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Mark Northfield

Mark Northfield
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  1. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    2 juni
    Sweet, yearning melodicism from piano trio Cherry Mint Koala.

    For the latest in our ongoing series of recording session videos, we're back to the original Mark Northfield compositions. A Stone's Throw is a sweet and uplifting number, full ...of yearning melodicism. It first made an appearance way back in 2003 on the album Anachronisms, which was given a belated digital release last year via Bandcamp.

    The original song tried to capture the overwhelming feeling that a loved one's head and heart were in another world, and that it was only possible to meet at the border of that world. Together with the coastal imagery infusing the lyrics, the music flows, surges and ebbs, a constant sense of motion apparent. The frequent shifting of time signature belies the smooth melodies intertwining above.

    A Stone's Throw is taken from the forthcoming Cherry Mint Koala album 'Beguiling Transmissions'.
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  2. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    21 mei
    New six track Mark Northfield EP 'Let The Body Go' now available for digital download on CD Baby.

    Includes a cover of Robyn's 'Dancing On My Own' and the Cherry Mint Koala instrumental of the title track.

    (Also available from other retailers such as iTunes or Amazon, but they'll charge you more!)
    ♫ Let the Body Go EP - Mark Northfield. Listen @cdbaby
    www.cdbaby.com
    Click to listen at CDBaby
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  3. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    16 mei
    A little something in the local Wimbledon press for our debut gig this Sunday afternoon. I think they might have misunderstood what a piano trio is though!
    Piano trio Cherry Mint Koala to play Colliers Wood
    www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk
    A talented trio of pianists who call themselves Cherry Mint Koala are set to make their live debut at the Colliers Wood Arts Festival.
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  4. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    15 mei
    The Last Post / It's A Long Way To Tipperary: a poignant reworking from piano trio Cherry Mint Koala.

    Last week we gave you an original Mark Northfield arrangement of the World War One song Pack Up Your Troubles as installment 6 in our Beg...uiling Transmissions series.

    For No 7 this week it is the turn of a contrasting companion piece, intertwining the melody of another marching song from that era - It's A Long Way To Tipperary - with the melody of The Last Post, a well known military bugle call.

    The first section simply has the two melodic lines gently interweaving with no additional accompaniment. As they reach their end together, a simple minor key waltz begins on the piano and the two melodies are then given more space to breathe in that reharmonized context. The concept is a very simple one, but the result is deeply poignant.

    These pieces were first arranged for a WW1 related dance project at West London theatre school ArtsEd, where Mark is the head ballet pianist for the MT degree course. Pack Up Your Troubles was used to accompany the march to war and a battle sequence, together with a reading of the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. The Last Post / It's A Long Way To Tipperary followed, and during it the dead soldiers' ghosts each danced a duet with the partner they had left behind. It was choreographed by David Greenall.



    Debut public performance:

    Cherry Mint Koala will be making their debut public performance at the Colliers Wood Arts Festival in South London on Sunday 18th May, 5pm, £5 on the door. The venue is Christ Church - an amazing acoustic space - a mere minute's walk from Colliers Wood tube station.

    For more details and a map to the venue, see:

    http://collywood.org.uk/arts/


    Cherry Mint Koala

    Piano: Mark Northfield
    Violin: Charlie Brown
    Cello: Tony Woollard



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  5. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    6 mei
    Neil Tennant, Rufus Wainwright and Morrissey co-writing a musical... How else to describe the music of Mark Northfield? Suggestions welcome!

    The new EP 'Let The Body Go' gets a digital release on May 20th and can now be heard in full on So...undcloud.

    Includes the cover of Robyn's 'Dancing On My Own' (as heard on BBC Radio 2!), a free download track called 'Giving You What You Want', and the Cherry Mint Koala instrumental of the title track.     Meer weergeven
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  6. Mark Northfield
    5 mei
    Cherry Mint Koala live debut!
    foto van Mark Northfield.
    Cherry Mint Koala debut public performance @ Colliers Wood Arts Festival
    zondag 18 mei om 17:00 in UTC+01
    Christ Church, Merton Rd, Colliers Wood SW19 2NY
    8 mensen zijn gegaan
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  7. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    27 april
    Imagine Philip Glass at the Penguin Cafe... A gentle piano trio meditation.

