A gift for Stina Nordenstam: Now That You’re Leaving Remix

[foldfm]

Hi everyone,

12 years ago I had a sudden and uncontrollable urge to remix Now That You’re Leaving (one of my all time Stina favourites) and this was the result:

http://soundcloud.com/fold/now-that-youre-leaving-remix

Being a huge Stina fan since the early 90s I made several attempts to contact her between 2003/2005 both to give her this remix as a gift and to ask if she’d like to collaborate on a track that was to be the lead single for an album I was working on. At the time a producer manager I knew had her agent’s contact details. Her agent informed us that Stina was extremely difficult to contact – she was staying at a monastery apparently. After some months of waiting I had to give up and eventually flew Maria Solheim over to sing lead on the track in question.

After all these years it seems such a shame to shelve the remix permanently as I am very fond of it and I thought this community in particular would appreciate it.

In the unlikely event that anybody out there does know how to contact Stina or her acting agent (if she still has one) I would greatly appreciate it if you could forward the link to her.

Cheers,
Seth

[sound world]

I love that she might have been in a monastery. With Stina, you can believe anything.

As to Stina, I don't think anyone here has the slightest clue as to her present whereabouts/activity, with the possible exception of Vero.

Your remix...well, I tend to hate remixes, but I think the original intimacy of the song has been spoilt by the addition of the drums. The rhythm is implicit already without having to be beaten into the listener. Other than the drums it's quite difficult to hear what else you did except amplify some of Stina's fret-sliding noises on the guitar, and add the Strawberry Fields flute sounds at 1.48. And what happened to the big instrumental with the bass riff from near the end of the original? that was the emotional release of the piece, giving musical meaning to the lyrics. Now it's gone, the song seems blander.
Anyway, as I said, I do usually hate remixes-they always seem to simplify the original into some crass LCD. Sorry.

[foldfm]

Haha, yeah – at the time I had to take her agent’s account with a pinch of salt but it is totally believable.

Thanks for your feedback on the remix – I guess its not your thing. Its at least kind of a good sign that you didn’t notice what I added, which was quite a lot: bass, hand-made synths, reverse guitar sounds, reverse cymbals & gongs, and the flutes that you did notice. The beats were matched to the natural tempo of the song by hand, bit by bit, so as not to disturb the original flow – that was the most intimate aspect of the process.

From my point of view, remixes never add anything to the original – they are only interpretations intended to provide a sort of alternate reality for an existing recording. I tend to agree with you though, I find very few remixes worth listening to. Unfortunately the remix industry works according to fashion – labels want you to get remixes from producers with a commercial reputation for remixing and are not generally selected on the basis of artistic merit.

[sound world]

I can hear some of those things, but, frankly, I think the drums are mixed too high, so it makes it difficult.

And I did notice that the drums were at least in live rhythm rather than quantised.

But hey, let's agree to differ.

[alx5962]

Dave, I really like your analysis, you're a true musician !

I'm not really fan of remixes too (only some Björk's ones were really interesting IMHO).
I didn't disliked yours, as you didn't destroyed uselessly the original one.
But as you seem to have some musical talent, you should focus on creating your own tracks instead on remixing Stina's ones.

[RobB]

I quite like that remix although its been so long since I've heard the original that I can't really make a comparison. I also think the drums are mixed too high but I do like those mellotron(?) 'flutes'.

Never heard the monastery rumour before......would she be allowed in one? .....unless it was an abandoned one! More likely that Stina would have been in a convent I would have thought?

Anyway, thanks Seth for sharing your remix.

[paul-pgss]

Seth, I do like the remix! Thanks for sharing.

[foldfm]

Thanks for all of your replies, I really appreciate the feedback.