LION MUSIC PRESENTS: JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - INTERPRETATIONS

Some of the best artists from Lion Music's roster interprets the music of perhaps the greatest composer ever in new exciting arrangements.
 

Excecutive Producer: Lars Eric Mattsson for Lion Music 2014/2015.

LION MUSIC PRESENTS: JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - INTERPRETATIONS is released as digital download on January 23, 2015.

 

 

1.Boguslaw Balcerac’s Crylord : Sonata in E minor,- Andante BWV 528

Boguslaw Balcerak - guitars, bass, keyboards
Marcin "Kanclerz" Kwasny – drums
 
Mixed and Mastering by Chris Aiken at Studio 124

When I At first heard the organ version in the original it was much slower. It is very typical but really touching Bach’s composition. I decided to make a much faster arrangement. After analyzing and understanding the work I added a church organ and some strings to the track. For variety in place of some of the themes and melodies I put arpeggios based on them. The solo part was written by me although it is still based on the original. It is worth the attention to check out the lines at the end of the piece, the original music of Bach, sounds almost like jazz. Interesting drums part is added by Marcin "Kanclerz" Kwasny.

2. Robert Rodrigo (Airless) : Brandenburg Concerto No 4 G major - Andante BWV 1049

I had never done anything of classical music before so to participate in this album and interpret a subject of one of the greatest composers in the history, has been for me a challenge and an honor.

I chose Brandenburg Concerto No 4 -. Andante BWV 1049 because it made me feel something very familiar in my mind. I knew I could adapt it in a very natural way, so I did not think much more and got to work.

First I learned the song and I interpreted it as it was. Later I thought how I would compose and interpret, like I would like it to sound to me. So I started from the beginning, note for note, part by part, to create the story without losing the essence, to lead to a chorus where I express myself freely. The fundamental bass, and as faithful to the original topic,  take me a lot  work to concrete and seal up the harmonies. For the guitar and the song could shine, I assumed many headaches.

The rhythm base, i made it at once (Drums and bass) and then record it in different sessions. When I was all prepared base, I recorded the guitar for which I used my Ibanez rgt 3020 with dimarzio pickups paff pro and  ernie ball strings, an  Orange Rockerverb 100 amp, taking the sound with  57 sm Sure microphone directly to the sound card.


Robert Rodrigo - All Instruments

3. Patrik Carlsson : Brandenburg Concerto No 6 B-flat Major - Allegro, BMW 1051

Patrik Carlsson - All Instruments

A fantastic song where Bach experimenting with a little odd combination of instruments you do not hear very often. I got hooked on the "royal feeling", how the instruments have been arranged together and the many great variations in the 12/8-sign.
After listening to the orchestra and studying the sheet music on this piece, I wanted to record a modern drums / bass /guitar-version of this old song. I took the liberty to arrange this work for one solo guitar, instead of 3-5 different guitars. I wanted to put my own touch to this piece by increasing the pace a bit, tune down one step and add a "few notes" here and there. I've also changed a bit in the arrangement and do not hope that Bach, turn in his grave when he hear this :)

4. Charly Sahona (Venturia): Orchestral Suite no 2 in B minor - Badinerie 2 BWV1067

Charly Sahona - All Instruments . Arranged, recorded, programmed and performed by Charly Sahona

"Having the opportunity to record a composition of J-S Bach was something very special for me . Just like If I went back to my early age when I was studying classical at the conservatory of music .
About the arrangement I did, I decided to melt the best of both world and play this  "Badinerie" in a classic rock-metal style : Just like the guitar players I was listening to when I was a kid.
I've never had the opportunity to do it and had a lot of fun doing it.
My recording is a sort of tribute to the music I first listened to  "

5. Grönholm : Orchestral Suite no 3 D major - Air on a G sting BWV1068

Mika Grönholm guitars / synth, Tom Rask Drums, mixing: Riku Turunen-Rantioja

We obviously had to think of how to accomplish the arrangement to be rock. Its kind of hard to think what to do and not to change the song of the genius mind of Bach himself.
..Anyway the task is to bring these songs a new outfit so something has to be done, even some might feel it to be wrong if they like just the original versions. Music is supposed to be fun so there is nothing wrong with different and new versions.

