Several years ago I received a surprise phone call.  The caller said his name was Tim and that he was with the group Manhattan Transfer.  One of the group had purchased a Cd of mine titled:  Rio Amazonas.  He played it for the group and they really liked it and wanted to work with me.  Cool!  He told me that his partner Alan Paul would call me and we could go from there.  Allan did call and came over to the house.  We had a great time and decided to work on one of the tunes from the Rio Amazonas Cd titled:  Encuentro de Animales.  Allan wrote lyrics for the tune (instrumental on Rio Amazonas) and called it  “The Quietude”.

We went into the studio and I basically re-created the tracks I had recorded on Rio Amazonas.  The instruments I played were:  keyboards, sitar, tablas, tamboura, percussion and of course the sounds of the Amazon jungle I had recorded on one of my expeditions.  “Quietude” first appeared on the Cd :  “The Offbeat of the Avenues”    Happily they have performed the tune many times all over the world.  They recently did another version with  full orchestra that turned out fantastic.  Here are little snippets of the song.  I urge you to get the full Cds that have lots of great music.

Here’s the original track from my “Rio Amazonas”  Cd click here to play:  Encuentro de Animales

Here’s a little bit of Manhattan Transfers’ “The Quietude”:  The Quietude 

A little section of the same tune from “The Symphony Sessions”:  The Quietude symphony

There’s nothing quite as powerful as the raw sound of a Harley Hog.  In the last several years I have attended the “Love Ride” where 20,000 motorcycles gather together for charity and a fun ride.  I don’t personally ride but I have really enjoyed the show and wild “tribal” people that show up to these events.  The sound of 20,000 motorcycles revving  their engines is just awesome.  I always take  high quality recording gear to record the Herculean sounds.   I decided that I would make a Cd based on the Hog’s sounds.  There has really not been a Cd of this amazing machine until now.  I put together my Sonic Safari Music release:  “Hog”.  The project was difficult but tons of fun.  In addition to the raw engine sounds I decided to have a little fun.  I went to a friend’s house to record his hog.  I put my head close to the engine and used special binaural mics that are worn on the head.  The bike was cold and sputtered a bit as it warmed up.  At one point I distinctly heard a rhythm…a tribal rhythm.   When I got back to the studio I put the sound up on my studio speakers and sure enough there it was – an African rhythm.  Based on this little section of a cold hog warming up I created an amazing audio track “Primal Nights”.  At the start of the track you hear the motorcycle idling and then slowly I added African drums.  As the track progresses I add in sounds of animals, the jungle and villagers.   Below is an Mp3 audio sample of “Primal Nights”.

On another track I decided to create a heavy metal guitar tune using the cycle sounds as a percussion instrument along with drums, bass and crazy lead guitar.  Check out a little bit of this tune:  “Cruising Low”.

I think you’ll gain a better appreciation of this great motorcycle.

Primal Nights Mp3 click here to listen.                                     Cruising Low Mp3 click here to listen.

The Sonic Safari Music web page for the Inca Music CD has been updated. You can now purchase and download all the cuts of this fabulous CD. Simply visit the web page at http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/incamusic/ and click on the Buy MP3 links for each title. The best part is that the music is available for immediate download as soon as your payment is processed!