    Luco is the fifth in a series of recording session videos by piano trio Cherry Mint Koala. This series will be released as an album entitled 'Beguiling Transmissio...ns' later this spring.

    The song was originally a duet on the 2008 Mark Northfield album Ascendant, sung by Jamie McCarthy and Alexandra Howlett (who also contributed to the follow up Alterations). In a very gentle way, Luco outlined the conflict between one who wants settled security and one who seeks exploration and adventure. The original version can be found on the Mark Northfield Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/mark-northfield/sets/songs-from-the-album-ascendant

    The music is a meditative Philip Glass-esque affair built on simple arpeggios of fifths. When the 'adventurer' melody arrives half way through, it starts on the same note but reverses the direction. There is an intriguing tension and beauty in how these two melodies mirror and overlap one another.

    At the very end, the fifths in the accompaniment climb up and up as if making to escape, but instead they reach their limit and hang suspended as the music fades.

    The Cherry Mint Koala version primarily differs from the original in that the strings take on the slow sustained melodies, while the piano provides the repetitive underpinning. There is a slow, steady tidal quality to this piece; never hurried, never forced.

    -----------------------------

    Cherry Mint Koala will be making their debut public performance at the Colliers Wood Arts Festival in South London on Sunday 18th May. The venue is Christ Church - an amazing acoustic space - a mere minute's walk from Colliers Wood tube. £5 on the door. 5pm start.

    See http://collywood.org.uk/arts/ for full details and other festival events.
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  8. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    19 april
    For those in need of comfort: a song of grief, acceptance and celebration.

    Let The Body Go was written a few days after my mother's death last summer. It was my way of coming to terms with the intense combination of grief and release (she... had suffered with severe chronic pain and mobility problems for many years, with no hope of recovery). The dual-meaning of these four words seemed to capture the essence of those final bittersweet moments better than anything else.

    In part, I wanted to undo time, to rediscover the woman she used to be when physical illness wasn't so all-encompassing, the simple joy and wonder of sensual experience and movement. I also wanted to highlight the enduring gift of love she gave me and my brother, two children adopted and loved as completely as her own flesh and blood would have been.

    So while this song definitely acknowledges the depths of grief, it is at heart an uplifting celebration of life, an encouragement to let love and memory help us deal with the nature of mortality.

    Musically it is serene and beautiful, with simple piano and string accompaniment from my Cherry Mint Koala colleagues Charlie Brown and Tony Woollard. The arrangement tips a hat to the pastoral warmth of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Nick Drake, while also being infused with the late-romantic melodicism of Saint-Saens and Faure.

    My sincere hope is that it will resonate with - and bring comfort to - anyone coming to terms with a profound loss in their own life.

    ---------------------

    The video performance was devised by me and Eva Perdiki Holdsworth (who had previously choreographed a duet for the song Waiting For Green from the 2008 album Ascendant). The second half depicts scenes from a life, while the first half anticipates these movements in a more neutral choreographic way. This is meant to echo the way the lyrics switch from the general to the personal halfway through the song.

    It was filmed by Simon Bennett with assistance from James Goldie, and edited by Simon with assistance from Sam Watts.

    Let The Body Go EP will be released May 20th via CD Baby and other online stores. It will also include the Cherry Mint Koala instrumental of the song, the recording session video of which can be found on the Mark Northfield YouTube channel.
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  9. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    11 april
    A little gig announcement for you all...

    Next month Cherry Mint Koala will be making their debut public performance on the final day of the Colliers Wood Arts Festival, in the rather splendiferous setting of Christ Church, Colliers Wood. ...Plenty of sweet - and savoury - melodic delights in store.

    Sun May 18th, 5pm.
    £5 on the door.
    58 Christchurch Road, SW19 2NY

    The venue is less than a minute's walk from Colliers Wood tube on the northern line, or a short bus ride from Wimbledon.

    Check out the festival website for info about other stuff going on too. Performances, workshops, arty crafty things, pizza... It's all good!
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    Colliers Wood Arts Festival 2014
    collywood.org.uk
    Whether you like cutting edge drama, poetry, short stories or photography, sculpture, indie-bands, choirs or opera divas, the Colliers Wood Arts Festival has something for you.
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  10. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    9 april
    Aurora: a gloriously passionate tango-esque affair by piano trio Cherry Mint Koala, featuring Mark Northfield on piano, Charlie Brown on violin and Tony Woollard on cello.

