Skating on Thin Ice [Brooker / Reid] 

Aurélie [UK]

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Photo (c) Ian Lewis 2004 Photo (c) 2004 Melinda Gibson
Nick Lewis, voice and all instrumental sounds Aurélie Guinard, voice
Aurélie (www.aurelie.co.uk) comprises Aurélie Guinard (20) and her faithful producer Nick Lewis (also 20, but about three weeks younger). Our version of Skating on Thin Ice is not strictly speaking an Aurélie recording, as it started out as a solo project of Nick’s: but he then decided it would be far better to have Aurélie singing on it too. So then, everything you hear on the track is done by Nick except Aurélie’s voice.

NL: I chose Skating on Thin Ice because when I listened to it I noticed a sort of cabaret vibe which I was very much into at the time, as I was going through a huge Tom Waits phase; and yes, the combination of my rough vocal with Aurélie’s far nicer and more accomplished vocal is a Leonard Cohen thing. I think all the use of electronics was largely influenced by Nine Inch Nails’ re-mix album Things Fall Apart. The sustained block chords in the background which have been called strings or an accordion are in fact 'cello notes sampled from a John Tavener piece. But since they clearly no longer sound like a 'cello and in fact have no relation to his music I think he’ll excuse me for stealing from his recording.

The ending is a very direct homage to Tom Waits.

Edirol PCR-50 MIDI keyboard
AKG Solidtube microphone
Behringer UltraVoice Digital vocal processor
Yamaha A5000 sampler
Edirol DA2496 PCI digital audio interface

Fostex PM-1 monitors
AKG K171 Studio headphones
Guitar: Ibanez Deluxe 59er
Software: Cubase SL, Reason 2.5
Izotope Ozone 2 mastering suite

Tracklisting

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