All compositions and arrangements by Helmut Lipsky (SOCAN and SODRAC, Canada) Lyrics for 11: Helmut Lipsky Lyrics for 13: Jessica and Michel Comeau THE MUSICIANS : Helmut Lipsky, violin Tobias Morgenstern, accordion Stefan Kling, piano and keyboards Sylvain Gagnon, double bass Daniel Spahni, drums Jessica Comeau, voice on tracks 2,3,4,11 and 13 Karen Young, voice on tracks 6,11 and 15 Michel Comeau, voice on track 11 Luc Boivin, percussions on tracks 2 and 11 Ron Di Lauro, trumpet on track 3 Denis L. Chartrand, accordion on track 15 Jean-Pierre Limoges, sound effects on tracks 6,8,14 and 15 PRODUCTION CREDITS : Produced by: Hans Dieter Steudel Recorded at: Hardstudios, Winterthur, Switzerland in 1996 Sound engineer: Patrick Müller Mixted at: Tyrolis Studios, Eschen, Liechtenstein Mixted by: Patrick Müller and Helmut Lipsky Mastering: Patrick Müller and Helmut Lipsky, Ballhorn Studio in Kyburg, Switzerland Additional recordings and mixings (8,13,14) were done in Montréal, Canada, at Sigma Communications with sound engineer Luc Papineau, at Studio JPL with Jean-Pierre Limoges and at Studio Tapageur with Christian St-Germain. All the instrumental tracks have been played live and no sequencers have been used. Cover Photo: Hans Dieter Steudel Graphic design: Lucie Brunel Design HELMUT LIPSKY Violinist and composer Helmut Lipsky has written music for film, television, radio and multi-media exhibitions. As a performer, he has given numerous concerts at prestigious festivals in Canada (The Montréal and Toronto International Jazz Festivals), the United States and Europe (The Montreux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland). A former violin student of Itzhak Perlman and Ivan Galamian in New York City, he has opened shows of artists like Stéphane Grappelli and Dave Brubeck. He has collaborated with musical personalities as varied as Québec's Gilles Vigneault and U.S. cellist and Grammy Award winner David Darling. He also recorded a duo with another Grammy Winner, harpist Andreas Vollenweider for his album Kryptos on the SONY Classical Label. Lipsky has produced several albums of his own and together with wellknown Canadian jazz artists such as Karen Young, Michel Donato and James Gelfand. He won first prize in the international competition Jazz à la carte and both his CDs Tricycle and Moontide were nominated for best jazz album at the Felix Awards in Montréal, Canada. He also received nominations for best violinist at the Canadian National Jazz Awards and for a Prix Opus in the category best concert of the year by the Conseil Québécois de la musique. For more information about Helmut Lipsky, go to : helmutlipsky.com MOONTIDE - ALBUM NOTES BY HELMUT LIPSKY These songs are moodscapes of joyous and sad, strange and familiar, mysterious and energetic, serious and lighthearted in nature. The first, last and centerpiece form a trilogy of darkness, they are the nights out of which lighter and multicoloured Emotion Pictures emerge. These musical adventures draw inspiration from the experiences of all the musicians featured on this CD, who are fluent in a variety of musical genres including jazz, classical, rock, latin, tango, gypsy or contemporary. They are reflections of the inner and outer realities that shaped our lives and from the world in which we live today. Music is probably the art form that succeeds best at expressing pure emotion, but every sentiment evoked has the power to manifest itself in 1001 shapes and forms. The following ideas and images came to mind, either when I was composing these pieces or later, listening to them. I share them here with you, however I encourage you to let your mind mind freely create its own associations. 1) Moontide Tenderness, fragility, longing, passion, anger, pain... A melancholic slow dance with a perfume of tango and the pulse of desire and despair. 2) Rêverie The first rays of sunlight illuminate the desert. A caravan is passing, camels are loaded with intoxicating scents and spices, evoking mirages... Salome, Schéhérazade, Valentino’s adventures. 3) Heavy Angels The energy of rock united with fanfares of festive trumpets and choirs of heavenly voices. A marriage celebrated in Hell and consumed in Heaven. 4) Felina This is Felina, a girl that can be as tender as a kitten, and as wild and unpredictable as a tiger. 5) Melodia The wind moves the leaves and the mysterious melody is leading you deeper and deeper into the forest. 6) Mad Cow Girl In this “Hamburger Concerto”, I reveal my Swiss and German roots, although somewhat coloured by all those years I lived in New York and Montréal. But why not mix Swiss Folklore and Canadian Country, the cows speak the same language and our adventurous Canadian singer Karen happens to have inherited the talent for yodeling from her mother. So, under these circumstances, who could have resisted? 