Once upon a time, there existed a breed of singers who didn’t need AutoTune: they could bend, shape and twist their voices any way they wanted to. Dutch Composer Stephen Emmer, a passionate aficionado of this great genre has brought together a collective of supreme voices, creating an album of days gone by Bond-esque proportions.
International Blue pays tribute to the lost art and elegance of pop-crooning, and thus to the people who Stephen considers the style's main architects, Scott Walker and David Bowie. Stephen has again had the pleasure and honor of working with Tony Visconti, David Bowie’s long time collaborator, who produced the album at Abbey Road Studios (London) and Avator Studios (NYC).
Featuring artists include Midge Ure (Ultravox), Neil Crossley (Furlined), Liam McKahey (Cousteau) and Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), who was recently invited by both Tony Visconti and David Bowie to vocally perform the ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ live tour in the UK. The mighty Glenn Gregory plays a key roll in the IB project, since he collaborated on 4 out of 10 album songs.
Stream, download or buy International Blue on CD or Vinyl here.
Music composed and arranged by Stephen Emmer
Produced and mixed by Tony Visconti at Abbey Road Studios (London) and Avatar Studios (NYC)
Pre production and recording by Stephen Emmer & Lau Kagenaar at Stephen Emmer Studios (Amsterdam/Hilversum)
Recording and mixing engineer Sam Okell, assistant engineer Toby Hulbert at Abbey Road Studios (London)
Additional recording by Paul Pouwer & Joris Wolff at Power Sound Studio (Amsterdam)
Additional vocal recording Neil Crossley, at Ruby sound studios (Bristol), engineer Rob Williams
Additional vocal recording on track 3 & 6 by Liam MacKahey, at Schlam studios (Canberra), engineer Danny Roberts, and on track 9 at Broken Knee Studios, engineer Bruce Callaway
Assistent engineer Akihiro Nishimura at Avatar Studios (NYC)
Mastered by Dave McNair Mastering (NYC)
Lead vocals by Midge Ure, Glenn Gregory, Liam McKahey & Neil Crossley
Backing vocals by Midge Ure, Glenn Gregory, Liam McKahey, Neil Crossley, Stephen Emmer, Lau Kagenaar, Vanessa Contenay & Hailey and Taly Murphy
Guitars and basses by Stephen Emmer
Drum and percussion programming and production by Stephen Emmer & Lau Kagenaar
Piano, additional keys and synths by Stephen Emmer & Lau Kagenaar
Acoustic drums on track 8 by Joost Kroon
Strings on track 3, 6, 8 and 10 by Sietse van Gorkum, Camilla van der Kooij, Rani Kumar & Jonas Pap
Strings on track 2, 5 and 7 by Saartje van Camp, Ben Mathot, Merel Jonker & Adriaan Breunis
Strings and brass on track 3, 6, 8 and 10 transcribed by Willem Friede
Strings on track 2, 5 and 7 transcribed by Tom Trapp
Brass section on track 6 and 8 by Ray Bruinsma, Jan Oosting & Tom Beek
Trumpet on track 1 and 2 by Ruud Breuls
Mastering by Mark den Hartog @ Zownd Studios (Leiderdorp)
Artwork design by Stephen Emmer
Artwork production by Ben Hendriks at Studio-Forest
Project management by Connie Kemp & Maarten Bousie
Mojo Magazine
Huffington Post
The Times
Mojo 4 Music
Classic Pop Magazine
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