ABOUT THE MUSIC PROJECT. 

Walls of sound, drones, experimental, atmospheres, dreamlike, layers of guitar, words, voices, ethereal, filmic, speckled sunlight through a dark forest, slow moving waves of sound, mist...

Leigh Ivin and I (Inga Liljeström) have created a new recording project together, and we are ready to release our first limited edition CD called 'Of Stars and Stones.' We recorded this over the last year and a half during the pandemic, with Leigh in Australia and me in the UK. We set out to create a filmic experience with walls of sound created by the pedal steel guitar - aural landscapes and atmospheres, with voice/ words weaving through them. 

                                                                                     (Leigh's pedal steel guitar) 

We share a love of nature, and the titles of the tracks reflect this - stones, stars, mountain, zephyr wind, river. We share also a love of reverb, and the space, mystery and 'otherworld' that it can create...a sense of transcendence and unknown. The mood is comtemplative, sometimes intense and dark, but always tempered with beauty. Leigh recorded sounds such fences whistling in the wind on his phone, and this became the 'drone' bed of a track. He experimented with a piano frame as a way to effect sounds and voice; cello bows on guitars and other found objects. We broke a lot of conventional song writing rules, and the tracks are longer than usual, more like a 'journey'. 

Lyrically, I was inspired by memories of my father; his hometown of Nykarleby in Finland and the river that runs through it that has brought so much love and loss; the feeling in the air when I travelled to Grenada with its wild gypsies, dry air, howling dogs and poetry of Lorca; watching the first snow from my small and old apartment in Paris; a dream about my late and great friend Dan Kojta. Leigh would send me photographs he'd taken of landscapes and nature, inspiring me when I had no compass. 

We recorded our instruments/ voices in our respective studios, and we built a trust and freedom in the collaboration, building on each other ideas and reacting without too much cognition or logic, but rather from the gut, feelings, emotive. 

The tracks were mixed by Leigh in his studio, and mastered by Michael Lynch at Shoehorse Sound.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS CAMPAIGN?
The recordings we made express our mutual love of experimental music, love of pedal steel guitar, of atmospheric sounds, drones, voice, reverb. We would love for you to hear this work, and hope you feel transported and maybe even elevated by the sound at times...a world unto itself, as it was for us during lockdown.
We do not have a record label for this project, so we're endeavouring to 'get it out there' to friends, family, and anyone who might enjoy it. 

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS PROJECT. 

We would really appreciate your support by pledging on a Pre-Order of our limited edition CD 'of stars and stones'. There is a digital download option too, as well as other rewards! 

WHAT YOU GET-
The limited  CD edition CD of 7 songs, all original, (some songs are long, thus 7 tracks!),  beautifully presented in a CD digisleeve, with a 16 page booklet with photographs by Leigh Ivin, that both served as inspiration during the creating period, and also represent each title on the album. Also included will be a photo by Anne Campbell of a northern icy landscape. 

If you'd prefer, there's also digital download of there album, and other rewards such as tarot readings, sound relaxation sessions, and an essential oil blend 'Stars and Stones' made by my daughter Amelia-Moon! 

TIME FRAME-

We hope to send the CDs and other rewards out at the start of December 2021, as soon as the campaign finishes. We'll have the goods ready to go! These will be sent from the UK. 

PREVIEW OF THE TRACKS.

Please click on the link below to listen to snippets of the 7 tracks - around 1 minute of each.

WHO WE ARE.

Inga Liljestrom is an Australian/ Finnish vocalist, composer, producer and performer. She also works with film and collage, collating her own ideas into visual representations of her compositions. She has released five albums commercially, and

has worked extensively both in Australia and overseas in Europe as both a recording artist and performer of her own music.

Inga has always been inspired by visuals and film, and her music has been described as aural landscapes. Each of her albums explore new terrain, from cinematic nordic landscapes to dry arid desert. She is currently signed to world music label, Accord Croises in France. 

Inga has collaborated and worked with many artists over the years, including Michael Lira with their album We Have Tigers, Gotye for his remix album, The Church, Carmen Rizzo, Ben Frost, and more. She has toured internationally with the physical theatre show by Branch Nebula; created tracks for nature films with award winning cinematographers Galaxiid; and most recently, is working with author Kirsten Krauth. Inga's voice and music have been on film and television for BBC, ABC and Sky. She has composed for art installations, including Light Origami, a ‘3D telescopic’ dome which exhibited in light festivals in Sydney (Vivid), Arizona USA and Singapore. 

Inga received grants to record her original projects, including to study ‘Yoik' singing of Sami-land, exploring her Scandinavian roots and the concept of channelling people and place through voice. She is currently working on a music PhD about the creative Muse. 

Leigh Ivin is an Australian musician, producer, audio engineer and soundscape artist. Having a lifelong love and affiliation with a wide variety of styles and genres, Leigh has worked at a career dedicated to the artistic and authentic aspects of music. Known as an accomplished guitarist, he began to specialise in steel guitar over the last two decades. Leigh is a founding member of the Re-mains, one of Australia's most uncompromising and hardest touring independent acts. Although completely ensconced in rock n roll for a lot of his career, Leigh has always paralleled his pursuits with sounds that lean towards the ethereal and experimental.

As a producer, Leigh has worked extensively with a range of artists including alt-country chanteuses Jackie Marshall and Sarah Carroll, roots-music legend Chris Wilson, traditional country balladeer Neville Anderson, his own band the Re-mains as well as countless indie and other diverse acts over the last three decades. He has assembled several studios during this time, the latest incarnation being predominantly analogue and according to Leigh, “probably way too large.”

                                                                    (Leigh's studio where the tracks were mixed) 

Leigh studied music at the University of New England in the early to mid 1990's where he met Inga Liljestrom,forming a friendship that would ultimately lead to this project, particularly after discovering that they shared a love of experimental music following Leigh's 2016 visit to the UK. A walk around the environs of Olney, where Inga still resides, proved inspirational. Agreeing to make a conceptual album via the internet only served to direct the two of them to a unique outcome, within the trappings of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Turning specifically to the possibilities of steel guitar for this project, “Of Stars and Stones”, Leigh chose to allow the possibilities of the studio come into play every bit as much that of the use of the instrument. Many of the basic tracks were generated performing the barest minimum while allowing the technology to point the way. He likes to call these parts “Found objects”, settling on using the most direct and immediate of the concepts and ideas that came forth – picking up the idea and running with it.

Using this approach along with more conventional methods, Leigh's themes and playing have made their way over recent years into mainstream television and film. This is certainly set to be his increasing focus and he hope's this album with Inga will be representative of that intention.

HOW THE FUNDS WILL BE USED.

We are hoping to raise $2500. This will cover the mastering costs of the music, the manufacturing of the CDs, artist fees for designing the booklet, promo CDs and packaging for postage. 

Mastering -  $1000. (Mastering of the album - which we have just completed)

Manufacture of 100 CDs (replication) in digisleeve with 16 page booklet with photos by Leigh- $900.

100 CD Cardboard postage packs $100.

Artist/ graphic designer fees for booklet $300. (artwork layout etc)

50 promo CDs (card wallets) $200. (extra CDs with different packaging for press, radio, sending to film music companies (synching companies...hello Peaky Blinders!)

Thank you for your support! xx