MrMarz and Henry Warwick, together again, and again.

a little sumthin' sumthin' about this project ...

Henry (Warwick) and I (Gene Maruszewski) are having a go at putting out a cd or two. Some of our past work was well received so we thought we'd turn up the serious knob a notch. Just a smidge.

So he packs up his synths and drives up here to lay down some tasty tracks. I have a few tracks left over from his previous trip playing my Proteus II. We have those, the live tracks we did months ago, some from 2005 and 6, and some D&B sketches I'd been working on. Henry had some things he wanted recorded, I needed some leads and pads. One weekend later, after surprisingly few beers, we had filled the can. Henry went home to get ready for work, moving, reunions, and to tend to his two ladies. I stayed in the studio trenches.

Concept (or Context, if you prefer : -)

We found our tunes fell into two basic groups. One beat based, one more free form ambient. This suggests two seperate cds to us.
I had already couched some of our previous work on the arabic sofa know as "the Al Qaeda Astronaut". The basic story line went like this:
"We join our hapless hero Habib, on the eve of his father's final mission (the Terrist). After suffering through the funeral (Procession), Habib slips into sleaze at the local night club circuit (Belly Button, Kradoutja). The following morning at the disco mosque, Habib is inpsired to mend his ways (Exhortation). Work commences on his spacecraft (M'n'M's), he fuels up (My Hydrogen Gas tank), and his girlfriend says adieu (Bye bye, Habib). Habib takes off (Launch), gets slung into orbit (Saucerful of Saturn), and we hear final communication attempts (Jibber Jabber). Finally, Habib enjoys his just desserts as Al Qaeda's first astronaut martyr (Pie Pie)."
The tunes were a mix of live tunes Henry and I had done together and cherry picked tunes from my previous 'releases'.
The finished CDs are expected to hold a preponderance of collaborative efforts. The tentative title for the ambient/electonica CD is "1/2 Blue 1/2 Orange".
We remain open to suggestions for tune names and a band name. Meantime we are using "Marz Warwick" until we think of or hear something we both like better. Tune titles may change in likewise fashion.

Instruments

Henry used his DSS-1 and his Yamamaha CS2X and my Proteus II and DX7.
I used an Electribe SX, Nord Lead RackII triggered by an Expressionmate ribbon and a Digitar, HandSonic, Kaoss II and III pads, a Doepfer modular, Minimoog, E-Mu Audity 2000 and Proteus II, Echoplex Groupmaster, and a pair of Revox pr99s in a 'frippertronics' configuration.

(Please note that that is NOT me playing my recently aquired Gu Zheng in "Cherry Blossom" but rather Henry on the Proteus II !!! The man has chops!)

Tracking

Tracks were recorded at Tapewarm studio with Nuendo on a PIV 200 with a RME Fireface installed. Typically the instrument output feeds are run through a Speck SSM mixer before hitting the sound card breakout box. But not always, occasionally the SSM is bypassed if the signal is solid. A MasterRoom spring reverb is patched to one of the FX sends and a Sebatron pre was used at the front end to punch a few tracks. An Orban compressor/limiter/de-esser and paragraphic eq were also employed on a few tracks.

Of special noteworthiness, if this isn't immediately apparent, there were no clocks employed for timing accuracy (despite what you might see in the flow chart), nor was any midi info recorded. We can discuss the pros and cons of this if you like. lol

Arrangements

Some tunes were recorded 'live' as in Henry and I playing together in the same room at the same time. ( the Terrist, Procession, Off Timberlake Pond, Exhortation and in part Bye Bye Habib) These tunes have a feel unto themselves.
A few others were overdubbed (Streets of Baghdad, Grump 'n' Bind, Saucerful of Saturn, Jihad), Henry or I playing along with a previously recorded track later in life.
The other half are what you could call collages, tracks never meant for anything in particular, surgically joined at the hip. (Somber Interlude, Henry's New Morning, Cherry Blossum, Emerald Tines, Torture, VD, Fatwa) ... Frankentunes.

Fixing and Mixing

Tracks are assembled, mangled and massaged using Wavelab and Waves plugins. While I have a reputation (deservedly) as a gear slut, I prefer to do this work inside the box with software. Making the noise in the first place is another matter and there I prefer hardware to the virtual stand-ins.