(December 3, 2010 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) Recorded in Singapore, Houston and Phoenix, a dozen worship songs are aimed at an audience of young Christians in the isolated Asian country of Myanmar (Burma).
This ambitious, trans-continent music project was sparked when Ty, HCJB Global's director of the Asia Pacific Region, met a Burmese youth pastor in Singapore and invited him for a visit. "Do you want to do an album?" Ty asked the man after hearing his songs.
Such projects had materialized between Ty and musician Michio Ozaki when they worked together at Radio Station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. Creative ideas were shared just by walking across the hall. However, that was before TY moved to Asia and Michio left for North America. This newest project became a reality through the cyberspace transport of large audio files.
Ty provided Michio in Houston with the demo audio tracks, which facilitated Michio's writing arrangements for the 12 songs. Then the process of laying down additional tracks began. Michio sent back guitar and keyboard tracks as audio files while Ty supplied bass guitar and drum tracks.
In Singapore, Ty recorded vocals by the pastor, his wife and the pastor's friend, none of whom Michio had met other than via Skype calls on the Internet. By the same token, Ty never set foot into the Phoenix, Ariz., studio where their mutual friend, Bladimir González, did the final mix.
Song titles (translated to English) include You Alone Are Savior, Jesus Speak to Me, Praise Him Forever and Holy Is the Lord. "Are there any Burmese music instruments you'd like to incorporate?" was Michio's question to the pastor. "How do you want your album to sound? What style?" The Burmese pastor's email response simply stated, "I like Hillsong music." (Hillsong is a popular Australian worship band.)
"Actually, that was a relief for me because that made it a lot easier," said Michio with a laugh. Other aspects of the project proved challenging. After arranging the compositions, Michioi laid down keyboard or guitar tracks to be uploaded to a file transfer protocol (ftp) site. Normally a song's rhythm (drums and bass) goes down first.
Ty programmed drum tracks on half the songs; González's son drummed along with tracks provided by MIchio on the rest of the songs. Demo tracks were a significant step for the Burmese musician, according to Ty.
"Five of the tracks, he took them and sent them to his friends in Burma," Ty recounted, "and they were already spreading through the churches before we ever got half the tracks done ? just from the demos. These are songs the Burmese churches will sing, probably nationwide."
Separate song components were assembled in September as Michio and González set about to produce it in Phoenix. "It was the first time I had heard any of the vocals," Michio said. "To finally hear how these songs sounded-it was really exciting!"
"In countries like [Burma] people know each other. The networks of Christians are tight-they're unified for the most part, and they work together," Ty said. "When the pastor gets his album published, distribution will be automatic. It'll just go like ? it'll be viral!"
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