Synthetic to Organic: Citadel guitarist takes you from distant space to the desert sands!

Citadel guitarist/vocalist Rejyna, offers two more fresh songs from her new CD, IDIO.
‘Mandolian Mirage’ is a mando-laced folk-rock piece that transforms you into a nomad, blissfully roaming the desert sands.  ‘Galactic Projectories’ is an android-voiced rock anthem casting you as the last organic human to narrowly escape from assimilation by thrusting yourself into deep space.

Both cuts are from Rejyna’s new CD, IDIO, available at cdbaby.com/cd/rejyna3   Rejyna is a live-looping artist who uses pedals and effects with her voice, guitar, synth guitar and drums to create lush songs that sound like a full ensemble.  Her work in the band Citadel gives her a prog-metal and folk-world edge that slices nicely thru her solo presentation featuring a diverse palette of song stylings.

GALACTIC PROJECTORIES
Click Here To Listen on ReverbNation
Click Here To Listen on SoundCloud
LYRICS:

“Imagine you are the only human who is not sync’d to the galactic mainframe.  It’s against the law to be an ‘organic’ – to be without cyber implants, nanotech plasma pumps and A.I. i/o – – – and you’re on the run…”

Long are the days
in the dark on the run
Star upon star
rendering dawns with no suns

Outlawed and betrayed
and bountied and shunned
Off-grid genetic codes,
the damage is done –

Gaze into the null of the void
Swim in the slicing silence of space,
last of your kind, last hope for your race

Beyond the stars, beyond the sky
Beyond the earth, beyond the light

Cascading nebula rainbows of light
Outside space, between fire and ice
Endless horizon line, light-speed wave ride
Surfing and sailing anomaly tides

Cold ironsides with arrays of pulse guns
Laser guides, crew AI, replicant sons
Solitude, servitude, sterile and sanctified
Frantic and fraught, fretting with compromise

Wake in a state of delusional dreams
Nothing perceived is as it would seem
Studied and probed, abducted, displayed
Galactic projectories or cerebral charade?

Beyond the stars…

MANDOLIAN MIRAGE
Click Here To Listen on ReverbNation
Click Here To Listen on SoundCloud
LYRICS:

Sand fills the day’s horizon line,
there’s not much time
until the colder nights arrive
and white Winter stars align, a sign…

Enticed mandolian mirage,
safe passage through the tempest

The sky, the silence
The day, no shade
The night wind violently
etches furrows in my face

Gitano gently luring
sweet sounds surround
a solemn sunset in the sands

See what you are
in echoes of an army of guitars
Mirrors from sand,
silvered glass in the nomads land

Dance, dance
Renounce the silence with your hands
Sing, play
Our voices amend night into day

The mind, the vision
The heart in hand
Reflection enduring
Slake essence alluring

The sky, the silence
The day, no shade
The night wind violently
erases footsteps without a trace

Enticed mandolian mirage,
dream salve soothes chafe and chaff
and strums reflect like water flowing…

TECH TIDBITS: All music recorded using multiple memory slots on one Digitech JamMan Solo, vocals sung thru a DigiTech Vocalist Live Pro, loops stitched and massaged in SoundForge.  No midi guitars or synths were used on these songs.  All musical sounds are acoustic guitars (Ovation and Yamaha) thru the Boss GT3 effects board, and drums are played on a Yamaha DD55.  No tape machines, virtual multi tracks or DAW’s were harmed (nor used) in the making of these recordings – this is indie DIY…enjoy.

From the CD, IDIO, by Rejyna

Warning: Live Loops Ahead…

http://cdbaby.com/cd/rejyna3

c. Rejyna Douglass-Whitman  (BMI)

Published by W.E./Citadel of Cynosure Productions (BMI). All Rights Reserved.  Unauthorized duplication, repurposing, exhibition or performance is prohibited by US and international copyright laws.  Citadel is a registered US Tradename, used herein with exclusive permission.

Rejyna tours annually every October as part of the LoopFest concert circuit from Seattle to Long Beach and beyond.  A prolific poet, artist, composer and producer, she also works in the film and print industries and performs regularly in and around Los Angeles.
http://facebook.com/rejynamusic
http://reverbnation.com/rejyna
http://soundcloud.com/rejyna
http://twitter/rejyna
http://youtube.com/rejyna

‘Common Voice’ from the new IDIO CD!

