Listen to Symphony North: The Bell Ringer, Part 3

[@IllumeEltanin]

I’m glad you enjoyed The Bell Ringer, Jim. I probably made a mistake last year in requesting the narrated play through video. Personally I prefer the story of a concept album to be told to me along with the music, but that obviously doesn’t appeal to everyone, and especially with the very countrified accent of the narrator telling the tale. I’m glad the music and musicianship in just the play through touched you. I understand you had a bit of a chat with Peter Orullian, so hopefully your questions were answered. As far as I understand, this was recorded during lockdown, so yes. Everyone recorded their parts remotely. I don’t know if the play through videos are the actual recorded masters for the album, or if they were done separately. But I’m blown away by the mixing and synchronization of this performance as well. I am hoping to catch a performance of The Bell Ringer live one of these years. This year their scheduled shows were in the Northeast of the US, so I was unable to plan to attend them. But, apparently Peter lives here in Washington State, so I’m hopeful a performance will be scheduled again for the Greater Seattle area at some point. While I don’t expect their shows to be as grand as T-SO’s concerts, of which I’ve been to seven so far, I do think the story telling and performance will be just as compelling. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! 🎉 And Happy New Year! 🎉

[@kenl2091]

While we're on the Christmas trip, I forgot to recommend Mogwai's 'Christmas Steps' - their sleighbell drenched medley of Steps tunes. The bit of Tragedy has to be heard to be believed. Ho ho ho! Meanwhile, I quite liked the James LaBrie bit of this piece.