Hong Kong based band AcouFunkture is pleased to release its second EP of original music “Momentum”! Featuring 4 songs written by AcouFunkture frontman Richard Kimber and produced by Farley Sangels at Lamma Studios, “Momentum” was quite fun to make! For more on this band please visit: https://www.acoufunkture.com/
People have been asking about the creative process, so maybe I can take a moment to describe how we did it. Rich wrote these songs a over the past six months or so and we played them a few times live at open mics and at our performance at the Lamma Sunday Afternoon Concert Series. That was enough for us to work out a general idea of the arrangements.
Then Richard and Natalie came over for dinner on February 7 and we spent 3 or 4 hours recording Rich’s vocals and guitar loops, with a break for organic homegrown food from Lamma Studios’ garden. Then Rich and Natalie went off on an epic 6 month trip to South America and I set to work on the tracks.
Recording everything at Lamma Studios (with the exception of 1 trip to the Hong Kong Cultural Center to record superstar bass clarinetist Lorenzo Iosco and one trip to Studio B to record conga maestro Chris Polanco), we filled out the rest of the songs. Pop songs are pretty labor intensive! For example Rich spent about 45 minutes recording vocals and ukulele loops for “Another Day” and then I spent 15 more hours adding 37 more tracks, recording other musicians, mixing, adding effects and synths and mastering. I kept track of my work hours and each song took 13-15 hours of studio work to be finished. This was a good speed improvement over the recent High Hopes release, which took me about 20 hours per song.
https://open.spotify.com/track/486KsUV2rKPTGhY5FeOqid
I used Ableton Live to record and mix and Logic Pro X to master. My audio interface was an Alesis i26 (now obsolete) and I used my 2013 Macbook Air which is still performing beautifully as a video editing studio for my assistant Nessie. The main mic I used was a Rode NT-1A mic, which is a great economical workhorse that can record just about any instrument well. I also used a smaller Rode condenser pair for overhead drums.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/momentum-ep/1396818443
This release represents works 46-49 and instruments 48-53 (cajon, piano, D trumpet, claves, guiro, suspended cymbal) in the 50-50 Challenge. Just one more work remains and is coming soon, and it’s a big one!
I am so grateful to all of my terrific friends and colleagues here in Hong Kong (and a few elsewhere) who have helped make this 50-50 project such a great success at a total cost of $0 for 49 original works. This release involved the contributions of 15 people and I am very grateful to these great friends for their contributions.
Credits:
AcouFunkture: “Momentum”
Songs by Richard Kimber
Produced by Farley Sangels at Lamma Studios
“Looking For Her Smile”
Richard Kimber: lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Lorenzo Iosco: bass clarinet
Farley Sangels: Ubass, cajon, trumpet, piano, electric piano
Driek Storms: shaman drum, shakers
Geoff King Luk: electric piano
“Another Day:
Richard Kimber: lead vocals, ukulele
Valeriy Frolov: hang drum, electric guitar
Chris Polanco: congas, cabasa
Farley Sangels: drum set, cajon, backing vocals, piano, organ, trumpet, trombone
Geoff King Luk: electric bass, synth bass, synth guitar, synths
Minnie Chan: backing vocals
Bonnie: backing vocals
Felix Tham, backing vocals
“I’ll Be There for You”
Richard Kimber: lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Farley Sangels: Ubass, drum set, gongs, Tibetan bells, D trumpet, backing vocals, shakers, synths
Valeriy Frolov: mini djembe, backing vocals
Geoff King Luk, acoustic guitar, synths
Bloomsbuy: backing vocals
Minnie Chan: backing vocals
“Why Oh Why”
Richard Kimber: lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Felix Tham: violin, backing vocals
Farley Sangels: Ubass, backing vocals, cajon, claves, guiro, shaker, suspended cymbal
Seraphim: backing vocals
Andromeda: backing vocals
Davide Pasquallini: brushes