All posts by coloursandsounds

Glass Eyes lock-down video

Like so many other groups we decided to make a video while we cant play together and this is the result: more than 100 members and their friends filmed themselves playing their parts to Radiohead’s Glass Eyes and I put them all together using Adobe Premiere Pro and Reaper software:

Several people have asked how it was done so here’s a quick explanation.

Everyone recorded their part to a click track demo version i prepared – actually a few versions appropriate for different instruments to play along to eg pianists didnt need to hear piano, lead vocalists didn’t need to hear lead vocals but most other people preferred to play along with both those things and a click.

There were too many videos to deal with all at once so I edited in sections using the audio to line up the vids to the click track and cutting out instruments when they weren’t playing then rendering to a new MP4 video file:

The audio was mixed in premier too in sections then i mixed the sections with lead vocals in Reaper. You can drag video into that software and process the audio. The final audio mix was imported into a master video session of Premier and the different video bounces were blended using a chroma-key plugin. I also faded the opacity of the different layers relevant to what was hopefully most important in the audio mix.

 

When i do it again, i’ll be a bit more careful to make sure i’m using uniform video properties and perhaps make a bit more of a plan as to what will happen where.

Hope that makes sense!

Jesse

Fantasy Orchestra Glass Eyes Video Project

This is an open-to-all idea to create a video for one song involving as many musicians and singers as we can find… before sunday 22nd march. Maybe we’ll do another one afterwards.

interested? read on….

The idea is everyone to film themselves playing their part of the Radiohead song Glass Eyes, send it to our team of editors and we’ll make a song out of it… and a dance if you move around a bit.

Please send by the end of the weekend sunday 22nd march

What you’ll need

– something to film yourself which connects to the internet and can send a (possibly fairly large) video file; Easiest is a phone or a computer
– something else to listen to a special version of the track i’ve prepared to play along to

Online Folder

For us to synchronize the video we’ll all need to play at the same tempo so i’ve prepared the following:
piano with lead vocal – probably easiest for most people to use this one
bass with lead vocal – mostly of use to pianists or harp players
piano without lead vocal, mostly of use to lead singers. do feel free to sing the lead it doesn’t need to be just one person. probably nicer if its a small group.

Here it is:
http://music.fantasyorchestra.org/Glass-Eyes-Project/

This is an open-to-all folder with no password so feel free to share with anyone alt all. it also contains all the music and MP3s.

Things to bear in mind

– you’ll need to do the whole thing in one take
– you’ll need to wear headphones, we don’t want to hear the click
– if you come in near end of song no need to film from beginning, we’ll figure it out
– try and be fairly well lit
– it would be good if we can see a bit of your confinement area in the shot
– dress up as much as you like (in pyjamas if you’ve got covid19)
– if you’re mouth is available near the end of the song, please sing along with the last couple of lines for maximum emotional impact and healing vibes

sending the video (again, please send by this coming sunday 22march)

when you’ve made the clip please send by wetransfer.com to jesse@fantasyorchestra.org
– please just send one clip. hopefully there’ll be too many clips for us to edit more than one clip per person
– let me know if there’s anything i’ve forgotten
-please include your name and instrument in the file eg jesse-violin.mov

Do feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested, young or old. But be quick, i’d like all the clips in by sunday. we’ll do another soon!

Stay strong!

Jesse

 

 

F-Rated 🗓

What: A celebration of music by women

When: 7th and 9th of June 2018

Where: Bristol (Lantern) and Stroud (Goods Shed)

In association with Bath Film Festival and in promotion of the F-Rating – a rating awarded to films either directed or written by a woman – the orchestra played a pair of gigs, both at Colston Hall’s Lantern and in Stroud’s Goods Shed.

The music performed was written entirely by women and included works by Joni Mitchell, The Roches, Connie Converse, Ivor Cutler (close enough!), Beyonce, and P. J. Harvey. The orchestra was also joined by special guests Rita Lynch and Djanan Turnan performing arrangements of their own songs.

Fantasy Youth Orchestra Summer Workshops 2018

The Fantasy Youth Orchestra Workshop “Rhythms Of The World”
age range – 10-18yrs
location – The Trinity Centre
dates – 30th July – 3rd Aug 2018
concert 1 – 5th august Trinity Centre
concert 2 – 18 august Colston Hall

 

Fresh from a month traveling in India, the Fantasy Orchestra present a week of music workshops aimed at young people who play instruments and can read music to a basic standard.

