One Winters Eve

One Winters Eve is a song that originally began in the summer of 2010. I worked on a string ensemble part and it struck me as adventure. The strings were very cinematic and the base melody was beautifully simple, yet so powerful in emotion. Its the kind of simple melody that strikes a chord and transcends all other emotions at the time.

A couple years went by and the track had been shelved. In the beginning it evolved as a orchestral soundtrack sounding piece, but I struggled with the arrangement and getting it to sound right was just not working. However, I always came back to the base melody, the simplistic string part and I somehow knew the song would build itself up when the time was right in the future.

I began working on the song again, I remembered it, and all of a sudden one night the melody was on my mind, as if placed there again, in thought and emotion by some distant entity. The next day I remembered it again and again, and so began composing and arranging all over again. I had created a different song around that time back in 2010 as well, that I had recently finished and I was so happy with how the instruments sounded. Mostly I was happy with the effects and sound design that I'd done and I decided to apply the same techniques when working on One Winters Eve.

I could probably write a book about this song, it's beginnings, where it was and how far it's come right up to today. Huge drastic changes occurred in my life over the last few years and this song is a culmination of all of those moments within living memory, or rather a destination within those moments, an endless destination!

But, I wont be writing a book on here, right now, about it, however I can share some information on the instrumentation.

Strings...
Yes I love strings, there are a lot of strings in this song, pizzicato, staccato, full string ensembles, and PizzaGoGo, which was a sound made famous on Enya's masterpiece 'Orinoco Flow'. The sound from the Roland D-50 on this patch has always excited me, it reminds me of a stringed cello, that's strings are made of glass, as in thick fiber optics and obviously an electrified cello at that! But, this instrument I describe here, doesn't exist yet, well at least not on this planet.

Drums! Yes big drums, and snare drums, and deep bass, but not so deep as to where to overpowers the song. I've never been much of a fan of the overuse of simple bass, I've felt that if that's what people want to hear, well then they're missing out on the actual song itself. Although, using bass creatively can be an amazing way to present the music. On this song I use a new invented style of percussion, I call it "Space tennis ball". It's a sound that, as soon as it enters the song, basically propels the listener into a huge atmospheric outer space!  A surprise element, especially after a very soft and gentle intro.

Harp, is also used, this adds the Celtic and Irish element.

Electric guitar is used but with a very nice sound effect that may make one question "What instrument or sound is that?"

A Chinese instrument is also used, more on that later! A first for me.

Flutes are used, and they sound beautiful!

Majestic trumpets are also used

Grand piano is used

And about 15 other synthesized instruments

And finally an entire orchestral percussion is used as well.

So that's all I can share for now.

One Winters Eve, is a song that has huge relevance in my life right now, and it has had one of the biggest emotional effects on me.

Oh did I mention, it's the kind of song that wants to make you get up and dance...

~Gavern

~Below are some examples of the instrumentation used in One Winters Eve

Candles in The Wild ~ Preview Tracks

Below are some preview tracks and some full length tracks that will be included on the 'Candles in The Wild' album. The Album in total will have 22 tracks on 2 discs.

Candles in the Wild - More Revealed

Much of the time over the last four month has been taken up with personal legal issues that have taken a lot of the time that was wished upon putting the album together sooner. However these unnecessary delays have for some part been good. This is because through the emotions experienced, some songs have allowed themselves time to reveal more.

One such song is the title track Candles in The Wild.

Candles in The Wild developed slowly over time. It was inspired by Celtic Adrenalin at first, and then grew into a song that became so powerful in its meaning that it gathered fragments from all over the place. The Irish Nag Harp has always been a favourite sound, especially when tweaked. This was added, the song wanted a haunting revelatory feel to it, to introduce itself with a certain sense of knowing and long established wisdom. It was saying "This has been here all the time, you're only just now realizing it!".

Various versions of Candles in The Wild were worked on and some, lucky enough, were able to hear two or three versions in the arranging stage. Then the song took on a very majestic and riveting change or perhaps 'enhancement' is a better chosen word.

The original 'feel' to Candles in The Wild was a modern Irish/Tribal/Celtic song that drew upon traditional Irish Music and instrumentation, however using the electric guitar added a certain element of 'electricity' to it, hence modernizing the piece. This combined with ethnic and reverberated drums, tribal and rock percussion, and then, the Electric Cello pulse plucks, provided an engaging and new sound that had rarely been discovered. Yet it felt familiar. The layered vocal ooooo's added the sense of Otherworld to it, a spiritual dimension, which the song is completely based upon, it's just not a well travelled spirituality and so that's perhaps why the song wanted that feel to it. To be revealed, to be known, to be embarked upon.

