The Continental Soul Searchers-In The Forest,CD,1998,Sweden
Here 's a wonderful acid mystic folk CD where 2 acid minds meet :St. Mikael and Peter Scion.Mystic stoned acid folk!Here 's what the 2 creators say about this:SOUL SEARCHING--NOTES BY PETER SCION
It was an odd time, being young and slightly confused in the small town. Hadn't it been for Mikael I would have been pretty lost I guess. Musically lost for sure. Mikael was colourful in a city of grey.
Forming the duo Continental Soul Searchers with him was a beginning for me. It was like finding a map to untrodden land. Suddenly I had someone to bounce off ideas to. I could explore my limited abilities as a musician. I was surprised and delighted that someone with his skills wanted to play with me. I realize now, many years later, that Mikael gave me space to grow, musically and, perhaps even more important, personally. And that is one of the most beautiful things one person can give to another.
When I listen back to the recordings we did, so many great memories come back vivid in my mind. Lots of laughter, oh yes. Imagination. Good things. For years, I wanted to see the best of those recordings released as an album; I wanted to document what was a beginning for us both.
Listening to the Forest studio recordings evokes the atmosphere that surrounded those sessions. Late night, the pale moon through the trees, sitting outside the small house where the recordings took place, listening to the sound of Mikael overdubbing vocals or whatever finding its way into the silent forest night. And I remember how we got the beautiful atmospheric recording we wanted for 'Season Song'--Lach'n opened the window in the morning and put a microphone outside and captured the sweet sound of the birds singing in the trees. And how he kindly agreed to add violin for 'In the Forest' and we ended up with a great solo to contrast Mikael's wonderful guitar wizardry at the end of the song. I think that's one of Mikael's best guitar solos on any record. I've wanted to learn to play like that ever since. And I remember how I couldn't back out of recording 'Little Girl Magician'--I told Mikael before we got to the studio that I didn't want to do it unless we could have a cello on it. Coming to the studio, I soon noticed that Lach'n not only had a cello there, but also that he certainly knew how to play it… and the song turned out to be a sweet little tune that was well worthy of inclusion on the album.
'Råd för en friskare rygg' is a spoof. It was recorded at Mikael's home on his old portable tape recorder that made anything sound psychedelic. The lyrics might sound exotic to anyone who doesn't know Swedish, but I assure you, they aren't. Or, to be more correct, that's what they truly are!
The last five songs on the album were recorded in 1993, when Mikael and I lived many miles apart. I did some 4 track recordings of songs I had written and asked Mikael to sing them. I was fortunate enough to have a positive answer from him, so I brought the master tape to Stockholm and he overdubbed not only vocals, but also tablas for 'Ring Of Gold'. Distance can't stop a friendship in music!
All tracks taken together show our little duo as a rather versatile one. I neither can or will deny that, even though it may sound like boast. You just have to listen to the album to know that we had some nice music coming from many origins. I hear imagination and, important as it is to me, I hear the sound of a friendship that opened so many doors for me. I hear the beginning of something that will never ever end.
It was an odd time, being young and slightly confused in the small town. Hadn't it been for Mikael I would have been pretty lost I guess. Musically lost for sure. Mikael was colourful in a city of grey.
Forming the duo Continental Soul Searchers with him was a beginning for me. It was like finding a map to untrodden land. Suddenly I had someone to bounce off ideas to. I could explore my limited abilities as a musician. I was surprised and delighted that someone with his skills wanted to play with me. I realize now, many years later, that Mikael gave me space to grow, musically and, perhaps even more important, personally. And that is one of the most beautiful things one person can give to another.
When I listen back to the recordings we did, so many great memories come back vivid in my mind. Lots of laughter, oh yes. Imagination. Good things. For years, I wanted to see the best of those recordings released as an album; I wanted to document what was a beginning for us both.