    This piece is fourth in our 'Beguiling Transmissions' series of rec...ording session videos, leading up to an album of the same name being released later in the spring.

    While the majority of the pieces we’ve recorded so far have tended toward the steady and thoughtful, this one is an altogether more fiery offering.

    It had its first incarnation on the 2012 album Alterations. Back then, soprano Bryony Lang took vocal lead on the flamboyant tale of a wounded mortal heart desiring revenge, her loved one having been stolen by something supernatural. (An in depth description of the original song can be found on the ‘alterations revealed’ page at marknorthfield.com; Aurora is track nine.)

    The Cherry Mint Koala version fairly sizzles with energy. A real fusion affair, the strands of tango in the main theme are clear, but the flavour of the verses is more overtly Spanish. Meanwhile, the violin keeps dragging us eastwards to where the folk traditions of Europe and Asia collide, flattening seconds and trilling profusely.

    One definite musical influence behind the piece is the US ‘mini-orchestra’ known as Pink Martini. Their achingly beautiful music reaches right round the globe for inspiration, and you will rarely hear such a melting pot of languages and cultural connections in one place as on one of their albums. If you’ve not encountered them before, do take the trouble.
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  11. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    2 april · Bewerkt
    Beguiling Transmission no 3: The Calm by Cherry Mint Koala

    Like Sleeping Beauty, this third track - The Calm - first appeared on my 2008 album Ascendant. Sung by the secretive Pearsall Consort (with able assistance once more from the beaut...iful soprano of Bryony Lang) it was also a time-related number. But whereas Sleeping Beauty dealt with the dreamlike passing of centuries, The Calm goes to the other end of the scale and focuses on the briefest of moments: snapshot meetings of the mundane and the extraordinary, as perceived by all our senses.

    (Or alternatively, it's about la petite mort and the grand one, if that kind of frisson is what you're after...)

    The hushed rhythmic repetition of the minor key verse eventually unfolds into a more sustained and intense major key chorus section over a pedal note, twice building only to crash and descend, the second time back to the minor and the opening riff for the cycle then to begin again. When we return for the third time, the very final chord is then left hanging unresolved.

    It was musically inspired by Radiohead (circa OK Computer) and the intense minimalism of Arvo Part.

    The Cherry Mint Koala rendition keeps the dark mystery of the original intact, but where the choral version had an almost icy smoothness in its melodic lines, here the strings bring a somewhat more fragile quality to proceedings.     Meer weergeven
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  12. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    22 maart
    Beguiling Transmission no 2: Sleeping Beauty
    by Cherry Mint Koala

    The original vocal version of this piece was from my 2008 album Ascendant, with a contemplative and surreal fairytale lyric sung by Paul Cozens and 'fat lady' soprano backin...g by Bryony Lang.

    This instrumental version starts very gently with a series of plain arpeggios on the piano and then pizzicato strings, before becoming decidedly sumptuous where the 'chorus' kicks in. It doesn't actually incorporate the vocal melody, unlike some of the other Cherry Mint Koala arrangements, there being more than enough to capture the listener's ear as things stand.

    Musically, it harks back to late 19th / early 20th century romanticism, with a respectful stylistic nod to the worlds of ballet and musical theatre.

    This arrangment was first used in a contemporary dance piece entitled Elements back in 2012, performed by 1st year students at Arts Ed in West London. It was through that first live performance as a trio that Cherry Mint Koala came into being.

    If you're interested, Elements can be found on the 'collaborations' page of my website (marknorthfield.com) with Sleeping Beauty appearing at about the 4.40 mark.
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  13. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    12 maart · Bewerkt
    Introducing... Cherry Mint Koala!

    As well as my solo stuff, I now officially have a 'band'. (OK, a piano trio.) Cherry Mint Koala is the name, and together with Charlie Brown (violin) and Tony Woollard (cello), I've been exploring songs fr...om my back catalogue, giving them a new instrumental lease of life and filming the recording sessions.

    This series of recordings will be released as an album entitled 'Beguiling Transmissions' later in the spring.

    So, Beguiling Transmission no 1 is entitled 'Let The Body Go'. It's a sweet and serene sounding number, though the circumstances of its creation were quite intense.

    It's the only one of the trio pieces not previously released in its sung form, but this will soon be rectified as it's the title track of a digital EP I'm releasing next month (under my usual recording name). More about that and the song itself in due course.

