Roger D'arcy Releases "Velvet Ghosts"

As part of a two- year project, singer/songwriter - Roger D’Arcy is creating his third collection of original music - following the critically acclaimed Crooked Tales (2016) and House of Heads (2017)

Uniquely, D’Arcy is recording this third collection in different studios around the world – all studios which he has designed including projects by the world-renowned Recording Architecture – the company that D’Arcy founded in 1987 and which was closed in 2012 upon publication of the best-selling RA: The Book so that D’Arcy could devote more time to his first love - creating music - something he had put on the back burner while running Recording Architecture.

RA specialized in creating wonderfully unique creative spaces for artists that include: Annie Lennox, UB40, The Cure, The Waterboys, The Kinks, Sade, Bryan Ferry, Ian Anderson, Steve Hackett and hundreds of other clients all over the world. D’Arcy continues to design a handful of studios each year for past clients.

The new collection is being released as a track a month and currently has the working title of The World Recording Tour.

Each track stands proud and alone due to the fact that the songs in the collection are being produced, recorded and mixed using local musicians and engineers in each country. Thus, each track has a unique musical perspective with local flavors and musical styles reflected in the songs - all written by Roger D'Arcy and published by his longstanding Longsongs Music company.

Ultimately, the recordings will be revisited and compiled into an album collection by the project’s executive producer, Pieter Snapper (who also produced, mixed and mastered Crooked Tales and House of Heads) at Babajim Studios in Istanbul which D’Arcy designed in 2009.

The first track to be released on July 4th 2019 then, is “Velvet Ghosts” which D'Arcy recorded at Jaffa Sound in Tel Aviv, Israel - as he pays tribute to Nico, Lou Reed and John Cale of The Velvet Underground - D'Arcy is a huge fan of Nico’s work in particular and sings of a chance encounter in a Sheffield bar in England in the early 80s.

Roger D’Arcy quotes: "I bumped into Nico in the bar after seeing her perform one evening and it was surreal! There in front of me was one of the most iconic figures of my life and I sort of spluttered that I’d love to buy her a drink. I can still remember the way she called me “Dahling” as she sipped her G+T while I just stood there like some love-struck teenager hanging on every word!”

Meanwhile co-owner/founder of Jaffa Sound and producer, recording and mix engineer for Velvet Ghosts - Liron Schaffer – quotes:

“The first time I heard Velvet Ghosts, I immediately saw the entire story in my mind. Roger’s incredible way of describing the human condition, plus the subjects being among my personal heroes and the fact that it’s not every day that I have the opportunity to record a song dealing with people that I may not have known personally, but I feel that I know pretty well - it was an amazing experience.

From that point on we decided to record Roger in our Live Room, which has an arched ceiling (which used to be an old bathing space with 600 hundred years of history) Of course, it now has been acoustically treated but there are times when you can still sense ghostly echoes. One of my priorities as the producer was making Roger as comfortable as possible and ensuring that his performance was as natural and as intuitive as I heard him performing the song in front of me in the control room just a few minutes earlier.

The result was perfect with Roger giving a winning performance and just then
my friend and co-studio owner Amit Sagie happened to walk into the studio and being a fantastic guitar and bass player, seemed to understand the song instantly and added his own personal, magical touch, laying down some electric guitar tracks which I felt conveyed exactly the feeling that Roger was after - a kind of bittersweet longing for a time long past.

All in all, it was very exciting to record Roger in the studio that he himself designed - kind of like a magical closure. A real pleasure and privilege.”

Liron Schaffer - Jaffa Sounds Arts, Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel
Producer, recording and mix engineer for Velvet Ghosts

Other countries visited during the "World Recording Tour" project so far include Ireland, Greece, India and Ukraine – while plans are in progress to record in the USA, the UK, Russia, Spain and eventually winding up in Turkey.

Meanwhile, watch out for news of Roger D'Arcy's "Virtual World Tour" as he hosts a series of internet live concerts broadcast from some of the hosting studios and countries - again - using local musicians to recreate the tracks and, of course, bring a different flavor from each of the concerts producing a totally unique experience for the audience.

To access Velvet Ghosts go to:
https://longsongsmusic.com/album/1119164/velvet-ghosts

For more on Roger D'Arcy and his music please visit: http://www.LongSongsmusic.com