Listening to the Forest studio recordings evokes the atmosphere that surrounded those sessions. Late night, the pale moon through the trees, sitting outside the small house where the recordings took place, listening to the sound of Mikael overdubbing vocals or whatever finding its way into the silent forest night. And I remember how we got the beautiful atmospheric recording we wanted for 'Season Song'--Lach'n opened the window in the morning and put a microphone outside and captured the sweet sound of the birds singing in the trees. And how he kindly agreed to add violin for 'In the Forest' and we ended up with a great solo to contrast Mikael's wonderful guitar wizardry at the end of the song. I think that's one of Mikael's best guitar solos on any record. I've wanted to learn to play like that ever since. And I remember how I couldn't back out of recording 'Little Girl Magician'--I told Mikael before we got to the studio that I didn't want to do it unless we could have a cello on it. Coming to the studio, I soon noticed that Lach'n not only had a cello there, but also that he certainly knew how to play it… and the song turned out to be a sweet little tune that was well worthy of inclusion on the album.
'Råd för en friskare rygg' is a spoof. It was recorded at Mikael's home on his old portable tape recorder that made anything sound psychedelic. The lyrics might sound exotic to anyone who doesn't know Swedish, but I assure you, they aren't. Or, to be more correct, that's what they truly are!
The last five songs on the album were recorded in 1993, when Mikael and I lived many miles apart. I did some 4 track recordings of songs I had written and asked Mikael to sing them. I was fortunate enough to have a positive answer from him, so I brought the master tape to Stockholm and he overdubbed not only vocals, but also tablas for 'Ring Of Gold'. Distance can't stop a friendship in music!
All tracks taken together show our little duo as a rather versatile one. I neither can or will deny that, even though it may sound like boast. You just have to listen to the album to know that we had some nice music coming from many origins. I hear imagination and, important as it is to me, I hear the sound of a friendship that opened so many doors for me. I hear the beginning of something that will never ever end.
PETER AND I
by S.T. Mikael
We first met during a small local rock festival in our hometown summer of ´86.
Tall, dark-dressed, talkative and quite a funny character who seemed to have a lot of energy but not quite sure what to do with it. Apart from being involved in my own lonely musical world and recordings, I was a member of the dirty punky and funny rock group Dickie Dickhead & the Outcasts, but I was open to new contacts as I considered myself a lead singer and not only a rock guitarist. This guy, Peter, was a sort of singer/songwriter who, like me, had a lot of ideas and wanted to try new stuff. I was one of the few who had enough patience to cope with this odd guy so we talked a lot about music and how to make it more subtle. Both of us was rockin´ wild in bands but had a more introspective side which just had to be expressed.
I don´t remember details but somehow we joined together. He had a lot of lyrics, inspired by celtic folk songs and Nick Drake. I was more oriented in folk music from the southern areas of Europe and the Middle East and India along with psychedelia and crooner songs. What I remember is that we had a lot of fun, laughing a lot, recording spontaneously with lyric sheets all over the place, improvising. Sometimes I played guitar, tablas or bongos, but mostly I was only singing which was so exciting to me because I´ve always felt that I could be more concentrated and "be free in voice". We both did write songs but by this time (1987) I had my own group, the Twilight Souls, so I let Peter do most of the material. When we shaped our songs which, I think, were both original and different with an odd blend of our own characters, we dared enter the local Rock Contest and continued doing some gigs. It was a very happy period and the very first time I had the opportunity to co-operate and compose with someone else on musical terms.
By 1988 my band broke up so some energy was left over to Continental Soul Searchers which I didn´t think interfered with my own musical world. We recorded a lot of improvisations and proper songs, and we even tried a guy's studio (placed in a ruin, I think!), the first time for me, which was a weird experience. But maybe the most important thing with us was, that we talked a lot, and about everything in fact. We walked around like melancholic nature worshipping hoboes in a weird world that we never understood. We sure had some nice summers together!
In 1989 I left our town for Stockholm but we met and had sessions anyway. The peak of it all was during that early summer of `89 when Peter told me he had a friend, Lach'n Jonsson, who had a studio in the middle of a forest in the country, called "The Forest". We took a trip out there and recorded some finished songs. We did good, much thanks to Lach'n Jonsson who helped us technically but also did some drums, cello and violin. Great stuff he did!
