When my friend Francisco said “I could make a video for that track ‘Nipple‘” I thought… OK go on then… Fransisco’s style is very much of the ‘realist’ school, so it turned out to be almost documentary in its approach. It took me by surprise just how much work he had put into it and the actors/cross dressers enthusiastic involvement…

One has to listen and understand the lyrics in this song… all a bit obscure but yet pertinent to the sentiment. The filming and editing is very well done for the piece and I’m very grateful to all the participants who gave their time for free… Enjoy…and thanks to everybody.

Bluesman Geezer Young

Well… what I’m doing at the moment is trying to record some Blues/hippy keyboards on an album by a nutty Yank called ‘Geezer Young’ (photo) that I’ve known for a few years. Geezer has a great mumbling blues voice. The problem is he wants me to play a ‘Joe Zawinul’ type thing on piano! Yep… I’m still trying to work out what he means but it really doesn’t work…Yet..!

What’s wrong with Zawinul? Nothing, of course. But if you play his type of stuff on a blues track, you immediately end up in a total harmony clash. Geezer plays loads of open-tune straight major chords. Adding 6/9 stuff takes it in a completely different direction and pulls the attention away from the singing. So instead of blues with some jazz, it’d be jazz with some blues. I could do it, but it would be weird.

Thinking about it, maybe he needs something more like Bill Payne of Little Feat. Maybe that’ll work. Hmm. I’ll keep you posted

Just come back from Le Sud (the south of France). Took some time off to learn my way around a new camera. I have also been thinking about my new EP. The idea will be to do two new tracks and maybe two remixes from “Pretensions”. I haven’t made me mind up which ones to do yet.

This is the audience participation part: If you’ve got any ideas, listen to the album and let me know. You’ll find the player on “Pretentions – nu jazz”. I suppose this is a roundabout way of seeing which tracks you prefer, and which could be improved. ;- ) Anyway, let me know with a comment.

Thanks to everyone that had been requesting it. “Pretensions” is now available as a download on all the major stores. It can be downloaded from iTunes, eMusic, Amazon UK and Amazon US. Nokia and Last.fm will follow soon.

I’ve been asked about the quality. Yes, this is because so many musicians guested on the album, people like Bart De Nolf, Joe Higham, Bo Van Der Werf, Dick Farrelly and more. It was then mixed at the ICP studios in Brussels and mastered in Switzerland.

If you’re interested, you can get a CD version with all the notes (and a signature!) directly from me for €13 + postage. Drop me a note if you’re interested.

Now, on to the second nu jazz album!

I’ve been working with New Zealand dancer Claire O’Neil (remember “Mtyland”?) on a new solo piece called ‘Archives’. We’ll be showing it at the world famous ‘Chapelle de verre’ near Ronquières (Belgium) on Saturday 2nd of April. Jazzer Michel Massot is also on the bill.

I have been working on new jazzoid album ….it takes a long time but will be releasing some new tracks soon.

Also just finished my cartoon generic “masterpiece” Bouh !..I cant let you hear it cos you’ll all pinch it. But you will hear it soon.

I’m also off to French Polynesia to do a film soundscape in July.

So this art house film I did the soundtrack to kicks off its European tour starting in Brussels at the  Festival du film indépendant de Bruxelles The director is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known as a master of the absurd. The show will feature three short films by him.

I’m just in the process of finishing off a project of 7 short art films with Annick Ghijzelings called “The Very Minute, Unfinished 1>7″ and a refreshing sound design job it is!… They will be showing at various festivals around Europe next year. I’ll try and keep you posted.

I was obliged to do a MySpace page but you can listen to all the tracks featured on the album ‘Pretensions” here…..myspace.com/herman_martin

This is my animation/game showreel which contains extracts from Code Lyoko and horror stuff….its all a bit edgy but I think it does the job!

Herman Martin

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