JOHN HERMAN: Like several of the songs in this project, "Vanishing the Cold" is directly connected to another song yet to be released. What happened was that at some point the artists did something that created new ideas and instead of pushing forward, I decided to let different versions of the same song branch off into different directions. As you will hear on a future release, two branches from the same root can end up in very different places.

CHALLENGE #1: Improvise a thirty second vocal using no known words. In some way depict a nursery rhyme of your choosing.

NATASHA DUCHENE:

Images were taken from a PDF supplied by Natasha

CHALLENGE #2: Record an instrument of your choice for the attached song. The song is 120 BPM. Next compose a 5 line poem inspired by the song. Your inspiration is: a warm blanket in the cold snow.

ALEJANDRO SALOMON:
This track was a bit complicated to complete. First of all because I am away from home at the time, and when I’m gone I only carry my laptop and guitar and leave all other instruments behind. I didn’t know I was going to be asked to record a bass track as well. I had to use whatever I could get, so I borrowed my host neighbor’s two string bass. Yes, you heard right, two strings, because It was an old, unused, bass missing the D and G strings. And I had no time to look for music stores and buy new strings. So as you can well appreciate, the bass track is not to elaborate. That was quite an interesting experience. As far as the guitar, initially I was improvising different blues scales. Give it a more improvisational twist. However, in the end I decided to play simple chords with a little Latin rhythm attached to it. The chords are minor scale, so it gives the harmony a more nostalgic feeling. I guess this cold weather which I am not used to, makes me feel nostalgic about my hometown. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Poem.

“Calido manto en la fria Nieve”
Manto tierno, desvaneces el frío
Manto lento, me sumerges en paz
Manto viejo divino propósito, esencia
Tu virtud hermosa quietud, presencia
Dime como sentir tu calor porque ahí te voy a encontrar.

CHALLENGE #3: Record percussion for the attached song. The song may or may not be 120 BPM. Pay close attention to the changes in style, and change your own style to accommodate. Next add five lines of your own to the attached poem:

“Calido manto en la fria Nieve”
Manto tierno, desvaneces el frío
Manto lento, me sumerges en paz
Manto viejo divino propósito, esencia
Tu virtud hermosa quietud, presencia
Dime como sentir tu calor porque ahí te voy a encontrar.

OLIVER BLETON: We're fast approaching the unveiling of our work. The mp3's i've been getting are starting to resemble like actual songs. So I get my challenge for the week. Lay down some tracks for a pretty laid back song. My only instruction was to make sure i changed my groove at the appropriate places. Oh yeah, that and to write down five lines to be added to a poem or verse that was in spanish. I did mine in french. Anyways, back to the recording. I recorded some drums and added in some midi percussions. I will have to apologize for this recording. i only had a couple hours this week to do it, so it was a little rushed. The song didn't come with a click, so i added one, just to have an anchor while recording. The other guys had decent time, but there were some wobbly places. And, for some reason, Ialways sped up the latin part. So between trying to match up to the click and matching up to the music, and having that speeding up problem, it gave for some slightly wobbly time on my part. It was made even worse when i'd line up the midi congas (which were perfectly in time), and i could here myself flamming with them. Oh well, i just hope i didn't mess up that tune too much for everyone. I did try to keep that whole drinking-a-margarita-on-the-beach-during-a-sunny-day vibe going, so hopefully that'll still come accross. Oh, and, unfortunately, no pictures this week.

I like big butts and you cannot lie, you other brothers can't deny, when a girl walks in the place with an itty-bitty waist and a round thing in your face, you get sprung.

Later.

L'hiver est froid.
Mais il n'est plus ce qu'il était.
Les tempêtes de neige sont remplacées par des tempêtes de verglas.
Le printemps devient gris et froid,
Mais à chaque année, le soleil revient en été.

CHALLENGE #4: Compose a non-vocal track and five line poem for the attached song. Your track must continue the drinking-a-margarita-on-the-beach-during-a-sunny-day vibe. Your five line poem must be inspired by the following poems in Spanish and French respectively. You may write in English. The song may or may not be 120 BPM.

RYAN BAKER:

I keep waking up to new blankets of snow
This space belongs to me
What goes to hear only blind
Makes driving a little difficult
But I feared right from the first when I moved here,
this may lead to surgery
my adolescent on radial
can make driving a little difficult
then, you, have on at that
the gun in the old bromide
then, you, have on at that
the gun in the old bromide
stop because the foundation may,
at any
time

NOTE: Ryan also added the keyboard, card shuffling, crickets, and ocean noise. His full record of experience is coming soon.

JOHN HERMAN: I always knew that I would attempt to sing a lead vocal on at least one of the many tracks released with the project. For some reason, this became the one. First I freaked myself out by listening to music that I thought might be similar. My confidence in my voice got pretty low until some freinds told me to "sing out" no matter what. I sang... and then I made my wife, Danielle, as well as Jon Briggs sing backup vocals. I took lines from all the poems and mixed them together to create lyrics. I like that I'm singing about snow to the sound of crickets and card shuffling with the ocean as an introduction. It is like we created our own world.

Jon Briggs on the mic

Danielle Herman on the mic

John Herman on the mic

JON BRIGGS: ENGINEER'S NOTE: This is another song that ended up in roughly two parts. For the first part , we took robotmonkeyarm's ocean sounds and mixed them with Natasha's vocal part. Then the woods sound fades in and the second half of the song starts. I recorded John's lead vocal and then he, Danielle and I recorded backing vocals. John suggested that there be a "solo" of sorts, so I put down a disgusting fuzz guitar solo. It ended up being pretty time consuming trying to get all of the levels set. This song ended up having more tracks than any other song thus far.