Almost all tracks are finished and are finally being refined using an expensive studio device called a space-time machine. We are thrilled with the great sound of the pieces! This requires creating new snippets for my website and meticulously adding to the documentation, which Duke works on for days after I leave. By the way, 120 studio sessions mean about three months of work in one go – we've been really busy in the last 17 months! Now we're taking a break from the studio and won't see each other again until the end of February 2025 to rehearse for our upcoming concerts. Studio time for post-production is scheduled for March 2025.

Meanwhile, our project has progressed so far that Duke and I dare to write down a possible order of all the tracks for the CD for the first time - this is really exciting! We are also compiling all the musical information for the booklet and cover regarding the instruments used, which is a pleasure!
Since “Songcatcher & Friends” will be giving two concerts in March 2025, we are now also working on the setlist for them. After all, our last performance was in 2019! Planning the concert also includes planning rehearsal times, travel dates and tickets, and stage technical details.
Musically, we will be working intensively on “Wenn Du vertraust”, “Fire transform me”, “Das alles feiern wir”, “Was wir ernten”, “Where is the moon” and “Freya” in the next few days. I put the last two titles in our audio engineer Christian's project folder for him to look at. When I got back to Eberswalde, Duke surprised me [he was still in the Songcatcher flow, as he said...] with a new, polished version of “Everybody goes home” - this title also goes into the project folder for review. We really achieved a lot in these eight days in the studio!

This time, “special guest” Morgaine and I arrive at the same time. Since she can only stay for two days, the studio time with her is always particularly valuable, so we make the most of every minute. Morgaine records her parts for “Was wir ernten”, “Freya” and a very special part for “Where is the moon”. In return, Duke and I then provide some spoken text. Duke surprises us with a magical arrangement and when the mix is ready, we know that we are experiencing one of those magic moments in the studio! The next morning, we continue with additional vocals for “If You Believe” and “Wenn Du Vertraust”. After Morgaine's departure, both titles will be arranged and mixed.

During crowdfunding, it was – and still is – possible to donate any amount of money. A personal travel postcard of mine was promised to anyone who donated at least 13 euros. ... and so, over the past few weeks, I have written a total of 30 postcards with photo motifs from my 2017 trip to Australia and sent them to Austria, the USA, the UK, Spain and Germany. I have already received some very happy responses!

We are delighted to welcome our dear Morgaine back to the studio! This time - thanks to Ulrike Thomas' great help - we even have sheet music for the songs to be recorded. Duke has already saved the corresponding midi files on his PC and so we can start recording “Das alles feiern wir”, “Everybody goes home” [en], “Where is the moon” [en & de - with changed lyrics] and “Fire transform me” [en, es, de].

After Morgaine's departure, Duke and I continue to work on “There Is no time - Die beste Zeit”, “Freya”, “Was wir ernten” and “Wolfsweise” [with the voices of Sophia & Tabea].

Afterwards, we will focus on Duke's wonderful song “In the Moonlight”. I am very happy that I can now - together with Duke - sing a verse of his enchanting song.

Sophia and Tabea bravely agreed to sing backing vocals for the songs “Was wir ernten”, “Freya” and “There is no time - Die beste Zeit”. They both mastered this challenge brilliantly with dedication, seriousness and joy. Tabea even contributed something for the “Wolfsweise”. Thank you for being with us and contributing to our project in such a wonderful way!

Today is the day – the long-awaited photo shooting with our professional photographer Katha Kutter, who has also taken the beautiful photos and designed the enchanting layout of the first two CDs, is taking place. Katha is traveling with her daughter Anouk, who is supporting our project today with her great assistance. Even though the weather conditions are not ideal, very harmonious photos are taken in the beautiful surroundings of Eberswalde. We are already looking forward to the layout of the cd “Between the stars & the sea”.

… that's what transferring an English-language chant to German presents as. ... It's like playing with different elements: I see fireworks – and set out to arrange something similar with water fountains. The conveyed emotion is key. But that is what constitutes this art: Sing the view, paint the music, dance the eruption of the volcano...
Here you can read Duke's complete article on the topic »transferring an English-language chant to German.

