Archives for category: In The Studio

Pont Tombé

01/12/2025 //
0

[Pyxis] have a 3rd and final release in 2025!

Pont Tombé is another 9-track song collection.

This one is a little quieter than normal for [Pyxis]…

It is focused mainly on a raw piano sound and the songs stem from improvised playing and building the songs up around the initial recording.

Pont Tombé is available to stream or download (for only £2!) over at the BandCamp.

If you’re new to this project and like what you hear, there is currently a 30% discount option when downloading the entire discography of 4 albums that’ll cost you a reasonable £5.60.

We’re still not on streaming yet, so BandCamp is THE only place to go hear it…working on that though.

1.interesting distinction 02:57
2.set the Penfield to ‘C’ 03:11
3.home in a hundred years 03:39
4.a duel between professor and poet 04:00
5.the perfume of a sad, sleepless evening 04:20
6.little rock 02:18
7.hat, ribbon, bird, rose 01:29
8.not fences but a wall 03:58
9.losing leaves 01:48

______——–********——-______

Thank you for joining us on our musical adventures this year.

[4-D] Recordings has some new items lined up for 2026 too, watch this space.

CFx

Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, Divided Records, In The Studio, pyxis, Release, Soundtrack

Pinnacle Figments

01/05/2025 //
0

The Silent Committee is back!

‘Pinnacle Figments’ marks [4-D] recordings 1st release of 2025 and the first new full length album of music from TSC in almost 2 years. The album is available from 01/05/2025.

The album is currently only available on Bandcamp, free to stream or £4 to download and keep.

Returning to his musical beginnings, Chris Fordham has produced an album of thought provoking, minimalist, instrumental music under the moniker ‘The Silent Committee’. Recent releases had involved attentions to detail and experimentation with odd timings and orchestral arrangements, these songs however, all began more freely as pure improvisations and grew from there with the majority of elements being recorded live on the fly.

The album explores the theme of aiming to constantly climb and the setbacks that includes on the way.

1.Sea Level Dream 07:32
2.Foothold 05:28
3.A Peaceful Plateau 02:34
4.The Cascade 03:00
5.Overlooking the Precipice 10:52
6.Shelf Pause 06:02
7.Spur 01:43
8.Throwing Paper Planes from the Summit 04:24

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, Divided Records, In The Studio, Release, The Silent Committee

Shelf Pause

24/04/2025 //
0
https://youtube.com/shorts/ifpRFO0cUhU?feature=share

‘Pinnacle Figments,’ the new album from The Silent Committee releases 01/05/2025 via [4-D] Recordings.

Tags , , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, In The Studio, Release, Silent Committees Music, The Silent Committee

Somn Ușor

15/03/2024 //
0

Cloud Helices full length album is on it’s way.
The rules were simple.

Only three keyboards could be used.

Songs had to be finished in three recording sessions or less.

The album has to have a number of songs that’s a multiple of three.

….Due for release April 2024

Categories Chris Fordham, Cloud Helices, In The Studio, The Silent Committee

Cloud Helices

14/11/2023 //
0

Surprise!

[4-D] Recordings is proud to present…

a new EP of very experimental droning ambiance for your ears to feast upon.

AND

It is yours for free.

The project is entitled: Cloud Helices/Briefly Falling/Ne’er Onwards

this is the debut EP of a project by Krzysztof Mahdrof that features sprawling soundscapes, ambiance and noise in equal measure. All this set to the slowest BPM possible.

You will need headphones.

Tracklisting:

1.everything passes and vanishes
2.speak my name softly after I have gone
3.no songs but sad dirges
4.the beam of a lightless star

***as a bonus feature of this EP, it has been arranged in such a way that if you can play all 4 tracks at the same time on four different speakers, you will create an impressive yet cohesive noise.

Much love

CFx

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, In The Studio, Release

Memory #14

07/11/2023 //
0

Kismet Hardy were an excellent new folk group from the Northampton – Kettering area. They played a mix of traditional and original folk music and were regulars at acoustic evenings in the county and further afield. I was a big fan and would invite them to play my Folk In The Afternoon gigs at The Fishmarket Art Gallery and Nook Cafe. Having shared stages with them numerous times we got to discussing recording. Back around 2010 time my recording setup was minimal and lo-fi to an extreme! We recorded a 5 song EP in a mixture of my student room and various band members houses. The setup was an AXL mixer and a passive AKG microphone directly into a laptop headphone socket…how the recording sounds as good as it does is a mystery. For one thing, it’s the musicianship and songwriting that elevates this session.

My favourite of the songs we tracked was ‘May Song’, which fortunately still lives on an old SoundCloud account from when I was making a go of recording projects around Northampton. The song begins on a pair of Jon Delaney’ guitars before Kate Beresfords vocals lead in. After a verse the rhythm section of Rai Clews on cajon, and Kevin Ward on fretless bass power in alongside a flute solo. On this particular song I only contribute a backing vocal and the recording setup and mix. Elsewhere on the EP I would play violins and additional percussion.