Finally, the 'enhancement' is a large one. A fragment from 1988's 'Orinoco Flow' was added in the form of Pizzicato PizzaGoGo, a sound that is well known from that song. It's a sound I call "The Glass Plucked String Cello", because it conjures up imagery of a Cello to me, that is made of glass, smoothly shaped, with flexible strings that are made of glass, perhaps fiber optic material, that can be played and plucked to reveal a beautiful, exciting sound that is magical when reverberated. Candles in The Wild now also has had a rolling and building orchestral string section added to it.

And...

English lyrics, sung by me and the other 100 of me.

The lyrics just came to me one night, I was listening to the song as it was so far and I literally "heard" the sounds of the lyrics, the words, the meaning and the feeling. I had to write them down at once, it was another several fragments gathered in a matter of minutes and it was...brilliant.

So, now begins the recording of the vocals. A lot of time, energy and just the right atmosphere and 'feeling' and I'll know when that is, it's when it will be.

New Website, New Music, New Fragments

It's been a while since the last update, and most certainly, a lot has been unfolding and a creative surge of music has been dominating the time.

Firstly, the new website: www.gavern.com

It's an HTML5 website so this should make interaction more accesable for most platforms.

The vision for the new website is to provide an ongoing place for the interested to see, listen and interact. Fragments of sound will be added over the next few weeks. These are individual instrument "pieces" and many other different "sounds" that have been extracted from a full track contained on the upcoming album. Each instrument or sound creates it's own feel and unique emotion when heard seperately and so therefore this gives the listener an opportunity to feel that emotion, which will of course be unique to their own experiences in this life so far. The fragments give a hint to both the new songs on the album plus perhaps an added benefit for those who wish to experiment with sound.

Pictures, there are some new images of Gavern and also of nature and different elements.

More News on The Album


The album will contain new music that draws upon the following music, classical, orchestral, indie rock, modern celtic, ambient and perhaps world. Some songs will be uniquely tied with each sound and yet there has developed a complete thread that intertwines all the music together. Some songs have a heavy influence on vocals, others on instrumentation and then others which have both. One song however, contains fragments of nearly all the songs on the album put together. It's a beautiful, haunting piece.

That is all for now!

Keep on visiting the website, as the fragments will become active, one by one, over the new several days.

Celtic Adrenalin reaches No.2 on World Music Charts on Ourstage.com!

Thrilled to announce... Celtic Adrenalin has reached NUMBER 2 on the World Music Charts on Ourstage.com! About 60% of the listeners were from the North America region and the remaining 40% worldwide! We are obviously THRILLED and this is more than we could have hoped for!

We are incredibly excited to be finalizing the music and getting ready for the Spring 2012 physical EP Release!

More updates to follow...

Celtic Adrenalin Chart History on Ourstage.com

Celtic Adrenalin was composed over a year ago. It had a working title of "Cool Adrenalin". The song became the signature piece that inspired the upcoming release of a physical EP digipak in 2012.
A few months later it was entered into the World Music Charts on Ourstage.com

So far the song reached it's peak at No.4 in the World Music Charts on Ourstage.com making it the second highest charting song of Gavern to date. "A Simple Way" by Gavern went to No.2 on the Indie Pop Charts on Ourstage.com in early 2009.

Celtic Adrenalin has made it to the Specialist Finals for Ourstage.com for this year. Out of the four songs ever entered by Gavern, it's the first song to have made it into the finals for the year.

No. 4 is higher than we would have ever hoped for because usually the charts are dominated by Pop songs and often pay very little heed to Ambient and World/New Age music. Also it's a first on Ourstage.com for a song with Irish Gaelic lyrics to reach such a height, being that most songs entered are sung in English.

Here's a snapshot of Celtic Adrenalin at it's highest peak so far.

We are very excited for the song and we are thrilled that's it's done and is doing so well.

"Galileo My Friend" enters Ambient/Chill Finals Chart at No.22

Very, very happy to announce that Galileo My Friend has entered the Ourstage.com "Finals for Ambient/Chill Music Charts" at No. 22!

To listen it Galileo My Friend, go to www.gavern.com