Time flies...

"Silversongs 1996-2021 (Remakes)" is a companion collection to the "Silversounds 1996-2021 (Remixes)" set, also available on Bandcamp, with the two albums being released simultaneously, on the 25th anniversary of the first CBQ release.

The recordings featured on this collection have their origins in demos from 2017, when I was trying to entice my two then bandmates in Capital Models, Keith Apter and John Weitzen, to become a live version of Cloudland Blue Quartet.

It didn't work though and Capital Models remains a covers band to this day, having originally been one of Edinburgh's best New Wave bands back in 1980, albeit with a different line up.

In 2019, I returned to the recordings I'd made two years previously, (comprising vocals, guitar, bass and rhythm beds) and proceeded to add synths and keyboards and to re-record all the vocals.

The intention, at that point, (with the working title of "SXTY") was for a release in May 2019 to mark my 60th birthday.

In the event, I wasn't happy with the mixes and an album of Soundscapes, "4th May, 2019" was released instead.

In fact, since the final recordings of the instruments on this anniversary set were made, a further 13 CBQ releases have been issued, while these songs continued to wait in the wings.

Although unreleased at the time, it was some of these recordings finding their way to Edward Spark that kick started the work which became the last of those 13 records, "Sparklemusik", which was released here just last month.

Following the completion of work on "Sparklemusik", I returned to the remade songs once again, after another 2 year hiatus.

I completed fresh mixes of all the tracks, changing the make up of some of the instrumentation and even adding a couple of new vocals, including, for one of the tracks, the same vocal I used on the "Sparklemusik" version of the song.

And so, four years after the commencement of this lengthy project, it's time for these recordings to finally see the light of day.

They cover the full 25 year history (thus far) of Cloudland Blue Quartet, with the first song stemming from 1996 and the last handful having been released, albeit in a re-worked format, in 2021.

Every song-based album from Cloudland Blue Quartet, from "Callingstill" to "Sparklemusik" is represented, with a selection of songs from each of the five year periods covered.

I hope you enjoy this journey across the last quarter of a century and that hearing these songs might take you back to the originals versions, all of which are still available on their source LPs, right here on Bandcamp.

And...as a bonus for those who download, from the "Silversongs" sessions, there are the two separated parts of "The Sound of the Fall", a recording of "Fly Across the World", which became "Wonderful Out Here" on "Sparklemusik", plus a 16 song acoustic set (including four songs not on this "Silversongs" set), coincidentally recorded on this very day, exactly ten years ago, the 4th of June 2011.

Time flies...

David Reilly
Edinburgh
4 June 2021