The repertoire will bring together music from all over the world including African, Indian, Turkish, American and European pieces with an emphasis on different cultures.

The workshops take place  Mon 30 July – Fri 3 August, 2-4pm
The cost will be £15 for the week or £3 per 2 hour session (with concessions available – please ask).

On Sunday the 5th august workshop participants will be joined by regular members of the
Fantasy Orchestra for a performance celebrating Rhythms Of The World. There will be a 2nd performance at The Colston Halls Hoo Haa event on Sat 18th August
here’s a link to sign up:

https://goo.gl/forms/t3IORmluqXzszSFf2

hope to see you there, do pass the message on!
best wishes,
Jesse and all the Fantasy Orchestra team

Other stuff we did in 2017

We got up to a lot in the second half of 2017. Here are some of the things.

14 August: The kick-off of the 10th anniversary of Luke Jerram’s ‘Play Me I’m Yours’ public piano project, in the Galleries, Broadmead:

15-17 August: Kids’ workshops, Colston Hall, culminating in a concert in the main auditorium.

18-20 August: Green Man Festival. We played every day on the Solar Stage in Einstein’s Garden:

16 September: Priston Festival:

23 September: Plymouth Arts Fest

7 October:  Colston Hall:

And a show in All Hallows, Easton in November, and a Christmas show or two, and so on…

Just like 1967 again

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, we premiered a new set of arrangements of tunes from ’67, including music by the Velvet Underground, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors and The Association.

With the help of several friends from our Paris chapter, we took over Kings Weston House on 17 June for our big summer event, featuring oil projectors, floral outfits and several different mini-ensembles.

Besides our main outdoor set, there were plenty of mellow happenings within. It all came to a storming climax around midnight from prog rock maestros Asteroid Deluxe.

 

Winter and Spring 2017 – what we got up to

How’s your year gone so far? Go anywhere nice this summer? Right, we’ve got some catching up to do.

Our 2017 gigs started with ‘Love In Outer Space’ on 18 February at All Hallows Hall, Easton. We debuted some new arrangements of tunes by Sun Ra, the Velvet Underground and the Andrews Sisters. To prove that it happened, there’s a handy montage on YouTube:

Then, among a few smaller gigs, we sent our crack Morricone Squad to the Salt Café on 8 April to play an evening of lovely soundtrack music; and our Wedding Corps was dispatched to Glastonbury on 26 May to gild a knuptial knees-up with psuitable psychedelic psounds. Oh, and we helped someone special propose to another someone special in a flashmob sort of a thing at Café Kino.

If you were at the Folk House on 9 April, you’ll know that we played a show there, too, and ditto 27 May in the Bear Pit:

That gets us up to the end of May – and we’d only just got started…

 

Ursula Le Guin Appreciation Day, 6 Aug 2016, Café Kino, Bristol

Fantasy Orchestra leader and guiding light, Jesse D Vernon, writes:

As committed-for-life fans of Ursula Le Guin, my wife Kate and I decided to start running appreciation days when we discovered some amazing music, composed by Todd Barton, to accompany one of her  books, Always Coming Home. Published in 1985, about a cultural group of humans—the Kesh—who “might be going to have lived a long, long time from now in Northern California.” (p. i) Part novel, part textbook, part anthropologist’s record, Always Coming Home describes the life and culture of the Kesh people.

Todd Barton wrote a selection of folk songs and music which the Kesh might have been going to sing and they make wonderful listening and a great subject for a singing workshop and performance.

You can find the original compositions here:
http://toddbarton.com/music/music-of-the-kesh/

Our Event took place at Café Kino in Bristol, UK and we started off with the singing workshop.

Here are some recordings we made on the day:

http://soundcloud.com/the-fantasy-orchestra/sets/songs-of-the-kesh

We started with the singing workshop 2-4pm

5pm we watched the film “The Lathe Of Heaven” followed by a discussion lead by Sheryl Robinson and the Bristol Utopian Book Collective.

7pm We were treated to a talk by Helena Hoyle-King about maps featured in the novels of Ursula Le Guin. This was followed by a map making workshop  lead by . Helena.

Here are some of the maps made:

8pm “Mothers Of The Terrible Glow” performed some of their sci-fi inspired instrumentals with excellent introductions, explanations and insights from Daniel Potter.