Habañera (2009)

• Gertrude Létourneau, flutes
• Garry Elliott, guitar

This was recorded in Almonte at the Town Hall building, where we used only the acoustic reverb of the room. I had 6 microphones set up in the room: 2 up close (which are very faint in the mix), two in a ORTF pair about 3 meters from the performers, and a third pair spread relatively wide to capture the room ambiance. It was really important for Garry and Gertrude to have a more natural sounding recording, and less of a studio sound to it, which is why they chose that particular room. Garry and Gertrude gave wonderful performances, time after time, surely inspired by the room. We could hear at times loud motorcycles driving by, and we had to time the performances around the train schedule (it gave us quite a few chuckles when the train passed right at the most intense part of a take!). The room also had its own white noise and creaks, and I ended up recording the “silence” of the room that I used in between the tracks during mastering so that we would not be distracted by the “real” silence between the tracks, much like during a live concert.

“Thanks for doing such a great job on our CD. You’re work was impeccable from start to finish! Also, a big thanks to Nathalie for her wonderful photos.” – Garry Elliott

You can procure the CD from CDBaby. Follow this link.