one seamless lead vocal. For the flute, I cut apart an extended double chorus to create "musemes" (my musical word equivalent of
"phonemes", or sound nuggets that combine to form words). I then took
the musemes and moved them into different spots in the tune, ultimately assembling them i where I thought,
compositionally, they sing.
The muse originally struck me when I was hiking on a mountaintop in Idyllwild, California in 1994. Ice was glistening off the pines as it captured the full sun above. I developed the lyrics as I traveled the country, experiencing the beauty of nature in its many forms.
The final version of the lyrics you hear here was completed in the winter of 2011 after another CA mountaintop experience (this time at Mt. Tamalpais). This version features Kathryne Gardette on vocal; myself on electric bass, surdo (Brazilian bass drum, and metal taco bell); Mark Stucker on flute; Deron Neblett on drumset & djembe, and Jon Lattier on upright bass.
Amazing what technology enables me to do with the source tracks now, vs. 25 years ago when I was working on an 8-track reel-to-reel with a 16-channel, wishing I had 8 hands to reach all the knobs and faders at the same time on my non-automated mixing console. (For more info on my tech journey, see www.perfectjewishcouple.com/history.)
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"Kisses me with Light" was a big undertaking, including many great musician friends who contributed their talent to the project. In addition to the vocal version featuring Ms. Kathryne Gardette, I mixed an instrumental version the piece, featuring guitarist extraordinaire Glenn Ginn, Jazz Guitar Professor at Morehead State. You'll hear a significantly different second verse here, with a fluid string section and flute spicing replacing the second verse. Enjoy!
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Kisses Me With Light-guitar instrumental with strings |
| "In the Light of Truth" is a piece I wrote for SATB chorus, with 4 solo voices in addition to the full choir. The version included here was customized for the Congregation Beth Adam Choir (Loveland, OHIO), to create a version slightly under 2 minutes long, for inclusion in the upcoming High Holiday services.This reduced version is based on a longer work, originally the "Song for the 5th Chakra" movement of my choral piece, "The Chakra Cycle", premiered in 1997 by the Cincinnati Camerata under the direction of Christian Miller.This version represents a maturation of the harmonic structure of the pieces, as well as the approach to soloists (and combinations of soloists) while working within the very specific framework of the Rosh Hashanah service.In the service, the piece will follow a reading which focuses on self-reflection and pensive self-examination as part of growing from the past year into the one dawning.
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