Therapeutic Music - Dare to Dream Counselling & Psychotherapy

A compilation of music by Neil Paddock and James Paddock

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Twenty Twenty

This collection of music and poetry involves quite a life journey, spanning almost 40 [20 + 20] years.

I have made a few notes below about each track, how each of the versions here were created, thoughts behind their creation or how they turned out, and any underlying context or special tools used. I have added some similar comments from my son James too. Finally posted under Therapeutic Music to dareiidream.com in June 2020, hence the title.

1 First Rays of Sunlight 4:05

“It’s about hope, new beginnings, or whatever it means to you. Connect with the ebb and flow, the life throb of the land, and the surging surf and crashing waves in the sea. Listen and be at peace. Today is a new day. Today is a day for change. Today is the start of something new. NB: Originally featured the Oatmeal synth, but didn’t when it was finished. The photo is sunrise in Masada, Israel in 1985.”

2 Lilies 3:27

James: “This EP [Realisations] was produced throughout the second semester of my third year at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, as part of my “Sound Production” unit. With the support of lecturer Lee Buddle, and that of family and friends, I was able to put this instrumental EP together in a relatively short span of time, as well as complete the mixing and mastering more or less on my own. Relatively happy with the result.”

Personnel:
James Paddock – Writing, programming, mixing, mastering, all keyboard parts
Neil Paddock – Guitar and vocal recording (track 3)
Steve Webb – Guitar recording (track 1)

3 Bach 1:49

“This is a tribute to the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach. James created this midi file in Cakewalk Express and I imported it into Reason 7.1 and allocated voices from the Ensoniq ESQ-1 Reboot FREE Reason Refill. I also added the electronic drums (which are all generated by ESQ-1 sounds). It is a showcase of both James’s compositional skills and the range of sounds from the Ensoniq ESQ-1 Reboot FREE Reason Refill. Enjoy!”

4 Why? 6:00

“A number of years ago I improvised a piano part and left record on. Some 13 years later, I have returned to this track to tidy it up. It weighs in at a chunky 6 minutes, but on the basis it represents a statement about a person’s life, I can live with that. I specifically went for the feelings underneath this track. I wonder if you can relate to them. This was created in Reason 10 based on the original midi recorded on a Yamaha PSR-2000, and includes some BBC Symphony Orchestra sounds courtesy of Spitfire Audio and the rather scrummy U-He Zebra 2 synth, used in conjunction with Acoustica’s Pianissimo and Reason’s Parsec 2. There are some Miroslav Strings too.”

5 Idiom (EDM Booster) 4:06

“Idiom is a thinly disguised title for a simple dance track I built with Reason Studios’ EDM Booster Pack in May 2015. It’s like building a sonic jigsaw with a whole bunch of different Reason Studios audio devices (known as ‘combinators’), and trying to make the pieces fit together with each other, or dragging some brand new paints onto a palette to see what works best. I returned to this in June 2020 and simplified the offbeat bass line for this rare venture into disco and electronic dance music.”

6 Atomic Arthur (Live at Leeds short) 3:19

”This is a tribute to Vincent Crane from Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. I know Vincent from listening to my brother’s old LPs and particularly from the track “Death Walks Behind You”. The piece also has a bit of an Enya flavour about it with the choral sounds. It was an improvisation from November 2017 that languished on my hard drive as a work in progress before brought into this collection in 2020. I am also using Dimension Pro (Fifteenth Century), Alchemy (the Astral Choir) and Acoustica’s Pianissimo (My favourite Solo Grand Piano) on this track and some Reason Studios Violins (VCS Nat Harm). I used the Leeds Town Hall Organ by Samplephonics on it too. Nothing to do with The Who‘s classic album of the same name whatsoever.”

7 Finding New Atlantis 6:05

“Another Reason Studios combinator fest and attempt at a soundscape with some purchases from Theodore Jordan at New Atlantis Audio, trying to find combinations that work together through improvisation and editing after the event. It has a kind of hypnotic beat laid down by a number of Theo’s therapeutic percussion devices, punctuated with a nice echoey piano and various synth sounds. It also has various birdsong from different parts of the World to give it a natural outdoor feel and I also added a Kookaburra. It seems odd I never posted this one to Soundcloud but I imagine it was due to it’s length of around 6 minutes and trying to keep within SoundCloud’s limits.”

8 “Moondrum Sonata” by Neil Paddock 2:13

Neil: “An original, moody, atmospheric and rhythmic piece utilizing a number of the Reason Refills created by New Atlantis Audio, including Moondrum, MachineDrum Summer Breaks, Darkwater, Subrosa “Pink Moon” and “String – Classical Fantasy” from the Recoustics set.

Fun to do and pretty quick to put together back in mid August 2014. I am pleased with how it turned out. Produced and recorded in Reason 7.1” This was unfortunately rejected by Audio Jungle in November 2016.

9 Ample Time Remaining 4:48

“Inspired by the style and artistry of David Gates and Bread and tunes such as “I Wanna Make It With You”. Intended to be a pop song in that vein, vocals were initially planned for this but have not yet been recorded. Lyrics based on the melody parts were written in a lengthy poem in early 2020. Ample is the name of a couple of free plugins used, prompted by Mike at Creative Sauce. Time Remaining is based on a quote by Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.”

