Recording 2 original songs with 12-piece ensemble
Hello! Welcome, my name is Lauren Pray and I invite you to support the creation of 2 original songs to be recorded and performed with an eclectic ensemble in NYC. We plan to use instruments like the Celtic Bodhrán and a Button Accordion. There will also be wind, strings and vocal harmonies. I am currently in the process of arranging with a multi-instrumentalist so the project IS unfolding as you are reading this. Your donation will go to the musicians, the engineer, the conductor and arranger, the videographer and to the final mixing and mastering of the songs.
I write music because I learn and expand the most through making it and my insights and sightings are documented in the songs that I write, like foot prints on new ground blazing trails for others to enjoy and experience.
Through my walks in this metaphorical landscape, I have gained the appreciation and attention of Bakithi Kumalo, Paul Simon's bass player, and Haydn Bendall, Kate Bush's chief engineer on 5 of her albums. Haydn Bendall has also collaborated with inspiring artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tina Turner, Peter Gabriel and many more.
Nothing has ever impacted me as much as music has and it is my favorite form to adventure in, create and explore new worlds with. When a song emerges, it feels like an opportunity to glance inside another world or potential reality that unfolds as the song is being written. The way you travel to this new world is not by moving from point A to point B, but by playing the song live or listening to a recording of the song. The canvas of music is silence which will receive any sound we give it, like a pool of water reacting to every pebble thrown into it. The potential for a new world seems to be always right here right now. I love this malleability and the strange presence and accessibility of writing a song. I feel music to be a multidimensional language that can awaken feelings and perspectives that didn't exist before or may have been less noticeable or dormant until a song is written that creates it or wakes it up. Music can ignite different genes and memory strands of DNA in our bodies and has the potential to shape our evolution! I believe it already has and continues to do so.
I hope that these 2 songs can live a life that stretches far beyond me and inspire new worlds in other people. I believe my music can enhance otherworldly sensations, creativity, and a feeling of well being towards ourselves, all others, the present and our potential futures.
Here's a bit about the 2 songs for this project...
- "Flower" Is the story of a seed that dreamt of one day becoming a flower. This song sings the journey of that seed finding itself on the beak of an eagle flying down to its death. When the eagle spins down to the ground, it buries the seed into the Earth. The seed grows and then sprouts out when its colors are done and it opens itself to the sun for the first time. Oh, what a feeling! The seed is now a flower!
Lyrics :
Will we migrate alone when the sun comes out
to warm our coldest days
to heat our honest faces
I'll be back again in May
after all the season's change
go one by one
I know it to be haunting but who knew
who knew
Home to me is where I lay
birds and bees come take my seeds
some often try to suck my pedals dry
But I was told to take it slow
no I'm not alone
the summers come and go
and in between I grow
I grow
I fell off an eagle's head
spinning down to it's death
the coldest parts of his beak
I felt on my shell now breaking a apart
and up in the sky below in the dark
I so often thought of it welcoming me
I would grow in it's heat
The warmth of the sun
melted my face
but my favorite part came after
my body was buried away
after holding on tight
I shake off the dirt my colors are done
I stand!
I open wide to let in the light
the first time I feel it
oooohhhh!
la la la la
- "Taylor And Ben". This song can be interpreted in many different ways but I have always felt it to be a story about 2 young friends who experience certain events that sculpt their personalities and in the midst of these adventures, they start to grow fond of each other and begin to feel sensual sensations for one another. Kind of like a coming-of-age song.
Lyrics :
We shot a light on Taylor’s face, Benjamin fell to his knees. “Time is all we have” he said and then sighed. I took his hands to my head. “You leave it to me I’ll make it softer to seem like it’s something more that we might like. I’ll pull it up higher, we’re awfully insightful, my knight.” My night.
Believe me I can tell you why, the lights in our eyes and I see it so clear. Then Ben took his hands from my head, “we should go back to bed” and then he told me the time.
Your smile had convinced me for the first time. I was underneath your spell. Til the sun came up you left your hands on my hands. You left our love in a memory.
But we don’t know how long we’ll be alive for but I’ll fix my hair and I’ll be on time.
Back in the yard we slammed the the door, you said it was safe outside in the yard. We buried him and carried him and pulled the alarm it was on time, it was our time.”
The generous donations of money will go to the musicians who will be playing on these songs. The artist who I am collaborating with in the instrumentation as well as his time for writing it out for the musicians. The engineer, mixer and videographer during the live recording session.
Thank you for your love and support! I look forward to sharing this project with you when it is completed! I will keep my donators posted on the process. Much Love.
You can visit the links below to listen to more released and unreleased songs.