    Meanwhile, enjoy the melodic spell.     Meer weergeven
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  14. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    16 februari
    One of the various things I've been up to lately is putting together a new EP for release in April. It will include some new tracks, my Robyn cover (as heard on Radio 2! Sort of...) and one revisited tune.

    This is the latter: an waltzy acoustic version of a track from Alterations called Some Songs, featuring the larger than life Charlie Brown on violin and yours truly on piano, glock and vocals. Enjoy.
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  15. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    6 september 2013
    I'm finally giving my 2003 album 'Anachronisms' a digital lease of life, 10 years on, via Bandcamp. It's curious to revisit the past in this way, but I always thought it a considerable shame that this early album of mine got lost in those f...ew years immediately before digital distribution became absurdly simple.

    Not only that, but in my current reflective frame of mind it seems strangely apt to take stock of the past. My mother died earlier in the summer and there have been a flood of memories to swim through since. Somehow, listening to old songs helps to knit those memories together and put life events into perspective. Of course, for most people these songs will be completely new, and hopefully of some interest in revealing my more raw singer/songwriter side which doesn't get much of a public outing these days.

    This album originally started life as an 8-track live demo in late 2001 (hence the occasional clatter of fingers on keys) with extra tracks and instrumentation added during 2002 as and when time and money allowed. It features my first ever attempts at string arrangements (Take It From Me and The Well Tempered Improviser), the usual truckload of wistful melancholy lightened with the occasional jaunty rhythm, and no guest vocalists whatsoever. (That foible only began with the Ascendant project.)

    It can be digitally purchased for the entirely reasonable sum of £2.50. Alternatively, you could just listen to it online. After all, who am I to even think of commanding the tide?     Meer weergeven
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  16. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    22 april 2013 in de buurt van London, United Kingdom
    Pleased to see my gentle Robyn cover got posted about on the Cover Me Songs blog at the end of March. I was too busy to notice at the time...
    Mark Northfield Waltzes into Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”
    www.covermesongs.com
    Mark Northfield transforms Robyn's "Dancing On My Own," into a waltz.
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  17. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    10 maart 2013
    OK, so I finally have a proper blog. That only took me a few years! For the relentlessly curious, the title of 'beguiling transmissions' comes from the spoken word lyrics of the song 'Reminders, Remind' from Alterations. So there.
    beguiling transmissions
    marknorthfield.tumblr.com
    music and musings from Mark Northfield
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  18. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    7 januari 2013
    A slightly belated Happy New Year everyone!

    It's all been a bit slow here lately because I broke my collarbone at the end of November (wet leaves, a bicycle and a corner - not a good combination). Nonetheless, I will be doing some mixing v...ery soon for the ongoing piano trio project, and all this sitting around at new year has left me in quite a creative mood, so new songs and ideas are lurking in the undergrowth.

    In the meantime, to match the grey winter skies here in England, here's a bleak and mournful cover I did a few years back of an already bleak and mournful ABBA song: The Day Before You Came (30 years on from the release of the original and the band's subsequent split).

    Another melancholic Scandinavian pop cover I recorded the very same day may also surface sometime soon, providing I can tweak it sufficiently not to get taken to court by a certain major record label!

    It's a long story...     Meer weergeven
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  19. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    28 november 2012
    And here's another from the same Half Moon gig, featuring Andrew failing to hold up Morrissey and Madonna at the correct times throughout the song (my slightly humourous attempt to represent the duet parts of the original), but redeeming hi...mself with rhythmic earnestness.

    It also features Gareth on guitar and BVs, Charlie loitering suspiciously in the background, and yours truly forgetting the words at the end of the third verse. Hey, that's the wonder of live performance. Enjoy.     Meer weergeven
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  20. Mark Northfield heeft een link gedeeld.
    28 november 2012
    I've put a few more live tracks up on YouTube from a gig earlier in the year at the renowned Half Moon in Putney (I was playing on their Good Voodoo night).

    The sound is rather compressed unfortunately, what with it being from a small cam...era placed on a table. However, the picture quality is better than for the songs from the Stourbridge gig. You win some, you lose some!

    This version of Some Songs... is a stripped down waltzy presentation with glock and violin. A properly recorded alternate version for this line-up will be digitally available soon as part of a final EP from Alterations.     Meer weergeven
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