As I indicated back when I first posted this, I hoped to participate in a local training weekend for musicians and sound engineers in collaboration with Visible Music College in Memphis, Tennessee, that included the professional recording and mixing of songs that we the participants wrote (one each), as well as basic instructions on techniques, tricks and resources for mixing and producing music professionally.
That recording went well (though it very nearly didn’t happen at all*) and in due time I received a mixed and raw multitrack version of the song, so I could practise the mixing techniques I’d been taught. I then had some vocal instruction from the amazing Moira Greyland Peat, who’s strength, grace and generosity of spirit despite a truly harrowing childhood is an inspiration to many, and resung an improved version of the vocals at home, then mixed it together to produce this final version that I hope will be enjoyable and uplifting.
For the rest of this month it will be available via the CD Baby store for the princely sum of 99 cents, (all other outlets are the same price, but the CD Baby store link above gives the best royalty per sale). Clicking on the image below shows all the outlets where you can stream or download the song.
Melody and Lyrics by Ben Zwycky, accompaniment by Tomas Pavlicek
Vocals Ben Zwycky, keyboard Tomas Pavlicek, guitar Michal Petras
(*I completely lost my voice a week and a half before the weekend, only heard its musical accompaniment for the first time about an hour before we were supposed to demonstrate our songs to show that they were worth recording, while my voice was still shaky, and a scheduling conflict meant that we ended up doing our full recording half an hour after the window for recordings was supposed to close.)
This has been a long time coming, and I am happy to finally announce the launch of Hard Moon by David Hallquist.
It was a pleasure to edit this book (as well as the rest of the trilogy), and I’d like to think I made valuable contributions to making it as awesome as it is.
Injected with an alien monster, left for dead, and now hunted by the most powerful men in the solar system.
Surprised to find himself alive in a freezing medical waste dump on Luna, and with an alien creature trying to devour his body and mind from the inside, Brandt Wills slowly remembers who he was and how he got in this mess. He discovers he is not the only victim of a hellish secret laboratory performing vile experiments on humans. His only way forward is to fight for his life, his sanity, and his soul against the most powerful forces in the solar system.
Enjoy David Hallquist’s thrilling debut novel and book one of the outstanding Singularity Crisis trilogy
Books 2 and 3 are available for preorder, and will go on sale on the 13th of January and of February.
Lyrics, melody and vocals by Ben Zwycky, musical accompaniment by Sean McCleery
Cover art by Corey McCleery
Selected images and colliding planets animation from pixabay
Stock effects from footagecrate.com
Jupiter image from NASA Juno Mission
Balcony figures by Lee Madison
3d modelling and animation in Daz Studio, audio editing in audacity, and video editing, animation, additional effects and post production in Hit Film Pro by Ben Zwycky.
Lyrics to the song:
There is No War That Can be Harder Fought
There is no prize more worthy to be sought,
There is no war that can be harder fought,
Than for the fate of your own very soul,
For eternal are the stakes and goals.
There is a beast that grows inside of me;
One of great strength and raw hostility.
I do not dare let it take full control,
For each time it takes an awful toll.
Its powers have saved my life so many times,
Down in these dank and deadly lunar mines.
The ones who forced this beast into my veins
Shall reap a vast and wrathful hurricane.
I must survive and tell of what I know,
And put an end to this great horror show;
To think that with this monstrous form they can
Improve upon a mortal man?
This is my goal, for now at least I live,
This is the sacrifice that I must give,
To fight for justice, stop those evil men,
And perchance, to find true life again?
So endure! And persist!
Against all expectations inhumanity resist!
Take control! Reach that goal!
Against all expectations work to purify your soul!
Win this war! Beat the odds!
Bring down those men who see themselves as mighty demigods!
This is a song that I hope to record one day, perhaps there will be an opportunity to do at a meeting of musicians in February of next year.
A Hope That Burns
There is a hope that burns
Right through the strongest walls,
Freeing your heart and soul
To truly fly, beyond the sky;
There is a truth so deep
It helps you see the light
That floods the world right through
In every place and every time,
You just need to reflect it,
And redirect it
To make the shadows flee
And help the blind to see
That you are loved, that you are treasured
By Him above, who gives without measure;
There’s nothing that He can’t do, He has good plans for you.