Citadel band member, Rejyna, has uploaded a 2nd song from her new CD, IDIO, titled ‘Common Voice’

Hear the song here:
Soundcloud:  https://soundcloud.com/rejyna/common-voice-go-easy
ReverbNation:  http://www.reverbnation.com/rejyna/song/22180153-common-voice

Rejyna notes, “this is a fun song to play and the words hold a lot of meaning for me.  We have choices and freedoms that many do not and the lyrics to this song remind me to stay active, stay vigilant, stay alert and above all – add my common voice to the cry for liberty for all – and of course, the guitarist in me loves playing the shred leads between acoustic rhythms – and playing the drums and having the looper repeat what I play is something that appeases the novice drummer in me…”

01 – Common Voice (Go Easy)
There was a time
when the common voice among us
had no chance to dare a king
Dreams and wondering
were smothered into suffered silence
subjugated by imperial strings 

Now’s the time
for the common voice among us
to challenge netharias kings
Songs and sidewalk speeches
struggle to abate the silence,
to stay the liberated from surrendering 

Do we see it’s all all right? 
Do we see it’s all of light?

Still the surf and the noble
share a common threat
as our homeworld
suffers from neglect –

Easy, go easy
Say you want to love
Say you are for love

Right now, shout it out,
roundabout, all around the world.
Write it down, right it out,
your mind light can shine now.

Make your rhyme outside time
Speak your mind
to eyes blinded by the fright
Use, lose, abuse
or choose to unite
There are no second chances
to roll the liberty dice…

Music recorded using multiple memory slots on one JamMan Solo, Vocals sung thru an SM57 DigiTech Vocalist Live pro and tracked on a DigiTech GNX4, loops stitched and massaged in SoundForge.

Rejyna: IDIO ~ http://cdbaby.com/cd/rejyna3

From the CD, IDIO, by Rejyna
http://cdbaby.com/cd/rejyna3
c. Rejyna Douglass-Whitman  (BMI)

Published by W.E./Citadel of Cynosure Productions (BMI). All Rights Reserved.  Unauthorized duplication, repurposing, exhibition or performance is prohibited by US and international copyright laws.

IDIO CD Pre-Release 10-1-14: Liner Notes and Looptober Tour Dates

New ‘IDIO’ CD by Citadel guitarist, Rejyna
Pre-Released Digital-Only at CDBaby.com
Looptober 1st (October 1st)

REJYNA – IDIO – LINER NOTES

Contemplating a new release, I wondered if there may be some song seeds in my ‘audio journal’ of snippets. Always endeavoring to keep creative juices flowing, I have amassed an enormous library of musical ideas created spontaneously during rehearsals and sessions.

To record an album (before I owned a looper) I’d use a handheld audio or video recorder to capture spur of the moment ideas. Later, I’d sift through them, looking for pieces that spoke to me most to take through development – first musically developing them on guitar, then lyrically; finding phonetics, then matching those sounds with words and concepts. The goal is to make demo guides for future conventional recording sessions. It can be a tenuous, time-hogging, expensive endeavor.

More recently, instead of my former way of capturing inspirations, I’ve been using a looping pedal, the DigiTech JamMan Solo. It’s like a foot-controlled recorder; you record yourself playing, and then it repeats that phrase while you add layers of accompaniment on top of it – storing each variation as uncompressed wave files in memory spaces on an SD card.

I use this pedal extensively in my live shows, rehearsals and jams. Once it is full, I transfer those files to my computer so I can again fill it up with ideas. It has become my song notebook.

I realized I had over 2500 snippets. I was surprised that the sound quality was good and that my musical execution of various parts were acceptable to me as ‘final cuts’ – at least in the spirit of being improvised spontaneously. I did not practice or pre-write anything, it was all written and recorded on-the-fly.

I set about stitching and massaging a few of these ‘loops’ using SoundForge software, then stem mixed the music and loaded it onto my DigiTech GNX4 workstation to write lyrics and record lead vocals.

In all my other releases, songs were honed and rehearsed, solos and lyrics and accompanying instrumentation were all developed over time and with lots of rehearsing before going to the studio to record.  But this release is just the opposite – improvised, on the spot, no do-overs, no punch-ins – just my inner voice saying “wow, this is a cool riff, I wonder what I can put with this” – and then getting lost adding, subtracting, layering and experimenting and fast filling up those memory ‘slots’on the JamMan.

I could say these songs are ‘accidental’, but I see all of my art as discoveries. I rarely ‘intend’ anything. My ‘artisan discipline’ is to grab the tools (guitar, paintbrush, pen, mouse, etc.) and let it come out of me – restricted by neither conscious effort nor aim for predicted result.