We did not want to make dramatic new parts to this song, just a short growing intro in the start. I wanted to have a few synth tracks in the background, guitar leads, bass and drums. With those elements we followed the original song, but with rocking drums arranged by Tom Rask.
To make those drums work even more I played and followed the drums with the Hamer 12-string bass.

..So the lines of drums and bass circling around the melody is what we were after. For drums part, Tom was trying many options until he pick the so called serious-while-heavy one, Meaning, moving from tom rhythms to hi-hat one to be clear and big. fills are not fast and there is space for guitar and other things to do their thing. One challenge was to follow the song being without any straight click, as often the classical compositions seem to be: very airy... but everything actually came out okay and smooth without even the help from absinth fairy.

6. Lord of Mushrooms : Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: No. 2 In C minor, BWV 847

Mixed and Mastered by Damien Raynaud at Dirty Icon Productions, L.A.

We were very pleased to be part of this challenging project proposed to us by Lion Music. Here are some details about this work we did on the piece by Bach:
We opted for the "Well-Tempered Clavier », more precisely  Prelude N°  2 in C minor " (BWV 847) taken from book 1 The Well-Tempered Clavier is an ensemble of 24 solo keyboard "Preludes and Fugues » each one of them written  in all 24 major and minor keys. Pushing the reflexion even further, one might consider  this collection of pieces  as being a concept album of the epoch!
From the very beginning our idea was to blend our style with this particular Bach prelude, without modifying either the harmony or the layout of the voices,  played in our case by the guitars and the piano. We decided therefore, to concentrate on the rhythm: lengthening and modifying the original rhythmic structure, plus adding an  extra voice in  order to create a new Bass part, which would  sustain the drums.
Only at the end of the Prelude on the "presto", did we return to the original Bach  score  putting an end to the "Mushrooms effect ».
 

7. Boguslaw Balcerac’s Crylord : Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor- Rondeau BWV 1067

Boguslaw Balcerak - guitars, bass, keyboards
Marcin "Kanclerz" Kwasny – drums
 
Mixed and Mastering by Chris Aiken at Studio 124

I decided immediately to make my own arrangement of this composition when I first heard it. This Rondeau is a part of the well-known Bach’s suite no.2 in B minor. It is not as famous as Badinerie from the same suite but I could see that it had great potential. It was written by Bach for flute, strings and basso continuo. In the original, this Rondeau’s lasting less than 2 minutes. I decided to repeat the most interesting parts of it and add a guitar solo. This part was also arranged by me based on the original theme. I added some church organ chords and I really think that Marcin €"Kanclerz” Kwasny did a great job on drums.


 

8. Pier Gonella (Mastercastle): Toccata Dorica BWV 565 "Inferno"

Pier Gonella - All instruments, Giorgia Gueglio, choirs and spoken vocals, Recorded by Pier Gonella at MusicArt studio, Ge, Italy

It was an honor for me to arrange this masterpiece, but in the same time s lot of hard work, first because the sound of the organ is completely different from the electric guitar, bigger and full of frequencies, high and low; second because the Toccata and Fuge is a very popular classical theme and there are so many great versions of it, so I had to think a lot and come up with something different.
Finally I came up with the idea of putting in the foreground the rhythm section over the usual solos,tapping, pull off etc...
In the intro section I splitted the guitar track into a 3 lines, a driven sound, an octave lower and a sound with phaser. In the rest of the song I recorded 4 rhythm guitars and worked a lot to find the most suitable sounds for the drums and bass. Another feature is the inclusion of some vocal lines and melodies, by Mastercastle's singer Giorgia Gueglio, who also added some whispered words introducing the song after the intro section.