I would love to hear more of this band again, their SoundCloud page is still active and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying revisiting their songs this evening. ‘Wasps Nest‘ was always a favourite: (I’d have made sure we recorded it if it had been written before our sessions).

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, Fishmarket Art Gallery, Folk In The Afternoon, In The Studio, Kismet Hardy, Live, Nook Cafe, Other Projects/Collaborations etc., Production

One Day The Sadness Will End…

27/10/2023 //
0

The new album from The Silent Committee is finally here!

It is entitled; ‘One Day The Sadness Will End, But I Don’t Think Today Is The Day’.

This uplifting collection of 10 songs features ambiance, acoustic instruments and electronic experimentation in equal measures.

The album can only be found to stream/download on the BandCamp page. The download also comes with large format, high quality artwork files.

  1. One Day The Sadness Will End, But I Don’t Think Today Is The Day
  2. Lyrical and Imprecise
  3. Invisible Maps
  4. Diminished
  5. If You Can Forget What Hour It Is
  6. December ’08
  7. A Still, Leaden Sky
  8. I Will Wait, I Will Perch
  9. City of Reflections
  10. 333-2

All music written, performed, recorded, and mixed by Chris Fordham. He also did the cover artwork too.

Many thanks to Becky Fordham for putting up with me during the making of this record. Also special thanks to Jon Stolber for lending an ear in the recording phase.

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, In The Studio, Release, The Silent Committee

City Of Reflections

03/10/2023 //
0

The new album is entitled ‘One Day The Sadness Will End, But I Don’t Think Today Is The Day…’ and is due to be released on October 27th exclusively through the projects BandCamp.

See above the video for the lead single ‘City of Reflections’.

The single will be available to download for free on Friday October 6th and includes an extra non-album track!

The album will do all the usual TSC stuff – instruments played, sampled, broken and oddly arranged in a minimal, ambient fashion. It’s been a stop start few years in the making, but overall I’m happy with the result.

Subscribe to the blog here and/or follow @ 4DRecordings on instagram for more news on the album release as it happens.

Much love.

CFx

Tags , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories In The Studio, Release, The Silent Committee, Uncategorized

Memory #8

22/08/2023 //
0

Here, we are going right back! Way, way back! Around 2005/2006 time was where it all began. A young Chris dressed head-to-toe in black singing sad, mostly acoustic songs into the microphones at Beck Studio in Wellingborough. The Beck Studio sessions never got released to the world because I felt my inexperience shone through a little too much. The first songs that made it onto the internet were 4-track cassette demos and then from these demos I returned to a studio. Hot Rock in Northampton was recommended to me by Stevie Jones of the Wildfires so I sought them out to complete a demo CD of ten songs playing acoustic guitar, bass, lap-steel and vocals. I’m still proud of it as a whole but for similar reasons to the Beck sessions they’re not out there in the world anymore; I was young and not fully developed as a songwriter and definitely not as a singer. It was still the days when MySpace reigned supreme that these songs got any air.

I’m contemplating putting together a compilation of earlier songs via Bandcamp in the near future and may well include a song or two from these sessions if I feel they can still work and survive in the real world.

Below is a song that was written for the Beck recording sessions – although the version shared was recorded around 6 years later at home, with a more focus approach on production.

CF

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, In The Studio

Memory #4

25/07/2023 //
0

In August of 2012 The Snakeman 3 set up in a warehouse with a bunch of microphones and a desktop PC to demo a bunch of songs. The EP was set to be called ‘Fry Your Mind’ and featured some very psychedelic artwork. Four of the songs have survived the session as multi-tracks but were ultimately never released. Studio engineers we were not back then, so the recordings were very much demos. They sounded good enough for us to share our sound of the time though. I reckon with a bit more time and focus we could have completed this EP quite effectively. For all the years of being in The Snakeman 3, and in all the guises that band took on, the period of time where we were recording and performing this EP were my personal highlights.

Line up changes in the band occurred after the summer and we set about recording the songs in a different way. The sound became more raucous and rough, DIY and punk after months of gigs in the new lineup. Everything was committed live to a 4-track reel-to-reel recorder in the same warehouse space as ‘Fry Your Mind’. Those later recordings would later be released as the album ‘We’re Better Than You’.

Aside from these photos and other rehearsal shots from the time, the only evidence of the EP ever existing is this video featuring the song ‘Memphis’. This was a popular song in the live set right up until the end of my time with the band – how long can you hold that E chord in the post chorus Kenny?! Strangely this song never made the album. I might mix the multitracks properly at some point.

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Chris Fordham, Cravat Records, In The Studio, Snakeman 3