Music for the first day of summer….

is here in the form of At-The-Helm Episode 26.For this program the My Life in Sound series features excerpts from the Bindlestiff CD “Late”. Released in 2000 this is music recorded from 1996-1998 and the final collection of new recorded works from Bindlestiff to date. Titles and start times are as follows:

1- Christopher Robin’s Dead  00:00
2- Head Or Tail 04:57
3- Dark Water Search  08:47
4- The Earth Below  14:28
5- …And Heaven Above  16:52
6- This Sleeping Circus 21:36

Performed and recorded live in the studio by Bryan Helm and Dave Stafford. All rights reserved by the artists. Original recordings produced by Dave Stafford. For more information please visit at-the-helm.us Photo from a recent afternoon in Colorado. Many thanks to all my loyal listeners

 

My Life In Sound steps into trio territory again as….

Episode 25 of At-The-Helm is the first show to feature the music of BrotherSync. This group consists of myself, Bret Moreland and Mark Hardgrave. The material heard here is from 2 cd’s “Expect Delays” and “Sync or Swim” released in 2000 and 2001. Taken from recordings of live looping jam sessions done during 1998-2001 Engineered and produced by Bret Moreland who also does the stereo field recordings. Guest theremist on “Rotors of Raga” is David S. Miller. Titles and start times are as follows:

1- Sync or Swim 00:00
2- Mize Away 04:08
3- Aye Aye Eyes 08:10
4- The Trill is Gone 11:52
5- Cake or Death ? 13:45
6- Nothing Tolouse 18:44
6- Rotors of Raga 22:28
7- Lunarcy 28:01

 For more info please visit at-the-helm.us Thanks again for listening and please stay tuned for more music soon. Photo by Sarajane Helm of tile by Fara Shimbo. All rights reserved by the artists.

 

Episode 24 of At-The-Helm (My Life in Sound)…….

……is now available for listening.Episode 24 of At-The-Helm is an all solo outing featuring tracks recorded live in the studio in Colorado during 1998 & 1999. Most of these pieces are made up of multiple loops contructed to form an overall backround that then have a “live” instrumental (keyboard, guitar) lead played over it as it’s recorded. Titles and start times are as follows:

1- Back East Out West  00:00
2- Bridge of Knots 04:30
3- Furrowed Brow 08:22
4- Touch the Fence 10:24
5- Last Resort 15:12
6- Down The Well 21:32
7- A Break In The Weather 23:32

All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Bryan Helm. All rights reserved by the artist. For more info on these and other recordings in this series and some other related artists, please visit at-the-helm.us

 

Episode 23 of At-The-Helm is an easy listen and…

..by far and away one of the most ambient of the programs in this series.Show #23 is an all Bindlestiff affair featuring two tracks from the 1998 CD “Distant”. Both of these pieces began as live to tape solo loop works that I did in Colorado and then sent to Dave in California where he added his live loop tracks in much the same fashion we had always worked but with a distance and a delay to it. This music reflects a great deal of open space and was sparked (for me) by the new western landscapes that I was getting to experience and the sense of geographic distance from my musical partner that now existed. This is very slow and careful music which has grown on me over the years. Tracks and start times are as follows:

1- No Other Ocean (00:00)
2- Into Violet (15:10)

For a more detailed equipment listing for these recordings please visit at-the-helm.us and click on the thumbnail image for the “Distant” CD.  All music copyright 1998 Bryan Helm/Dave Stafford. All rights reserved by the artists. Engineered by Dave Stafford. Photo of leaves on snow circa 1998.

 

Available for listening At-The-Helm Episode 22…

Which  features solo works from the second half of 1997 and a little of ‘98 recorded live in the studio in Colorado. Tracks and start times are as follows:

1- African Snowglobe 0:00   (A tune about global climate change)
2- Drifting Forward  5:01   
3- Puzzle Dust 10:08    (What’s left at the bottom of the puzzle box?)
4- Falling Autumn Stars 13:55
5- No Jah In Sight 2   16:15 *  ( A variation of the tune with a  live looped guitar lead)
6- Pass The Lemonade  21:08  ( A title inspired by Andy Helm minus the expletive)
7- More Bad Advice 23:24   ( Mutiple  loops with a live keyboard counterpoint)
8- I Miss The Rain  28:25 *  ( A live guitar loop over a live to tape loop construction)

All tracks composed/performed and recorded live to tape by Bryan Helm. Tracks marked with an * have a live guitar overdub to the original live recording. All rights reserved by the artist. Next show we go back to the duo of Bindlestiff and then soon on to BrotherSync, so please do stay tuned for more musical mirth and thanks for listening to this series. As always your comments concerning any and all aspects of this project are appreciated..more soon.

