The Mews album is a modern tribute to the space between Celtic folklore and Bluegrass music. The music pays tribute to the traditional sounds of Jigs and Reels, as well as fusing different styles and taking the musical ingredients of Celtic-American folklore one step (sometimes two steps) further. The result that you have in front of you is a collection of intriguing acoustic fusion that will delight your ears and make it almost impossible not to smile. Have a listen.

New sonic textures
In the eternal quest for new sonic textures, I teamed up with Gary "Wurzle" Cogg, prolific purveyor of handmade acoustic instruments, who graciously let me go to town on the prototype of a novel instrument he is currently developing: a three-string instrument (a "Pickin' Pedal") the fret pattern of which is inspired by a mountain dulcimer, usually tuned in D-A-D or similar.

Its sound is strong in the high-mid frequencies and blends particularly beautifully with the concert ukulele that I have been using - a stellar piece of handiwork, with a beautifully balanced low-mid frequency body.

You can hear the two instruments combine on the "Poetry In Motion" track and also on "Grace", together with a larger acoustic ensemble. The concert ukulele has a solo on "Symmetric Circles", featuring the usual no-effects approach of recording two identical takes of the same instrumental part into the Left and Right stereo channels respectively.

A further chapter in dynamic range
Jasmine Brunch devotees will already have noted my mild obsession with dynamic range in audio engineering - see for instance the notes on the "4" album at http://jasminebrunch.com/4.php. In this regard, the "Mews" album introduces a slightly different spin: the tracks overall are higher in loudness since most tracks feature either (a) instruments with a naturally lower dynamic range, e.g. the accordion bass, or (b) a creative approach to recording techniques, e.g. recording one of the acoustic guitar parts less than an inch away from the microphone with extremely gentle picking, leading to longer decay times relative to the peak of the acoustic signal. As a result, it was possible to retain the full dynamic range of all other instruments while giving the overall mix sufficient loudness.

Easter Egg
Alongside the usual musical subtleties that are just a little too subtle for people to realise, I wove a fairly obvious Discrete Shepard Scale into one of the tracks and will award a prize to the first listener to get his nerd on and spot it. Prize ideas include a pack of smokes or a bottle of wine or a home-cooked supper, depending on who wins.

1. Poetry In Motion
2. Perpetual Motion
3. Grace
4. The Bookmaker's Canon
5. Brand New Day
6. Sunday Morning Sun
7. Heart Light Warm
8. Blond And Black Reel
9. Who Could Ask For Anything More
10. Skin
11. One Point Jig
12. Symmetric Circles
13. Fish Jig
14. Big Boat
15. Lullaby
16. Slide Jig
17. Little Boat
18. Saw Jig

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 6/27/2012
Jasmine Brunch lives in London England

Tagged as: Alt Rock, World, Folk, New Age, Instrumental New Age, Celtic, Contemporary Piano

1. Mystic Journey by Suzanne Teng: world flute with a serene energy
2. Enter The Woods by Minstrel Spirit: medieval, celtic, classical, pop, folk inspired music
3. Honey From The Thorn by Tim Rayborn: Medieval and Middle Eastern music
4. Miles Beyond by Suzanne Teng: world flute with a serene energy
5. Aksaray by Tim Rayborn: Medieval and Middle Eastern music
6. The Early Sessions by Ray Montford: Evocative, melodic and haunting instrumental guitar music
7. Zen and the Piano by Kourosh Dini: minimalist piano with slashes of ambient electronics
8. Live At Bliss Gardens by Kourosh Dini: minimalist piano with slashes of ambient electronics
9. In a Garden So Green, Lute Music of Scotland by Voices of Music: Lilting Renaissance & Baroque vocal interpretations
10. Beautiful Earth by Bella Gaia: an iridescent landscape of gossamer melodies and labyrinthine rhythms, with a sense of celestial wonder
11. Unspoken by Jami Sieber: enchanting cello compositions
12. Christmas Through the Gateway by Osamu Kitajima and Chris Mancinelli: pan pacific ambient dance masters
13. The Almanac by Shira Kammen: early folk and celtic music.
14. LA BUCHE vol 1 by Francois Couture: Canadian composer, musician, orchestrator, arranger and sound designer
15. Lush Mechanique by Jami Sieber: enchanting cello compositions
16. Modern Carols by Mike McGuill: Diverse, intelligent electronica from London
17. Looking There by Kaissa: modern African music with elements of rhythm'n'blues, pop, and jazz
18. Bootleggers by Barbepeste Official Orchestra: Ahoy and shiver your timbers to some Irish World music with a smattering of pirates

• MP3: High quality MP3 variable-bit-rate files. Most people download these: they are audiophile files that play everywhere.
• ALAC: Perfect quality Apple Lossless format files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, get these. They're an exact audio copy of the original CD, and include the CD artwork and artist info. This is the same format as High Definition audio provided by the iTunes store.
• AAC: High quality Apple Audio Codec files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, these files sound great and include CD art and artist info. This is the standard format provided by the iTunes music store.
• WAV: Perfect quality WAV files. This format works everywhere, and is an exact audio copy of the original CD. It sounds fantastic. Album art and artist info is unfortunately not possible with this format.
• FLAC Perfect quality open source FLAC files. This is an open source audio format. It is an exact copy of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• OGG: High quality open source OGG files. This is an open source audio format. It is a compressed (smaller file size) version of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• 128k: Medium quality 128K MP3 files. These are medium audio quality MP3 files that will work on every device. The audio quality is good enough for most uses. These files are intended for cases where you want to conserve disk space.