9. Lars Eric Mattsson : Oboe Concerto in D minor (Marcello) Adagio BWV 974

Lars Eric Mattsson - Guitar, Bass and Organ. Christer Jansson - drums

I have a lot of Bach music in my collection but for this album I was thinking I should find something lyrical that would be easy to rearrange however once I had chosen this track which I later found out was originally written by Marcello but later rearranged by Bach (and now by me) it proved to be more of a challenge than I thought as I wanted to completely change the rhythm from 2/4 to 6/8. The first secotion was no problem but later in the tune the only way to retain the original melody meant I had to go back and forth between 4/4 and 6/4 so while it may sound simple it really is not. I am playing a Fender Stratocaster with true temperament neck and Seymour Duncan pickups though a Soldano SLO100 as well as my 70-ies Rickenbacker bass through an API recording channel. I opted for retaining the original melody and not to add to much unnecessary shredding. there is a bass solo near the end of the tune, in Bach's arrangement this part was a slow laidback section without much of a melody. One problem with making rock versions of classical music is that a chamber orchestra or symphony orchestra allows much more dynamics than you can achieve within a rock setting. Anyway, I had much fun doing this track and I look forward to doing something like this someday again.

10. Mistheria : Toccata Dorica BWV 538 "Inferno"

Johann Sebastian Bach's “Dorian” Toccata BWV 538 has always been one of my Bach's top works and one of my favorite masterpieces ever. I learned and played it on Pipe Organ during my studies at Music Conservatory and I've always been fascinated by its powerful and majestic sound, to not mention its evocative and “metal” theme.

My idea behind the arrangement of this masterpiece was that I should not cover each single original note, but “capture” the idea behind, the “meaning” and elaborate it mixed with what's in my own taste and style. It's like it happens when writing a Fugue in which the main theme (subject) is elaborated several times without never loosing the “umbilical cord” with the opening subject theme. Next element I considered has been to “transpose” the original score for Pipe Organ, which is my Classical main instrument, to the Synthesizer, my Metal main instrument. Simply, I didn't want it played on a Pipe Organ because that would be too obvious and it already exists this way, I could not, for sure, make it better than original.

In the arrangement, the original main themes featured in this legendary Toccata are played by analog and digital synth sounds, alternating them with originally written vocal, choir, piano, guitar parts and keytar solos, in the way I've always wished to play since my first approach with this legendary work. Adding choir is just what I love because there is no other sound which can give such a majestic atmosphere combined with a powerful “Tutti” pipe organ.

I nick named the arrangement “Inferno” because that is the place where the “Dorian” Toccata brings me when playing it on a Pipe Organ. There are elements scattered here and there over the arrangement which reminds that kind of atmospheres, the opening sound introduces you just there...

Small curiosity: the middle Piano part came out accidentally. I was rehearsing that section on my keyboard and expected to have a synth sound selected, instead pressing the keys it was a Piano sound playing... I loved that “voltage drop” and, matter of a second, I decided to make a “space” in the arrangement with an almost “Romanticism” insert.

I hope that my arrangement didn't disappoint Mr. Bach which is the father of Rock music, and You which are the most important aim of my work. In the end, thanking Johann Sebastian and You, I conclude sharing with this my recurrent thought about him: “I'd love to be, just for a day, in the mind of the greatest music genius ever lived, than I could die.”

11. Ashent : Cantata - Widerstehe doch der Sunde BWV 54

Arranged by Alessandro Cossu and Ashent
Mixed at Artesonika Studio, Pordenone IT by Ivan Moni Bidin and Ashent

Originally conceived for alto, two violins, two violas and continuo, this sacred cantata was composed by J. S. Bach in 1714 while working as organist and Konzertmeister at the ducal court of Weimar. Ashent present here the first Aria as an instrumental piece for guitars, bass, double bass, piano and synthesizer. This version maintains the original contrapuntal weavings and harmonic complexity Bach is so well known for, while adding some improvisational elements in the guitar parts. The use of a sour electric guitar for the alto part singing the religious text by Georg Lehms makes possible a decontextualization of this piece from its original lutheran setting to become absolute music.