10 “Nucleus Spring” by Neil Paddock 2:29

“An original track featuring a whole bunch of sound generators (Refills) from the “Nucleus Soundlab New Spring Bundle“. It was a substantial bundle of goodies for Reason I bought back in June 2013.

I had also been listening to Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, and the “Unreal Tournament” soundtrack – so that’s where my inspiration came from.

Incidentally, the Reason Refills (and patches used) are:
OB Resurrection – Anguish in Synthetics AF
Viral Outbreak – Alien Invasion AF
Pantheon – The Nothing AF
Pantheon II – Pluck ARP AF
Subtractor Essentials [_Analog]
Malstrom Essentials [Bass Tech]
Pantheon III – Ashen Light LO
Thorkit – TPSD – Analololog
NAA Healing Hands – Step Shuffle [Run] / Assorted Dry

And some Reason Factory Sound Bank Beats from Bomb Squad and a Groovemasters Rock Kit

Thanks to all the patch designers for some excellent sounds!
Adam Fielding, Lewis Osborne, Tom Pritchard, Jeremy Janzen, Theo Jordan (NAA), the guys behind the “Essentials” and the RFSB. Props to you all!”

11“Sunrise” 2014 arr. Neil Paddock 5:57

“An old favourite I composed and recorded with Phillip Andrews in 1981 (our first demo!) and have reworked several times over the years. This instrumental version attempts to capture the jazziness of the original piece which was intended, but didn’t end up on the original Portastudio recording.”

12 “Toccata” by J.S. Bach 7:37

“A section of this music featuring the Leeds Town Hall Organ was used, with permission, in the Hollywood horror movie “Ballet of Blood” (2015) by Jared Masters at 21:00.”

The classic organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, as featured in the 1925 film “The Phantom Of The Opera“.
Recorded in Reason 7.1 by importing the midi file created by Kenneth T Settlemyer Jr. (available from Midiworld.com)
www.midiworld.com/bach.htm
This track uses 16 bit samples based on the 3.2 Gigabyte FREE 24 bit Leeds Town Hall Organ sample pack available from Samplephonics.com – 16 bit conversion and mp3 rendered in Goldwave.
This piece was put together to “road test” the authenticity of the sounds of the Free sample pack created by Samplephonics for Reason.”

13 “One For Austerity” by Neil Paddock 2:01

“An instrumental section taken from the first track of our musical “Getting Ahead.” Recorded during 14th & 15th January 2012 using Reason 6.0 and an AKAI MPK49. According to Wikipedia, “Austerity” was named the word of the year by Merriam-Webster in 2010. Everybody is searching for it online. And I live in Australia now. So it seemed appropriate, somehow.”

14“Ode To Eddie McNeil” by Neil Paddock 3:11

“Eddie McNeil played with the band Illusion and wrote a drum book “So You Want to be a Drummer” that I bought in Kingston as a teenager. This piece borrows from a couple of the exercises (55 & 56) within and then builds on that into a kind of Twin Peaks suspenseful theme of intrigue, suspicion and foul play. So it’s an ode and a tribute to Eddie, my first drum teacher (apart from my brother). Thanks Eddie. The patterns are played in the sequence 55, 56, 55 over a 3:4 time signature. It was all done in Reason 6.0 with the standard factory sound library, augmented by synth sounds and a combinator from the “Synth Nation” Refill by Samplefiends and a Bass Drum combinator from the “Hitman 2” Reason Refill by -008‘ [November 2011].”

15 Sharkey Hooligan 1:40

“This has a rather odd name which I think is based on a drum pattern called Sharkey from a free drum machine by Bram Bos called Hammerhead. It has a middle eastern flavour I associate with adventure: Balloon rides in foreign climates, Indiana Jones movies and busy market places, perhaps with a few unsavoury henchmen (‘sharks’ or ‘hooligans’ ) wearing mirrored sunglasses that you have to run away from or defeat.” [December 2013].

16 “Walton Racket (SSP2)” 3:49

“The latest [Dec 2014] (MP3) version of my sequenced tune “Walton Racket” in Demo format. Originally composed on my Ensoniq ESQ1 back in 1987 and inspired by the “Miami Vice” Theme by Jan Hammer. The tempo for this version is 110 bpm.

This version uses multi-samples from the Scanned Synth Pro 2 (SSP2) Reason Refill and the Yamaha RX-17 Combinators I created for Reason 6.5. The Scanned Synth Pro 2 Refill contained 30 multi-sampled patches including distinctive and unique synth pads, leads and basses.

The Scanned Synth Pro 2 (VST) synth was developed by John Proctor and is copyright of Humanoid Sound Systems Ltd.” Sadly, the SSP2 VST is no longer available. Now that our old Selz e-shop has been officially retired, maybe I will post it again at neilpaddock.gumroad.com

17 PJ and the Dunes (A Poem) 3:34

Neil: “A poem based on a true story which explores the dangers of following someone who doesn’t know where they are going, and being forced to come up with your own rescue plan. Originally created and written for a session at WAAMH in November 2017, and presented at WAAMH’s Prevent Support Heal Campaign 24/06/2020.”