Yet another Eclipse Trio update

The new Eclipse Trio album is still being mixed and in the next couple of weeks we should all be sitting down (or pacing around) to hear it and to make notes on anything that needs changing. Promotion is something we have to take seriously since, as you all know, the world is saturated with people’s musical projects and it’s not enough to just be good. To this end we have started working on a few ideas for making people aware of the album and, needless to say, there will be gigs.

But one idea that’s been around for a while is to make a video for one or more of the songs. There’s been some preliminary storyboarding and Russ, guitarist and songwriter, has been out and about shooting footage. Last night I found myself sitting in the middle of the road, shooting video of him riding his motorbike and trying really hard not to get run over or mess up the shot. I’ve always enjoyed the experience of editing video (from the days of running two VCR’s to using a Mac) so this will be another chance to be creative. If the finished product is an embarrassing mess though, we will promote the album with a round of drinks at the pub.

The other thing we did last night was to make a rough mix of the other album we’d be working on. This one is a much more live-sounding, stripped down affair and, on listening back to the tracks it became evident that we had to take out all the ‘fake’ instrumentation, such as string parts played on keyboards. The parts were lovely, and played to perfection, but they sounded out of place on this more organic record. So, although it’s going to mean more work, we now need to call in a violinist, an accordionist, a mandolin player and possibly a familiar looking bald guy on oud. One songs will be re-recorded in a pub and will feature the regulars on backing vocals. Now there’s an exciting prospect.

Since this album wasn’t due until much later in the year, there is no rush. But I’m keen to hear how it will sound.