Singles including Caroline Lavelle

... is a song from Lavelle's 2nd album Brilliant Midnight. I did a remix, this is a somewhat longer version based on the original recording. The music is by Caroline Lavelle and Clare Kenny. Siamanto (or Siamant'o) was an influential Armenian writer, poet and national figure from the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was killed by the Ottoman authorities during the Armenian genocide. Caroline sings in Armenian. More on this song on https://carolinelavelle.com/albums-lyrics

Siamanto

Wind on the Downs

Singles by Piftemaen only

2060 or so - the tune of the death row

was first released in November 2024 under my former artist name Jake's Jacket. This is a dystopical song I made as I felt an urge to say something about the subject of climate change. The guitar is by Michael Horton.

Scientists Warning is an initiative from thousands of scientists who repeatedly signed warnings to the global community on dangers ahead, due to climate change. Stuart Scott, the late executive director of this organisation, gave me permission to use their videos as raw material for the music video on YouTube

I won't take it

was released in December 2024 by Jake's Jacket also. The way it is sung reflects the dayly life of a poor and sick old man, unsure how to manage in the future, and also conserned about the younger generation and what ordeals they will have to face.

Also this song has a video, containing much illustrations made by AI.

is a song Caroline recorded together with her "partner in crime" Jacobus deGraaf, without having released it by the time I asked for permission to use it. They played 4-handed piano together, and Caroline brought in recordings from birds in the local graveyard. Again, I did a remix on a little prolonged version with sax included.

The lyrics is a poem by the same name, from British author and lyricist Marian Allen in May 1917, as she was 22 and lost her fiance in World War 1. Today thousands of women are in the situation described by Allen here.

Longing

Sometimes an idea is forgotten or lost in a drawer. Longing is such a piece. I made a demo of it in the late 1980's. Now it was time to make something more out of it.

The House of the Rising Sun

This is in fact an old traditional, a folk song of uncertain origin. Some think it has quite much in common with some songs from the 16th and the 17th century, both in its melody and in lyrical content. In moderne times the 1964 version by English rock band The Animals probably is the best known, as they made a major hit out of it. Since then, quite many major and minor artists have adopted it, leaving a little trace of their personality.

Caroline Lavelle took a totally new approach as she made her version, and then asked Clare Kenny to play bass on it. With Caroline's cool voice and cello, and Clare's groovy but still careful bass, it appealed strongly to me, and I wanted to play along with them. Caroline sent me the stems, and I used them to arrange another version with my sax included. For a long time our version was the most frequently streamed version of this song on Spotify, despite being over 7 minutes long.

Waiting for Rain

Caroline made this recording together with bass player Peter "Sketch" Martin, before rearranging it and having it released on Spirit, her first solo album, produced by William Orbit and herself. I was later permitted to do a remix, so I prolonged the original track and put myself in.

Seaplane Reimagined

On Caroline's 4th album The Raven, produced by John Reynolds, she included this song Seaplane, with my sax solo in it. Before that, she had made her own production and presented it to friends on her forum. I could not resist grabbing it, playing sax and doing a remix to send to her. Luckily she liked it. This was the first time I did anything like that, and from then on we have been in contact on similar projects.

Singles including Nising

Hubris

Carl Tomas Nising is quite a character. On his first album "Slumbersongs" he went against the grain with his short but intense songs that were like coming in from nowhere and almost hanging in the air. I was given permission to use a couple of these dreamy pop songs. Hubris is a bit spooky.

Sleepwalker

Have you ever heard of a happy and dancing sleepwalker? Nor have I. But Nising invented one, and here he is.