In the meantime, I was able to teach in Norway at the  Outdoor College run by Maike & Günther Hoffmann. My task was to teach 9th grade students songs from my repertoire with joy and enthusiasm, which could support them on their tours through the beautiful landscape of Sirdal, as well as familiarize students with native herbs. I am deeply grateful for this touching experience and also for the appreciation I received.

Back at home, I received wonderful feedback on my first two CDs, joy!
Ravyn Stanfield: "I am loving the cds that you sent. I play them for my acupuncture patients and everybody says how great they are. Thanks for all you do!"
Susan R.: “I'm sitting here listening to your music. My chest is tingling. I don't know what it is, but your music touches me as if I were a resonating body for it. Soul and body react to it. ... You have such wonderful photos on the covers and CDs. You and your friends look so free and alive.”

... we've finished five more tracks in the studio so that they could be presented to our audio specialist, my son Christian, for an early appraisal. These are among others
- “There Is No Time - Die beste Zeit”
- “If you believe”
- “Wenn Du vertraust”
... which you can listen to here:
Music samples for the new CD "Between the stars & the sea".

As an independent producer, I am responsible for the entire project, my wonderful team and the financing of the whole thing. In these almost 90 days, I experienced highs and lows, which I also had to deal with emotionally. It wasn't always easy for me. But I received very touching feedback and words of encouragement that helped me. People I know personally took part, but people I had never met before also expressed their trust in us through their participation. You have all touched my heart.
I know that my team and I are doing a good job and that the result will be fantastic. Producing spiritual songs in three languages and in this particular musical quality is unique. The music will reach and touch people. I'll keep at it and I'm proud that I didn't have to compromise musically or artistically when creating something as beautiful as the CD "Songcatcher & friends - Between the stars & the sea". Blessed be.

... we have achieved a basis for the production of the CD. That's a lot in these times. Many people have pre-ordered a CD or a download or made generous donations, there will even be a concert near Cottbus, Germany. My team and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts, also for your trust. We are happy that you exist.

Musically, we have come a long way with great joy and enthusiasm. My dear friend Morgaine was with us in the studio, we had so much fun together! She had already translated some songs from English into Spanish during our time together at the Spanish Reclaiming Witchcamp. Now Morgaine has sung them, partly together with me - and also supported us vocally and energetically in her charming and cheerful way. THANK YOU!
Just in time for the start of our May sessions, Karan Troubadura delivered the eagerly awaited English version of “If you believe” - you are great, dear Karan! It is a great pleasure and honor to have Morgaine's and Karan's voices enrich our project. Duke and I are totally touched by this and feel mega-supported by you both!

In 2004 I attended my very first International Reclaiming Witchcamp, it was wonderfully titled "Loreley". I chose the Elements Path. Morgaine, who was living in Spain at the time, was our teacher and Brook from the USA was our teacher. We learned the basics - what elements there are in the Reclaiming tradition, how a circle is drawn, what a ritual is, what it can be used for and much more. We drummed and sang songs. I met Starhawk for the first time and was able to support her vocally with the song "My body is a living temple of love". Morgaine and I became close friends. The very next year, she included me in the Spanish Reclaiming Witchcamp that she founded. We organized this camp together every year until 2012, with a lot of love and dedication. [At that time, I didn't have my own computer and therefore no internet. I worked on our Witchcamp project in my office at night and then spent the night there with a sleeping mat and sleeping bag]. Through the opportunity to teach and various other tasks that Morgaine gave me, I began to develop into the ritual musician I am today. I owe her a lot!

Susan R.: "Someone told me about your new CD project. I became curious and listened to your music. I was in tears with deep emotion. I'm already looking forward to the two CDs and the new one. Thank you for creating, preserving and sharing songs. You are a bard just like in the old days. You warm my heart. Thank you."
***
Sylvia R.: "I'm so excited you have a new CD coming - I listen to both your old ones so often. They lift me up when I'm feeling disconnected from life. I hope it all goes well."
***

Peti Songcatcher & team wish you lots of fun - enjoy!

