Thursday 1 January 2009

Encore in E major

Encore in E major (mp3 file)

Solo nylon string guitar.

Here's a little bonus track for you! I was working on this at the same time I was doing my other song in E major, but I decided to use the other one, which I consider to be one of my best tunes lately, certainly one of my favorites from this project.

However, I think this one has something going for it too, although you can easily recognize some of my favorite devices: add9 chords, descending chromatic basslines. I was working on this one until the last minute before recording, so it feels right to present it here.

Bear in mind that this track is NOT included in the zip file archive containg the other tunes.

Hope you enjoy. I wish everyone a happy new year, and my thoughts go out to all of the people out there in the world that are not as priviliged as I am. At the present time, my heart goes out to the children living on the Gaza strip, who are innocent victims in what seems a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. Watching this stuff on the news makes me sad and angry. Oh how I wish that the people who have the power to do something about this actually would do something. Futile as it may seem, I still make a wish for PEACE ON EARTH.

Wednesday 31 December 2008

Hello to CILLA in CHINA?

Looks like I have a fan in China???

http://cuixilei.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_18.html

I wish I could leave a comment at that blog, but if you read this, Cilla:

Thank you!

Friday 26 December 2008

All songs for download in a zip file

http://www.fingerprintsweb.net/stornes24/stornes24.zip

approx 80 mb. 192 kbps. enjoy!

IF YOU LIKE THIS MUSIC, WHY NOT DONATE SOMETHING TO YOUR FAVORITE CHARITY? START HERE, FOR EXAMPLE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_charitable_foundations

OR A HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_rights_organizations

MY PICK WOULD PROBABLY BE:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Tuesday 23 December 2008

Song 24 in Fm/Everything is gonna be all right

Song 24 in Fm/Everything is gonna be all right

A little something special! I'll be doing an epilogue later on, stay tuned.

Merry X-mas everybody!!!

Vocals by Trine S. Kvaloe (that's my missus!)
Guitars by Per Stornes
Shaker by Mac Hine

Words and music by Per Stornes, copyright 2008.

Everything is gonna be all right

Tell me have you ever been alone at night
Feeling only darkness and despair
You're in so deep
You could not sleep, or even weep
And life was so much more than you could bear

I wish that I could come to you and comfort you
I'm wishing there was something I could do
But all I got are words
That you already heard
Still I have to say that it is true

For as long as you are living
You must never stop believing
Everything is gonna be all right
No more pain and no more sorrow
We will work it out tomorrow
Everything is gonna be all right

Song 23 in F major

Song 23 in F major (mp3 file)

Solo nylon string guitar.

I'm drawing near the end of this project, and I'm happy that I managed to pull it off this far, hopefully without embarassing myself too much.

This one has sort of a classical, christmasy mood somehow, more so than any of the other songs. F major to me is sort of a stately key. I originally fooled around with some sort of ragtime idea, but it wasn't working out. Instead I reverted to one of my favorite tricks: spread-out triad voicings on nylon string guitar. I've been doing so much steel string work so far, so it felt good to go back a little bit. I had to record the guitar through the built-in mic, and I was in a hurry, so it is not the most polished performance. A slight feeling of fatigue is also settling in.

I've got something special coming for you on the 24th, though, stay tuned!

Sunday 21 December 2008

Song 22 in Ab major

Song 22 in Ab major (mp3 file)

Two steel string guitars.

This one came out very spontaneously. I was thinking about doing something jazzy, but that didn't work out. I started fooling around with an Abmaj7 chord voicing with an open G-string, and the sound appealed to me. Then I tried a Db major chord with the open G string added, which yields a Dbadd#11. I would never have come up with these sounds in any other key, I think, although I've used the same device of adding open strings to chords in other keys before. The whole tune consists of these two chords, and I more or less improvised a melody on top when it came time to do the lead guitar. Very smooth sounding, but I'm not adverse to doing that once in a while. I wish I could have recorded on a real mic, but due to circumstances beyond my control, that has been hard to do for the last few days.

Song 21 in C minor

Song 21 in C minor (mp3 file)

Two steel string guitars.

And now, for something completely different! I just could not resist the urge to do this sort of polka-ish piece. It was done very quickly too, one take for each of the guitars, and then I just had to do a little bit of editing for the intro.

I'd like to dedicate this to Stig for his 60th birthday - hope you have a good one, flu or no flu!