I also approach the creation of lyrics and vocal melody with this ‘hands-off’ approach. I first sing along to my song, not using words, just sounds and phonetics. Looking for vowels and unique syllable potentials, I record these mumblings onto one track and then study them for actual words that match. After finding those matches, I have a skeletal framework for what the message and balance of lyrics will elude to.

Often times, the sounds of the music will lead me to a ‘picture’ and I’ll write using phonetics towards the goal of ‘painting that sound picture with words’ – such as Mandolian Mirage, which sounded like a song about the desert to me or Jorie Green Thumb, whose sounds conjured images of my mom in her garden. Other times, there will be words that come to me during the initial recordings, as in Beyond My Back Door or Too Long Gone. When I listened to the music of Android Pageant, before it had that name, it sounded like a parade of robots to me, hence its name. And then there’s Quacky…

Whether I’m able to arrive at coherent or relevant musical/lyrical results is a risk I enjoy, especially in contrast to contrived process of theming intentionally.

I was really just noodling between songs in rehearsal when these nuggets presented themselves. No sophisticated equipment, just ‘one takes’ on a mono pedal recorder, stacked and layered in various combinations. I was ready to release this as an instrumental CD but my mom wanted to “hear me sing more” – and a few others who heard the first mixes confirmed mom’s advice. I am glad I listened to the counsel of my mentors – this was fun to write.

The title ‘IDIO’ came to me after studying a graphic I made using symbols for ‘record, play, repeat’ electronic buttons. I noticed the arrangement spelled IDIO – so I looked it up and it fits my approach to this release perfectly; distinctive, personal, unconventional, informal unique…

And for the gearheads (like me): At the time of this recording, I used one JamMan Solo pedal connected (fed) by the FX send of my mixer so that all channels going thru the mixer (voice, guitar, drums) could be sent to the looper and brought back into the sound system through a discreet channel on the board. I played my 1980’s Ovation Balladeer and Yamaha APX500II thru a 1980’s Boss GT3 multi-effects board. I also used a Tyler Mountain Ovation-style electric mandolin. I sang backing vocals and most chorus/looped lines thru an ATM73a Audio-Technica headset mic, the lead vocals were sung using the Shure SM57 (that I’ve had since high school) into the GNX4 – my mikes are routed thru a DigiTech Vocalist Live Pro harmonizer/effects unit. My mixer is a Yamaha MG82cx and my drums/percussion are played on a Yamaha DD-55 electronic kit. No drum machines, sequencers or synthesizers are used on this recording except for the use of my Godin Freeway SA synth guitar thru a Roland GR-20 for some additional sounds on ‘Jorie Green Thumb’.

I hope you enjoy the adventures collected here; my goal is to inspire others to tap into their own creative inclinations. Instead of waiting for expensive gear, big budgets, approval of others, or the time when everything is ‘just right’ – I purport an axiom relevant to this release:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
[T. Roosevelt] – in other words, act now – in word, deed, art, sight, sound or voice – the how is our choice.

CD Pre-Sale Link will be: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rejyna3

Rejyna will be touring to promote this album and the release of her DVD from the 2013 Looptober Tour.
Catch one of her shows:

10/10  – The Royal Room – 5000 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle , WA, 98118 – 8PM

10/11  – The Analog Cafe – 720 Southeast Hawthorne Bl., Portland, OR, 97214 – 5PM

10/12  – Milagros After Hours – 1465 Siskiyou Bl., Ashland, OR, 97520 – 9PM

10/19  – Tannery Arts Center – 1050 River St., Santa Cruz, CA, 95060 – 10PM

10/22  – DiPiazza’s – 5205 E Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA, 90804 – 6PM

 

rejyna.com – citadelband.com

Follow Rejyna on Facebook, ReverbNation, ArtistData, Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud and more.
All Content is c. Rejyna Douglass-Whitman/Citadel/Whitman Enterprises
Citadel is a Registered US Tradename, Used with Exclusive Permission

MySpace Playlist by Citadel!

For the MySpace peeps, here’s a new Citadel playlist on MySpace Music!  

Add Citadel songs to your profile and download Citadel freebies!

Profile Playlist by Citadel.

IMPROVIJAZZATION Citadel CD Review Now Online!

The New Citadel CD has just been reviewed by the one and only Rotcod Zzaj in IMPROVIJAZZATION Nation! 

