Recordings from Persona Digital Studio

Persona Classical Consort

The Persona Classical Consort focuses on the music of JS Bach and Amadeus Mozart. Stephen Gislason edits and arranges pieces that are developed in the studio using synthesizer voices and multitrack recording.

P2500 Band

The Band performs both original music written by Stephen Gislason and new arrangements of all, popular tunes. We cover many different styles from different countries. Stephen says: "A good arranger wants to add a personal touch to a well established piece of music. I have been interested in eclectic music and explore a variety of styles in my arrangements. My goal is not the faithful reproduction of the originals but the creation of new arrangements with new instruments and new compositional ideas that become interesting in their own right. When I switch to recording engineer, I have high standards. I strive to achieve the highest audiophile quality for the recordings. "

Jazz The band has followed the path of modern jazz, starting with bebop as invented by Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The path leads to Miles Davis and the extraordinarily talented musicians that played with him and then proceeded on their own innovative paths. Stephen is a trumpet player as well as a keyboardist and synthesizer expert so that compositions that favour trumpet, flugelhorn and electronic keyboards are favored. Jazz players take pride in improvisations on the base of old tunes, often leaving only melody fragments and some chord changes. There has been a remarkable proliferation of musical styles, partly because of "crossovers" that merged blues, country music, rock, and jazz. Latin American, African and Caribbean music merged, especially rhythmically with American and European music. The idea of popular music grew to include this variety of ethnic styles.

Popular Tunes One ongoing project is to recall, rearrange and perform some of the "classics of popular music." Several motivations combine in an interest to arrange and record popular songs of the past 60 years. Bands often emerge with a repertoire of cover tunes that most audiences know and enjoy. Popular songs are played by in countless venues daily by amateur and professional musicians. Often, singers and bands get started by recording popular tunes with their own inflection and stylist changes. Some tunes become standards that are performed and recorded thousands of times. New styles evolve from seed songs that acquire fan bases. Elements of every successful composition are copied into "original" compositions that follow, often multiple copies that create new stylistic groupings.

Sometimes a new arrangement renews a songs appeal or changes its appeal so that its popularity moves toward a new group of listeners. Several of the songs we have recorded have been reproduced many times in recordings by many groups. John Denver's Annie's Song, for example has been recorded a 100 times by different groups. We have treated the songs as classics that exemplify an aspect of popular music that emerged in the 1950s. Many bands and musicians that were popular in the 60s and 70s have been resurrected to play concerts for the "baby boomers' who feel strongly about popular songs they heard as teenagers and young adults. We all have grey hair and have more wrinkles, but musical enjoyment is ageless.

New Music for 21st Century

Under the title of Em4U, we are exploring the best features of advanced electronic music production. The old category "Electronica" is really obsolete since all recorded music is electronic and performance instruments in all popular genres are now electronic. In the good old days when acoustic instruments were in still commonly used, electronic sound production was experimental and intellectual. Progressive universities developed electronic music laboratories and computer geeks collaborated in new ways of music creation. We think that 21st century musicians should be schooled in acoustic physics, psychoacoustics, and studio technologies. 21st century musicians should be required to take an oath " I will never produce noise". Our first listing on the Reverb Nation player is Sumala Siam , inspired by the classical dance music of Siam (Thailand).

More about Em4U

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Many of the topics presented online are from Music Notes by Stephen Gislason.
Download a free copy of the work in progress. Your comments are welcome.

Persona Digital Studio is located on the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. www.personadigitalstudio.com email music@personadigitalstudio.com. Our Music catalogue includes recorded performances by the P2500 Band, Em4U, and the Persona Classical Consort. Music downloads are available from iTunes, Napster, AmazonMP3 and from our companion website: Persona Digital. We have enjoyed association with Reverb Nation who provides an online service for musicians to present and market their music.

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