There is a love so pure
It shames the proud to bow,
It fills the poor with joy,
That they’re so much more than a toy.
He’s calling you home, there’s no need to roam;
He’s prepared a place for you under a sky so blue,
Lit by His glory, that’s the point of the story
He’s been telling through every life,
There you can truly thrive,
So come on home, there’s no need to roam;
He’s prepared a place for you under a sky so blue,
Lit by His glory, that’s the point of the story
He’s been telling through every life,
There you can truly thrive,
So come on home.
(to the tune of “You Raise Me Up” by Rolf Løvland/Brendan Graham)
The Angels Roar
The angels roar in triumph at Your victory,
They stand astounded at Your wondrous plan;
Your glory far outweighs all our sufferings,
Your beauty lifts our hearts with hope again.
Your promises are surer than the mountains,
The path to you is hard but worth each step;
You give us strength to walk on through the deepest pain
Your gift of life is mightier than death.
So when our days are full of heavy burdens,
When it seems the darkness never ends,
There’s one thing of which we can be certain:
We have in You the greatest of all friends.
The world is lost and drowning in its hubris,
Devoid of kindness, bitter to its core,
So deserving of consignment to the abyss,
And yet you came to offer so much more.
The angels roar in triumph at Your victory,
They stand astounded at Your wondrous plan;
Your glory far outweighs all our sufferings,
Your beauty lifts our hearts with hope again.
When unseen forces press upon a young man’s soul to find his place
In something so much grander than his daily wants and woes,
What foolish quests and sophistries will the world place in his way,
And how can we direct him to a far more worthy goal?
With stories and examples that inflame his spirit’s noblest fires
Of faithfulness and prudence, vitality and craft,
Courage and discernment, love that wades through mire,
Of fortitude in service with purity of heart
To the One who loves us more than we can ever know
Who invites our souls to soar above the vile flow
Of sewage that this world pretends is culture, virtue, truth;
But really serves the foulest ends and drains away their youth.
He heals our deepest scars of shame and cleanses us of sin
Burns off our dross, shares in our pain, and asks to be let in
That we may tread the narrow way and scale the holy hill;
To bask in bright refreshing day and find our rest until
We’re called to fight beside Him and destroy the Devil’s hordes
Renew what does delight Him and find our great reward,
That all might see true justice done, infused with mercy grand;
The cruellest tyrants are cast down, the humble asked to stand
And look upon the One who gave himself for one and all
Hung upon a brutal cross and given bitter gall
That we might know the joy that He gave up for our own sake
And share in the great glory that was His alone to take.
He knows us, yet still fills these jars of clay with treasure lavishly
And has prepared above the stars a place in His great family.
Where all our virtues are perfected, our flaws are washed away,
All is seen with new perspective, and we are here to stay.
Today is the second Sunday of Advent, here is the English and Czech of the Second Sunday poem
Bronze Sunday
Bronze shields and spears arranged in ranks
To form the fearsome Greek phalanx
Conquered nations far and wide;
Now there’s a new source of Greek pride:
Bold theories and insightful thoughts
That they debate in marble courts.
“Whose wisdom can outshine our own
Or that of our great pantheon?”
Twixt oracles and temples grand
In Athens a small altar stands
Placed there as a reverent nod
To an as yet unknown god.
But soon That Day will come.
Bronzová neděle
Bronzové štíty a v zákrytu kopí
falangy Řeků když moci se chopí.
Kdo může odolat moci a síle,
přichází Řekové a jejich chvíle.
Nádvoří dlážděné mramorem skvělým
debatám naslouchá, myšlenkám smělým.
“Před naší moudrostí každý se sklání,
vznešený pantheon – bez srovnání!”
V zajetí chrámů, kde lid bohy vzývá,
v Aténách oltář prostý se skrývá
Prostý a vážný uprostřed všeho
k uctění boha neznámého.
The Zwyckyverse 