my 2008 Japan-only album Journey 2 the Light has been creatively a great fun project, while a source of frustration as far as people being able to hear it. two years later and the label who released it are no longer manufacturing it on the original cd or double-vinyl that it was on, and haven't made a digital release available either. given that, i've upoaded the entire album to soundcloud.com so you can at least hear it :) there's a link to the amazon.com buy page and a link to the live in japan launch video - also below!
Journey 2 the Light LP by mashibeats
the concept of the album was a jazz album - not in the traditionalist sense, but in the spirit of it. taking influence from the music of labels like strata east and black jazz records, while bringing in all the influences that i dig and love. it made sense for me to build it around a core lineup of some of my close collaborators.
most of the pre-production was jammed in studio in vancouver, canada with sammy figueroa and bembe segue. it's been a great pleasure to play with sammy - he had a legendary latin group called raices and amongst so many other recordings, was the longest serving member of miles davis' band through the 80s.
two tracks, peace be central and reprogram, were jammed in studio in amsterdam, holland with richard spaven on live drums. joni's flute, jason's horns and my acoustic piano parts were recorded separately in amsterdam and london. bembe's vocals were re-recorded at my studio in london as well. the whole album was lovingly mixed down by toni economides in london and mastered by kelly hibbert in LA.
MdCL - piano, rhodes, synths, MPC3000 drums
Bembe Segue - vocals
Jason Yarde - saxophones
Joni Love - flute
Sammy Figueroa - percussion
Richard Spaven - live drums
the album release was a very quiet affair with the label helping organise two launch shows in tokyo and yokohama, november 2007. consequently, because the album was never released outside of japan and promotions ground to a halt even in japan, the material has only ever been performed twice. it's a shame to me, but the lease i can do now is make sure you can hear the project :)
all going well, there will be a worldwide digital release of the album recorded live at motion blue in yokohama later this year.
while i applaud the label's initial efforts in helping instigate this project, it's been a real shame for me to see it fall by the wayside. i make music for it to be shared far and wide, and that failed to happen with this project.
enjoy!
