This is my fourth album released March 1, 2024. My general style is prog rock but I flirt with other styles as well. I write all my own music but for vocal tracks I cooperated on this album with two singers who receive writing credits for the vocal melodies they create. Next to that I cooperated with a pianist, a violin player, a three piece horn section and two bassists.
The general theme of the Solidarity album is, you guessed it, human solidarity at both the individual and at a global level.
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You can find all the lyrics on:
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https://longtallj.bandcamp.com/
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Thank you so much!
Below you find short descriptive notes per track:
1 Your Soul
A kind of dramatic song about a woman, in perhaps Kyiv, who her partner is at the front in Eastern Ukraine. I guess the reader can appreciate what that means for both of them I don’t need to tell you. The vocal style in the beginning is a bit like from a musical and the latter part is singer/songwriter and folk style. The violin solo is like the central emotional part.
2 Ukraine
This track highlights the suffering, destruction and stress due to the full scale war in Ukraine. The lyrics are very powerful and are a protest against the continuous air war against Ukraine. At the end we hear the air alarm going. When Mariia sings “hell” we simultaneously hear a machine gun.
3 Alt Funk
This track is a happy tune and Alt Funk refers to alternative funk. The groove is jolly and as there are no lyrics the guitar and horns mostly carry the melody. The bridge sounds a bit like world music and resembles a little internal journey. This is party time.
4 Turandot
This track is like an operatic, cinematic journey with different movements starting and finishing with roughly the same vocal part. In between the beginning and the end are the various connecting movements. The music is typical prog style. Almost like a fairy tale with a touch of musical.
5 All About You
The track on the album that has more a traditional song structure in comparison with the other tracks. Although there are a few prog jokes in it, the catchy vocal lines and punchy rhythm give it more commercial potential. This track is being pitched for Spotify playlists.
The story is about a noble warrior lady who of course is involved with a man and, although having her doubts, is very brave and rides on her horse (a mare) into battle. Although divided by her inner thoughts, in the end she feels her own strength, combined with those of her man, inside her, making her super strong and invincible. Think of “Joan of Arc.
6 Solidarity
This is the title track of the album. With a mixture of electronics and traditional guitar and bass it creates the perfect background for the spoken word that is included in two separate parts. The solidarity the track is about, relates to small scale as well as global solidarity. It can be solidarity for your neighbour, your next door country or anything at a global level.
7 Long Tall Boots
The most rocky track on the album. With a prog undertone. The lyrical theme is about a woman being both in love and feeling restrained by her partner and the boots are the metaphor for her walking away and acquiring more freedom.
8 Pie in The Sky
An “airy” and “light” track with an intro taking us to New Orleans. Perhaps a little fairy tale about a red haired fairy that flies to beautiful places around the earth and explores everything that is there to see while singing beautiful songs and performing good deeds.
9 Still I Wanna Know
A part duet about a classical love story with an instrumental bridge in prog style. Following the lyrics it shouldn’t be too hard to grasp the story and even whistle along. During the bridge we can be lured away into a fantasy world to escape the heartache.
10 Floydian Blues
Breathing the atmosphere of Pink Floyd, this is a cinematic prog piece that can have typical seventies style psychedelic fantasy projections in its animation. The piece is a meditative cinematic journey with great interplay between keys and guitar.