And so did Peter, coming up with some beautiful songs and lyrics in the folklore vein that was an honour for me to sing. It was a dream and I can still sense the joy when listening to the material. That was my first genuine contact with a proper studio and something REAL came alive in me. Not only did we those funny, sweet, melancholic or moody recordings together but I also realized I was capable working in a studio adding different instruments like tablas, bass guitar, moog and Hohner Clavinet on to these songs which to a great deal, if I may say so, was the beginning of my own personal development and career as a solo artist.
After this we went separate ways and new things, great and small, happened to us both, along the way. But we still can share the memories of this period and sometimes, now and then, we see each other and do what we always have done… playing a homage to Mother Earth and her angels and demons...
From Tree Music website
by S.T. Mikael
We first met during a small local rock festival in our hometown summer of ´86.
Tall, dark-dressed, talkative and quite a funny character who seemed to have a lot of energy but not quite sure what to do with it. Apart from being involved in my own lonely musical world and recordings, I was a member of the dirty punky and funny rock group Dickie Dickhead & the Outcasts, but I was open to new contacts as I considered myself a lead singer and not only a rock guitarist. This guy, Peter, was a sort of singer/songwriter who, like me, had a lot of ideas and wanted to try new stuff. I was one of the few who had enough patience to cope with this odd guy so we talked a lot about music and how to make it more subtle. Both of us was rockin´ wild in bands but had a more introspective side which just had to be expressed.
I don´t remember details but somehow we joined together. He had a lot of lyrics, inspired by celtic folk songs and Nick Drake. I was more oriented in folk music from the southern areas of Europe and the Middle East and India along with psychedelia and crooner songs. What I remember is that we had a lot of fun, laughing a lot, recording spontaneously with lyric sheets all over the place, improvising. Sometimes I played guitar, tablas or bongos, but mostly I was only singing which was so exciting to me because I´ve always felt that I could be more concentrated and "be free in voice". We both did write songs but by this time (1987) I had my own group, the Twilight Souls, so I let Peter do most of the material. When we shaped our songs which, I think, were both original and different with an odd blend of our own characters, we dared enter the local Rock Contest and continued doing some gigs. It was a very happy period and the very first time I had the opportunity to co-operate and compose with someone else on musical terms.
By 1988 my band broke up so some energy was left over to Continental Soul Searchers which I didn´t think interfered with my own musical world. We recorded a lot of improvisations and proper songs, and we even tried a guy's studio (placed in a ruin, I think!), the first time for me, which was a weird experience. But maybe the most important thing with us was, that we talked a lot, and about everything in fact. We walked around like melancholic nature worshipping hoboes in a weird world that we never understood. We sure had some nice summers together!
In 1989 I left our town for Stockholm but we met and had sessions anyway. The peak of it all was during that early summer of `89 when Peter told me he had a friend, Lach'n Jonsson, who had a studio in the middle of a forest in the country, called "The Forest". We took a trip out there and recorded some finished songs. We did good, much thanks to Lach'n Jonsson who helped us technically but also did some drums, cello and violin. Great stuff he did!
And so did Peter, coming up with some beautiful songs and lyrics in the folklore vein that was an honour for me to sing. It was a dream and I can still sense the joy when listening to the material. That was my first genuine contact with a proper studio and something REAL came alive in me. Not only did we those funny, sweet, melancholic or moody recordings together but I also realized I was capable working in a studio adding different instruments like tablas, bass guitar, moog and Hohner Clavinet on to these songs which to a great deal, if I may say so, was the beginning of my own personal development and career as a solo artist.
After this we went separate ways and new things, great and small, happened to us both, along the way. But we still can share the memories of this period and sometimes, now and then, we see each other and do what we always have done… playing a homage to Mother Earth and her angels and demons...
From Tree Music website
get it here
3 comments:
Thank you so much it´s a big surprise
to find my request :-)
cheers Theo
awesome thanks for this one
simply beautiful !!!!!
thank you.
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