7) Isis and Osiris The ancient Egyptian Mother goddess and her brother, god of eternal life, transformed into stars that shine bright in our nightsky. 8) Somewhere Deep Inside This piece was written for a multi-media exposition installed at La Cité de l'or, an underground museum in Val d'or, a city in the mining region in northern Québec. The music speaks of the soul and labours of those special people that descend every day into the depths of the earth, providing us with the materials that we use to build our world. 9) It's a Breeze Sail along with us on the waves of our lighthearted fantasies. 10) Gitango The Gypsy violin and the Tango accordion play a tale of passionate love and broken hearts. 11) Voices Are these the voices of benevolent spirits or the tempting seductions of deceptive sirens? I leave it to you to decide. Lyrics by Helmut Lipsky : I am the wind that sings Calling for you My melodies whisper of things Secret from you Hear my song Sing my song I am the breeze of starry nights Soothing your sleep Sending dreams reflecting the lights Coming from deep Dream my song I am the storm that rattles your soul Making you scream Blowing into your glimmering coal Making you steam I can give you all your heart's delights My breath will carry you higher then high Sweeping obstacles out of the sky If you care to listen to my voices calling out for you to sing along 12) Highland Tunin' You finally escaped the spell of the voices and made it back to your village. The local band is celebrating your return with a jig. 13) Jessica While listening to her favorite song, grandmother is suddendly transformed into a young girl, dancing and reliving her first love, when abruptly the spell is broken and she is left with her memories. I wanted our singer Jessica to be her youthful self and left the words up to her, so that she would remember the way she was in 1996, when she listens to the song in 2050 as a grandmother. 14) Driving Home You drive late at night, you enter the city. The monotony of the rain and of your thoughts is coloured by the shapes and lights of buildings reflected and distorted by the water on the streets and on your windows like through a prism, forming vivid images in your mind. 15) La Valse des Bateaux (The Waltz of the Ships) This piece was written for the multimedia exposition “The Port” at Pointe-à-Callière Museum of archeology and history in Montréal. It recounts the modern day version of Gilles Vigneault's tale of the sea, love and death (Le port sait tout de la mer, l'amour, la mort). Two ships pass each other in the night. The dialogue of their foghorn cristallizes into a slow waltz (or Funeral March?). I tried to communicate a maximum of emotion with the simplest of musical ideas, mirroring the monumental minimalism a view of the ocean portrays. REVIEWS "Helmut Lipsky possesses a long resume describing his work as a professional composer and violinist, the result of having recorded numerous CD’s of various descriptions, composed works for television, performed in festivals and written scores for theater and movies. So wide-ranging is his talent that Lipsky has tackled creative projects of these sorts on several continents, starting in his Swiss homeland and continuing in New York when he studied with Itzhak Perlman and on to Montreal, where he currently resides. With an absorptive interest in all aesthetic forms, Lipsky has incorporated elements of literature, theater, film and visual art into his music as well, in a coming-full-circle example of the interrelationships of various art forms. With the release of Moontide, recorded in Switzerland in 1996, Lipsky has collaborated with some of his European associates to bring to life his vivid impressionistic images, mythological depictions or dramatic, even passionate, human encounters..." Don Williamson, jazzreview.com, USA, April 2005 "If a "Red Violin" of the Blue Note exists, it would definitely belong to Helmut Lipsky.
" Jean-Christophe Laurence, La Presse, Montréal, March 1999 "Il est rare de mettre la main sur un aussi beau DC. L'empreinte du talent et de l'âme musicale d'Helmut Lipsky est inéluctablement sur ce disque... Faites le plus beau des voyages en compagnie de Moontide." Francine Charette, Club-Culture.com, June 1999 (http://club-culture.com/poprock/moontide.htm) "Moontide - Une excellente production québécoise fera le bonheur de ceux qui cherchent un certain lyrisme. Ce très beau disque s'inspire de différents univers sonores. Éclaté, mais exceptionnel." Stéphane Desjardins, Accès Laurentides, June 1999 "Moontide manifeste une belle ouverture sur le monde . Ses paysages sonores nous invitent à des épousailles avec la terre." D. Lelièvre, Voir, Québec, May 1999