Crowdfunding for the new CD "Between the stars & the sea"

In order to be allowed to produce songs by other authors on the CD, I have to officially ask them for permission and offer appropriate compensation. Formulating these requests is one of the biggest challenges of the project for me, sometimes it takes days before I can send such an email. And then the anxious question - will I get the longed-for approval for this wonderful, unique song? We were sad to have to say goodbye to the song "Bone by bone". Two requests are still open at the moment. To our great joy, however, several authors have accepted (see photo). One of the biggest gifts came from San Francisco, from my beloved reclaiming community: „Reclaiming Collective grants to Peti Songcatcher the right to record and distribute Reclaiming’s song LET IT BEGIN NOW, in any and all formats, presently and in the future. This letter confirms that reclaiming is the copyright holder for this song, written by Starhawk and originally copyrighted 1992. Please credit STARHAWK/RECLAMING.” Goosebumps and tears of joy!

Done on 20.03.2024: Receipt text for project-related Paypal payments
Done on 19.03.2024: Request permission for one more song
Done on 19.03.2024: The offer from Polycopy is available.
Done on 18.03.2024: Date for the photo shoot is set!
Done on 06.03.2024: Thank you email to George Franklin regarding the song "Let it begin" by Starhawk/Reclaiming
Done on 05.03.2024: Call Polycopy for an offer for the new production: CD1 and CD2 were pressed and printed there in 2012 and 2014.

Done by 03.03.2024:
Translation of the crowdfunding page checked
Wrote to two authors asking for permission to produce their songs
Answered various emails that reached me as loving and enthusiastic responses to my two newsletters
Paypal buttons created for the crowdfunding page [pure hard work]

... and much more.

Open:
Developing a strategy for the brand new Bandcamp account and filling it with content [medium term]

On the last studio day in March, we venture into "Let it begin now" by Starhawk, in the German version by Duke the chant is called "Alles beginnt". I regard singing the famous reclaiming spiral dance song in English as quite a challenge. But the various instruments played by Duke create a wonderful foundation on which I can sing with confidence. For the joint singing, we again use "Wolfi", the ribbon microphone, which makes it possible to record both voices at the same time - which is also a particular pleasure for us. Thanks to Duke's hard work, we got a first version late in the evening, which will accompany the start of the crowdfunding, whew!

In this session week we are mainly working on vocal recordings and arrangements of "Wenn Du vertraust", the German version of "If you believe", it's a pleasure! Of course, we also do some shopping and cooking in between, good food is important to us.

At the beginning of a studio recording for Songcatcher & friends there is usually just a song text with a melody. More often than not it is still completely open what the song should or wants to become. Therefore the first step is to pin the melody down using a keyboard. "Latte", the master keyboard (an M-Audio Keystation 88) – itself not a sound generator, but just a controller keyboard with 88 piano keys –, is connected by default to the DAW, the "digital audio workstation" (the music arranging program in the computer), whereby an ordinary piano sound is preset: the best way to capture the melody. ... Here you can read the full description of our »recording in the studio.

It's about enchanting and being enchanted - and while the technical means for this need only be given, I am more inspired than I have been for a long time, both in terms of content and in terms of ideas for formal presentation.
Duke Meyer on Patreon

"Freya" is provisionally completed during this session. Now we dare to approach "If you believe - Wenn Du vertraust". This song is a big challenge for both of us. Fortunately, the new microphone "Wolfi" is delivered to the studio right now, which improves our mood immensely.
Duke says about his song "Wolfsweise": Originally written in 1995 under the title "Nachtlauf" during a home recording session, WOLFSWEISE only became a chant around a decade later in a family sweat lodge. "Tiefenstreif", the new 5-string electric bass in the studio, inspired the new instrumentation. During the vocal recording, we were able to face each other for the first time and sing simultaneously into the same microphone that we bought for this chant (and therefore called "Wolfi").