 

Episode 21 of At-The-Helm is now…………….

….available and features recordings of solo works from 1997. All instruments and vocals by Bryan Helm. Titles and starting times are as follows:

1- Mr. Crow 1    0:00
2- All The Rabbits   2:20
3- Sad For Today    4:41
4- Tales From Treehorn   9:19
5- Our Hearts Are All Around Us    13:12
6- Mr. Crow 2   17:44
7- Frost   23:14

Recorded live to tape by Bryan Helm. All right reserved by the artist  Mr.Crow 1&2 has a live guitar overdub. Photo from my paper route circa Jan-April 1997 Weld County Colorado. Please do give a listen , stay tuned for more and thanks for stopping in.

 

Episode 20 of At-The-Helm (My Life in Sound)………

..is now uploaded for your listening pleasure. This is an all solo show starting with one last track from California then moving on to six selections from 1996 recorded in Colorado in my basement studio.

1- Silver Lining (3-2-95)

2- An Evening Breeze- 3:02

3- Boot With Love- 8:39

4- How Was I To Know- 13:15

5- Bob’s Your Uncle- 18:30

6- While Rome Burns- 22:33

7- Autumn Light- 26:20

All tracks performed and recorded by Bryan Helm live to tape except #4 which has a live keyboard over a taped 11 string guitar track (free range tuning). All rights reserved by the artist. Please note starting times for tracks now listed for episodes #17 and up. Photo from near the Nevada/Utah state line August 1995. Today is my 50th birthday so sicerest thanks and best wishes to all those who’ve taken the time to enjoy this series so far,  I look forward to completing this musical tour of my past as this year winds on. Please have a great weekend and look for more here soon.

 

At-The-Helm Episode 19 is available…..

now for your listening pleasure. This show is a live Bindlestiff concert recorded April 30th 1995 in San Diego CA  direct from the mixing board. It features the following tracks:

1- Short Circuit Circus

2- Fantasia

3- The Night Sky

4- Sleep It Off

5- Orbital Noon

6- The Night Sky 2

Thanks to Dave Stafford ( e-bow guitar, loops,effects, original recording engineer). Thanks also to Mr. John Goddard and family for hosting Dave and I for some of our performances during the years 1989-1995.  Copyright 2008 Helm/Stafford all rights reserved. This is the last show in this series from the California period and also the last live Bindlestiff concert to date. My thanks again to Dave for his work and to all the folks who came out to see us play live. Next episode it’s off to Colorado so please stay tuned. Featured photo is from the farm equipment show last summer. Thanks again for reading and listening and have a good week

 

Episode 18 of At-The-Helm (My Life in Sound)….

….is now yours for the asking. This show is different in this series in that all the tracks are pieces that use earlier recordings of loops as the base for a new recording that adds a live solo overdub alongside that earlier recording, a primitive mutitrack technique of sorts. Anyway mister Dave Stafford also shows up with the midi pedal bubble effect on track 4 and the E-bow lead guitar on track 7 , both lovely to behold. Otherwise all the rest is caused by me:

1-  Strange News

2- The Rain Returns

3-  Monsoon

4-  Sleep It Off

5- Big Saturday

6-Ten Years

7- Musing Moon & Solemn Sun

Recorded in Escondido CA 1995 by Bryan Helm. All rights reserved by the artist  This Polar image for a bipolar world.

 

Episode 17 of At-The-Helm is now here……

an episode that marks a change in format . From now on all episodes will be all music and no talk, I’ll hopefully cover any relevant info here in my blog. My thanks to Glenn for his talents in editing the first 16 shows. This change will allow me to include another 8-10 minutes of music in each podcast, which may prove necessary in the shows to come to try and cover all the materials I’d like to in this series.  The seventeenth show in this series features the following tracks:

1-  32 Seconds

2- A Man I Know

3- The Sunday River

4- A Distant Embrace

5- Mister Nelson’s Radio

6- My Old Man 

It’s an all solo deal with me on drum machine,synthesizer, vocals and loops . This is a rare (no-guitar) episode in the series. The first 2 tracks are from October’94, the last 4 were recorded between 6-19 and 7-4 in 1994. Track #6 is dedicated to my father. Performed and recorded live to tape by Bryan Helm. All rights reserved by the artist. Photo of tree downed by lightening in RMNP Colorado (probably did make a sound).