UPDATE: 7/23/20
To Stay at Home is Best
This is the title of the next song in the series Heartland Social Distancing Project. It features the samples you sent in plus Robert Espe on tenor saxophone.
You can listen and download for free here:
https://peterroberts.bandcamp.com/track/to-stay-at-home-is-best-feat-robert-espe
You can listen here:
You can watch the track breakdown here:
More to come! I hope you enjoy!
UPDATE: 7/13/20
The first track is complete! It is a song I created using almost exclusively the samples you sent me and my voice. The text is by the poet Zywa from the Netherlands and is titled In the Time I Have.
Sometimes I go crazy with all the life
I want to live, but that does not fit
in the time I have
Emotions get in my way
they proliferate and fill
the time I have
I must shed them with love
because the hard way fails
in the time I have
to break myself open
and shift my attention
to the sun
in the life nearby
to which I can connect
in the time I have
You can listen to and download it here:
https://peterroberts.bandcamp.com/releases
You can just listen here: https://soundcloud.com/silent-sea-2/in-the-time-i-have
You can watch the track breakdown here:
May God Support You All Your Days:
This was a song I arranged, performed, and produced for the baptism on Sunday 7/12/20. It is found in the hymnbook #548.
You can listen to it here:
https://soundcloud.com/silent-sea-2/may-god-support-you-all-your-days
You can watch the track breakdown here:
July 3rd, 2020
Hello all,
I hope you all have been enjoying the broadcast service as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you! Thank you to everyone who helped that come together. I had the idea a year or two ago to upgrade the sound equipment to make the live stream sound better, and we got the microphones in just before all of this craziness started happing. Talk about timing!
Anyway, I would like for you all to have the opportunity to participate in making music. It will not require learning music, reading music, or doing anything to stress you out. I promise all people can participate if they want. I would like to make music with sounds that you record and send me. This is a process known as sampling. It doesn’t have to be inherently musical. If your house squeaks loudly (like mine does in a few spots) or if you have a door that makes a crazy noise when you open it, what I want you to do is get whatever device you have on hand and record it. I will only use the audio of a recording, but if you can only figure out how to record it with a video, still send it my way and I will take care of it. The more unique and weird a sound is, the better! I have put together a video demonstrating what I will be doing with the sounds when you send them to me.
I would also love if each individual person recorded themselves singing a note for as long as they can. It doesn’t matter what note or vowel (pick your favorite: ah, eh, ee, oh, or oo). As I explain in the video, I can figure out how to use it. If you feel uncomfortable with your voice, it’s okay, I will literally have to change the audio for everyone regardless of ability and it won’t necessary sound like you singing and no one will be able to tell who is who. I would love to have everyone’s individual and unique voice to use in this process to make the music I write as much of Heartland as I possibly can.
Another way to contribute is by sending me some hopeful texts. You can write them yourself or get them from writers. All I ask is that you don’t submit copyrighted materials. If a poet or writer has been dead for more than 100 years it is fair game, if not, we will need to be careful about what is used. When in doubt, send something, and I can sort it out.
I am trying to create an amalgamation of ideas from everyone at Heartland. I would love if as many people as possible participated in this, so we can be as well represented in this process as possible. I want to do this in lieu of a virtual choir so that everyone can participate and have a contribution to this experience. Even though we are apart, we can find ways to create and be present with one another. I promise not to criticize submissions and to use everything I possibly can in this process.
Please send the sound or video recordings to my personal e-mail which is proberts52186@gmail.com. That way you can use google drive, dropbox, or we transfer if needed.
If you could have the samples to me by June 12 that would be awesome!
Peter Roberts
Heartland Presbyterian Music Director