It is with great pleasure that I publicly announce for the first time that a new CD by Songcatcher & friends will be released:

Newsletter in German language [> 500 subscribers]
Newsletter in English language [ [> 100 subscribers]

... on the initial impression of the tracks "Bone by bone", "There is no time - Die beste Zeit" and "When you leave - Wenn Du gehst". Of course, there are still a few subtleties to be fine-tuned, but overall there is praise for us: "It all sounds great and is at a high level!" Thank you, we are delighted!

During our company outing at Musikhaus Thomann, Duke had been very keen on this bass, and the hour-long rehearsal with it seemed quite intimate. The bass arrived today. It represents the first part payment for Duke's studio work on my project.

"Bone by bone" is provisionally completed during this session. I now send our recording to the author, accompanied by a detailed letter asking her to allow me to produce this wonderful song on "Between the stars & the sea". And so we start to wait for the answer...
We now have our heads free to continue working on "Freya" and "When you leave - Wenn Du gehst", the second song is also finished for now. Duke starts to work on his song "Wolfsweise", which he wrote back in 1995. I'm really excited about this song!

At the beginning of the project we (naturally) euphorically and enthusiastically "threw ourselves" into the musical production, now we are catching up on structural things and spending a lot of time working on a shared online workspace. Data can now be exchanged efficiently and quickly, which makes the process much easier.

The following instruments were involved in the recording of this title:

1st row, from left to right:
Klopfrosch
Schwirrussel
Paling

2nd row, from left to right:
Stauby Wartmeister
Night eye
Autumn fire

or

voc [Peti], b, tr, e-git, perc

"There is no time - Die beste Zeit" is completed for the time being during this session, while we continue to work on "Bone by bone". We start with the first recordings of "Freya" and "When you leave". "Freya" was written by Elin Hejll from Sweden. She wrote this rousing song for the first German goddess conference, where we first met in 2010.
In spring 2017, my path led me to the Cloud Catcher Reclaiming Witchcamp in Australia. Alphonsus, a gifted musician from our community, whom I already knew from the American Free Activist Reclaiming Witchcamp, taught a - how could it be otherwise - Music Path there. He had written the chant "When you leave" to help himself cope better with the departure of loved ones, he told us before he sang the song. I was very touched by that. Alphonsus and I agreed that the whole camp would sing the song together to say goodbye, before the start of our last meal together. For me, this meant standing on the sidelines with my little H2Zoom recorder and waiting patiently for Alphonsus to come up and start the song. If I missed this one moment, there would be no recording, the opportunity would be lost forever. But then Alphonsus came, I pressed the record button at the right time and we all sang together, what a great experience! Today you can listen to how the song sounds with around 80 voices - we have integrated part of it into our interpretation. We love you, Alphonsus.

The work on "Bone by bone" continues and we are slowly getting into the groove.
During these studio days we experience magic moments in finding German lyrics for "There is no time" - "Die beste Zeit" [Duke Meyer] as well as for "When you leave" [Duke Meyer & Peti Songcatcher], we are both very inspired and enthusiastic! I have the idea of taking pictures of the instruments for each song and am already thinking about the setting and decoration. The song "There is no time" by Veronica Appolonia has been close to my heart for a long time, it is simply a wonderful opening song for rituals.

We start this new era with the long-awaited Songcatcher & friends company outing to Musikhaus Thomann. We have a lot of fun trying out instruments and the latest studio technology. On the next morning we go to Duke's studio Echsenflug Æstheticks: it's studio day 1 and we start recording the track "Bone by bone".

At my request, Duke got once again deep into a poetic mood and found beautiful German words for two well-known songs from the Reclaiming tradition: Starhawk's song "Let it begin" is now called "Alles beginnt" in German and "We are the kiss" by Gerri Ravyn Stanfield became "Wir sind der Kuss". Both songs have now been included in the "Songcatcher & friends" concert program in English and German, much to the delight of the German audience.

In 2018, I traveled to Seattle and finally got to meet Veronica Appolonia in person - what a pleasure! She is a wonderful songwriter and presented her multi-verse element song "If you believe" to a group of dear friends. I was totally impressed and asked Duke for a translation into German. This extremely successful German version is called "Wenn Du vertraust". It premiered in 2019 at the Austrian summer concerts of "Songcatcher & friends".