...continued

But we overcame these issues, and started enjoying the sound of the orchestra. The brass in particular were terrific, blazing away at our big, anthemic numbers. In fact, the first trumpeter was a bit of a showoff, as you can hear to great effect on Will Ye No' Come Back Again and Dumbarton's Drums. In the evening session Neil gave the brass a bit of a ticking off for using their mobile 'phones on the session.

It was a real personal thrill to hear all the orchestrations coming to life, and to play in all the keyboard parts, live with the orchestra. I was also on hand to oversee the sessions, correcting any errors in the parts (hardly any at al, happilyl), setting tempi, particularly in the 'wild' takes, and offering general balancing advice. On some number I didn't use the piano, so Gavin and I sat together and listened to Caledon's babies make their first sounds. The real thundering moments were very exciting.

In retrospect, there were two aspects of the playing that we would like to have done differently. The orchestra played with quite a classical 'European' sound, and I think we should have asked the timpanist to play more boldly and with harder sticks, and the horns to 'razz' more - a more 'American' way of playing. But the priority on the sessions was to get something usable down on disc, and it was only on hearing the mixes back at REL that it seemed we could have used more from those two sections.

By the end of the evening we had multiple takes of all the 'big' tracks in the can. Or hard drive, nowadays. We retired to the hotel for drinks and, by that time of night, the local go-go bars were in full swing. We had to run quite a gauntlet of pimps, ladies of the night and other music lovers to make it back. After a swift Becherovka or two, we decided to pop out for a bit of a sausage; whilst waiting at a stall I almost got accosted by a wee lassie, and it was clear she was after my wallet! We beat a hasty retreat to the hotel.

Next morning we said goodbye to Gavin, whose tracks were completed, and headed back into Smecky where we started with an overdub session - bass clarinet and contrabassoon on Dumbarton's Drums. Bassoon parts are very imortant to me, and being able to record these parts in isolation was a treat; they've come out very well in the mix. The strings plus a select few others (two horns, two percussion) arrived, and we were able to get going on the more lightly scored numbers - Loch Lomond and the Hebridean songs, for instance. I think these numbers are my more successful efforts, musically. Hghland Cathedral's great, and a bit of a mighty old 'rammy', but I feel that numbers like Land Of Heart's Desire, with it's keening, Bollywood-esque violins have come out really well, and leave a bit more space in the mix for the voices.

...continued in Prague in the Spring 3