“Breathtaking and moving” … The Youtube community feels this version of the New Moon Film Theme by Alexadre Desplat, combined with Lykke Li’s song ‘Possibility’. Interpreted by Alice Klar during a recording session for their debut album. We are delighted with the large response and comments from all over the world.

DC Fontana’s ‘Six Against Eight’ Music Video

DC Fontana nurture their passion for classic psychedelic rock. The band asked Christian Badzura and the Liverpool Session Orchestra to arrange and record four tracks, one of which – the very tricky and demanding arrangement for the song Six Against Eight – is presented in the LiSO Vlog above and a music video has been released featuring the track.

Mark Mortimer, the bassist of DC Fontana, first got in touch with LiSO to enquire about how the arrangement and recording would be organized. But soon Christian Badzura found himself in the midst of a very creative working relationship with Mark and the band. “I was recommended to Mark Mortimer by a friend and throughout the whole journey they left me a great deal of creative space, it was fantastic,” says Christian Badzura.

“Mark always got back in a very detailed and inspiring way acting as middleman between me and the producer.” The video also shows Christian Badzura conducting the Liverpool Session Orchestra, while recording the arrangement for the song. A very virtuous arrangement that required a lot of physical power from the players.

I mixed the track Sophia of the eagerly awaited album 4hero presents Extensions, which can be heard below. The original track is from 4hero’s Play with the changes album. The Liverpool Session Orchestra performed the strings with Christian Badzura’s arrangement being dynamic and soulful, keeping the sweetness of the original but with a 1970’s funky disco groove driving the rhythm section.

This is what 4hero says

“4hero present a compilation of original previously unreleased cover versions of their music, reinterpreted by a selection of hand picked artists. When presented with the idea of doing another remix album they felt a need to do something new and fresh, rather than calling up the usual remix suspects and getting dance floor club mixes 4hero have put together an album that would happily sit on the shelf of a 4hero fan.

For this project they’ve sought out a range of forward thinking outfits, orchestra’s & producers including some new discoveries to cover their music. 4hero played their part in the music supervision including some recording, mixing and co producing tracks on the album making the project that much more special to the 4hero fan base. The result is cinematic and dynamic in structure and styles. 4hero are well known for pioneering new electronic music genres including Jungle/D&B, Broken Beat and Nu Jazz. The “Extensions” recordings are the best way to define Nu Jazz.”

Reviews

• Read the BBC review here»

Preview the 4hero Extensions album

The album release is on 26th October 2009. 4hero kindly provides a player to share so you can listen to excerpts of the entire album below including a nice animation. A very orchestral and open sound provides a breeze of summer freshness, ideal to get you through the winter times of 09/10. ! So Hildebrand suggests…

1. Universal Love – Sonar Kollektiv Orchester
2. Why don’t you talk? – Nu Tropic
3. Conceptions – Landau Orchestra
4. Planeteria – Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson
5. Third Stream – Robert Mitchell 3io
6. Give In – Ayanna Witter Johnson
7. Blank Cells – Luke Parkhouse with The Sharkfood Orchestra
8. Sophia – Christian Badzura & Liverpool Session Orchestra
9. Cosmic Tree – Andre Zimma vs YeSolar feat Oezlem
10. People Always Criticize Us – Vince Vella’s Cuban Collective
11. Humans – The Sub Ensemble
12. Star Chasers – RE:JAZZ

Listen to the original 4hero albums on LastFM

Recommended books … Additional reading

From Jazz Funk & Fusion to Acid Jazz

Mark Cotgrove, 2009

The single Lost by Japanese artist Erino Yumiki, currently heard on a Japanese TV series, is featuring the Liverpool Session Orchestra with Christian Badzura’s arrangement. You can listen to the track further down the article.

Erino Yumki is a songwriter and guitarist who loves the songs and the sounds of the Beatles. So it was not too far-fetched to turn to the services of the Liverpool Session Orchestra to create the mixture of beatlesque and modern string parts Erino aimed for.

The string arrangment on Erino’s track

“Sometimes it is a real challenge to add some heavy string arrangements to a song that is already very full, you do not want to kill a big sound by layering plenty of additional strings, yet still you are asked to make it even bigger and dramatic”, says Christian Badzura. The song’s production and musical style, a brief by EMI’s Tom Gora - and very importantly a translation of the Japanese lyrics – provided the direction for the arrangement.

Christian Badzura was asked to blend beatlesque string quartet arrangements with large unison string parts that work within a dense pop/rock ballad, that even includes a guitar solo performed by Erino herself. Very rare these days!

“It all needs to sit nice and tight in the mix. In certain parts of the song we asked the orchestra to play with damper in a very chamber music manner to get this tiny charming sound”, says Hildebrand.

Delivering music via Internet

LiSO welcomes and embraces the opportunities spawned by the Internet. Using FTP technology and tools such as Skype clients from all over the world can easily tap into LiSO’s expertise. “It is wonderful to work over such a distance and yet there is no distance when communicating over the Internet and everyone seems happy in the end!” But at some point Hildebrand and Badzura will jump on the plane to Japan.

Listen to the track

Check out the Youtube Video of Erino’s song below…

Both songs have previously been tracked at Evelyn Yard Studio, an EMI facility in London. Using a guide rough mix Christian Badzura arranged the string parts in close collaboration with Shane Beales. “I guess, once a song is written others can find space within that to express themselves. That’s exactly what Christian has done,” said Shane.

Arranging & Recording

Christian Badzura is a piano graduate from the renowned Luebeck Music Conservatory and found his way to England to work on popular music: “The dark sound of the piano and the richness of the vocals in the rough mix really have been very influential when arranging the string parts. It’s important to see one direction through, fully, throughout the production process and I guess all individuals working on such elaborate songs really need to be in line with that idea… something to be aware of.”

The Liverpool Session Orchestra provides expertise to producers of music, film and games. The all-in-one service ranges from composing and arranging, provided by Christian Badzura, to session booking, recording and producing provided by Christian Hildebrand. LiSO simply delivers the edited recordings to be added to the songs shortly before mixing.

The Orchestra at Motor Museum Studio

The Motor Museum looks back on over 30 years of recording experience and is now run by Mike Crossey and Jim Anderson. Miloco group of studios in London have teamed up with them to provide a top facility in the north, which the Liverpool Session Orchestra is gladly making use of.