Check out http://zzaj.freehostia.com/Z93Reviews.htm– and read concise and insightful reviews of many artists and styles! 

We are honored and humbled!  Wow! 

Rotcod Zzaj (aka Dick Metcalf) is an improvising keyboardist and spoken-word artist who has been playing and producing music for over 30 years now.  More info and links to his deep, passionate and revealing reviews of thousands of artists can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rotcod-Zzaj/46429413343
be his ‘fan’ while you’re there too!

Thanks so much Dick!

Folks, Spread the Word and read IMPROVIJAZZATION!

Citadel iPhone Application!

In case you hadn’t heard the new Citadel iPhone application is your way to experience Citadel full on.   New songs, photos, videos, puzzles…the Citadel iPhone app is just what you need! 

…and it’s only 99 cents – woo hoo! 

Citadel ® iPhone Music, Videos, Photos & more!

Get it by clicking here while it’s .99!

The Citadel iPhone Application is brought to you by Citadel and iLike.

Visit http://www.ilike.com/artist/citadel for more of what You want in online entertainment!

Visit http://www.citadelsongs.com,  http://www.citadelmusic.org, or http://www.citadelband.com, for more pathways into the Citadel ® Galactic Expanse!

D’ANthologie 2 – coming very, very soon…

Stay posted to your trusted Citadel ® source (ilike, cdbaby, itunes, facebook, etc…) because the newest CD is on it’s way – follow the progress by following us on Twitter – we’re ‘citadelband’ and we’re ready to unleash the amazing midi guitar on your ears…are you ready?

http://cdbaby.com/all/citadel

Citadel ® Cover Art by Rejyna Douglass-Whitman

Clicking the image will take you to the link, but it won’t be active until CDBaby uploads the content (approx. May 15th) – come back then too!

Free Downloads Threat?

Are FREE DOWNLOADS a THREAT to the livelihood of Composers, Musicians, Bands or Producers?

IMHO, this is all a transitional phase. Getting stuff for free diminishes it’s value to the recipient (most often unconsciously) although paying the high major label prices for sub-par compositions IS insulting. The result of the paradox is where we are now. Eventually, consumers may discover that ‘free’ isn’t really ‘free’ and the hidden cost is that the quality of music will suffer and you’ll have to spend a lot of time browsing and sampling to find the nuggets worth your listening, downloading, titling, filing and burning time – amidst all the throwaway freebies.

Look back a bit before the labels took control. It was the DJ who brought in new music – and many listeners trusted specific DJ’s recommendations. Now we have internet radio (my favorite is http://www.last.fm/) and the listener makes his own playlist (i.e. radio station) without commercials and with only the music they want to hear. They seem to be the new breed of DJ’s.

All of the old models will probably die a slow death (major label dominance, radio station playlists, live ‘pay to play’ policies, etc.) and while that takes place (with wailing and gnashing of teeth), there will be this ‘free-for’all’ willy nilly middle-space where we are now.

Eventually, it should go back to listeners ‘wanting’ to support their favorites via purchase power – because by that time, everyone will be so burnt out on the getting ‘something for nothing’ fad that will have flooded the online sites and personal players with tons of garbage – they’ll not have the time in their busy lives to find those rarities worth stealing, or rather, ‘sharing’. When they find something ‘worth the money’ they will understand it is up to them to promote it and support it – or it will go away.

Give it time, it should all work itself out and I firmly believe it could level the playing field and up-the-quality of music for decades to follow. It’s hard to see, being in the midst of it, but maybe we’re on a ‘cusp’ – at the brink of true balance…

Rejyna
Citadel ®

The unabashed self-promotional blurbs follow:

Two Rockin’ Citadel ® songs are free here

If ya want, we’ve got some ‘Live’ freebies here

and more on iLike

or, for some full-length songs to add to your Last.fm playlists, go here

or, Google ‘citadelsongs’ or ‘citadelband’ and take a few hours to sift through all the sites we’re on (now counting 500+)

or, take a risk and only a few minutes (literally) to purchase our stuff at CDBaby in physical (CD) form or as a download…

or, last but not least on iTunes, Napster, PayPlay, Tradebit, GreatIndie, AudioLunchbox, Rhapsody, etc…

Our band policy is to give as much stuff away for promotion as plausible – we don’t make music to get rich and famous – but we love it when someone likes our stuff enough to buy it. It’s not the money…it’s the thought that counts…really…