"Glimmers of hope", composed by me.
Recorded live at Sergei's Courtyard in Jerusalem few days ago. Thanks to everyone who helped me to find the right name for this tune (I published another recording of it some time ago). Yes, it's you!
And now some deeply personal sharing.
My friends and professional colleagues in different areas - your feedback and support is probably the most important contribution to sustaining a continuing sense of meaningfulness in producing my own music. Sometimes I loose it (also not without "help" of some other people I trusted but I don't trust them anymore), but you help me to return it back. Yes, I realized that I am very dependent on my audience, and after the immigration 6,5 years ago I almost lost this sense of connection.
Actually, it is the first short tune I completed (about 1,5 years ago) after a significant break that lasted from around 2015-2016. Somehow it became difficult for me to compose and record my own material. Too many things happened in life, and I almost considered I am "finished" as a musician. Amateurish, but still, a musician. A very limited one, but still. Sorry to admit, I don't read the score (nothing to be proud of), and I don't have a proper schooling on my instrument (also nothing to be proud), but I still do compose. After many years of inner struggle I now feel more confident to continue.
Probably I should stop trying to compare with the professional performers (academic music is like sports), and also shouldn't attempt to take jobs as a performer or session musician - a few recent attempts to record on demand turned for me (and for my poor customers, sorry!) a disaster. I was unable to learn a rather simple melody, and I had major difficulties to reproduce and record it up to the required level. I officially give up on that. A second-grade elementary school age harp student will do better than me!
Same with the offers to publicly perform commercially relevant music which doesn't appeal to me personally, such as harp covers of popular music for the events, weddings, and all this. I tried this too, and it also was a failure as I felt it (everybody around still loved it because everyone loves the sound of harp!), or a very mixed feeling of doing a wrong thing, and of trying to pretend that I am someone different from who I am (i.e. pretending I am a professional musician, to earn money).
In general, I feel I am still a musician, but I officially give up on anything like a "career" of a harp player who is professionally performing music on demand. More to that, it is probably too late to learn for this (I am 44 and I cannot fix myself, enough self-deception).
I still feel I have something to say and something to give with the sounds I keep making on my instruments, and it's not just entertaining myself as a hobby. I was trying to formulate - what kind of message I would like to pass with my harp playing? Some years ago I would say it is "all things must pass" (good or bad...), but today I will add: I really want to produce the music that helps people keep on the will of living, that makes them hold on, that helps to survive in the difficult and stressful world. Also, the music that helps to create an inner safe space to be who you are. I believe it's not a meditation music, nor a music therapy, but it still can be pleasant, simple and accessible, and can be used for feeling better or improving one's mental wellbeing, as any other art, so it might be some kind of a new age agenda that tries to be less "esoteric" and more secular. The pleasure from sound is an important part of playing my instrument, and I want to share it with others.
Thank you for reading, thank you for listening, thank you for supporting my art in various ways, and well, art in general. As a professional in sound who works with artists, and as a former academic psychologist, I believe that art, and music in particular, is a part of our nature as humans, and we miss something important if we believe we can survive without it or consider it insignificant.

I still have zero understanding how to sell my art, so I am just posting all my music for free, and trying to earn on other things such as sound recording and mixing, live sound work, and video production - for other people.
Hope to see you in the next 2024 year!
https://youtu.be/bnLFCn8AL7A

OK, I will continue posting my old stuff meanwhile. There is a lot of it on YouTube, posted by random people at their channels, with some irrelevant technical information in the description. At least, this one saved my nickname "Tangerine".
This is actually a track I wrote and recorded in the summer of 1998, and I am sometimes thinking about remixing it with live instruments. It is called "Toy Summer", same name as my first album on cd (self-released, 1999). The song was composed, recorded (programmed mostly in text codes, and partially played on a midi keyboard) and "mixed" (reminding, no software or hardware effects existed, only volume and panning for the samples) in Fast Tracker 2, the size of the whole project (files were called modules) is less than 1 megabyte, including all sounds. The polyphony used was 20 notes, one note/sound per channel. The song's melody and harmony is obviously influenced by "Dancing with the Lion" by Andreas Vollenweider & Friends, and the percussion sounds are directly sampled from this cd.
I find my old stuff naive (actually, my new stuff too), but listen, I was only 19 y.o. I still like it. Maybe you might like it too.
https://youtu.be/iHAoDl-RFO0?si=zE9kwFVPS4XIzGql

Found a real gem (as often on KEXP) - Circles Around The Sun. In the best possible sense, it's an instrumental band that manages to have the sound of 1977 in 2023!
I know that for today I am a retro-tasted person, and proud of it. And it's not a "hipster" fashion, I really enjoy that era of early 1970 - 1980 as probably the most magic time for the progressive instrumental music of the XX century. Something definitely was happening there: the new technology of sound synthesis and recording + the new thinking of the musicians. So many great bands and artists recorded their best albums at that time...
https://youtu.be/rksu_rMkw_M?si=-KjYSgjPyszSpXoG

Немного о работе. Сделал видео симпатичным ребятам - израильская инструментальная группа NHAFA. Уд, канун, кларнет и джазовая ритм-секция. Микс, многокамерная съемка и редактирование - мои. Помогал снимать видео Евгений Габрилович.

https://youtu.be/C26Fbk5UPvg?si=vhzKKE7jpVOz4B1R

Дорогие друзья, сочувствующие Израилю и нам, в частности. Я очень благодарен за ваше внимание, сообщения, вопросы и слова поддержки.
У нас "пока что" все ок.
Если что-то серьезное случится - обязательно напишу. А если я не пишу, значит - все нормально!

A huge project we recorded at the studios of Raanana Music Center with Olshansky Fusion Duo
For all listeners of instrumental fusion music - a duet of grand piano and drums.
Now available here on different platforms: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/olshanskyfusionduo/what-it-takes-to-tell-a-story/
One day I will post a "making of" with photos and stories from this project I am connected with since my first years in Israel!

And soon a premiere of the terrific animation video by the artist Natalia Ryss, see the trailer here
https://vimeo.com/931737422
and the full video later, on Thursday, here https://www.youtube.com/@olshanskyfusionduo

Из чего состоит жизнь звукорежиссера (это не вся моя жизнь, но заметная ее часть)? Записи, миксы, концерты, всякие такие радости. Стойки и колонки таскать, провода подключать. Работа, в общем, довольно тяжелая, в том числе и физически иногда. А потом сидишь и слушаешь!
...
Вот большая новая работа - альбом дуэта фортепиано и барабанов Olshansky Fusion Duo, записанный мной в комнатах нашей городской консерватории Raanana Music Center. Когда-нибудь сделаю пост making of с картинками. А пока что можно послушать на всех стримингах (кроме ВК, наверное).

Вот и вышла новая песня Максима Леонидова «Мы едем в Мемфис». Аранжировка, запись и сведение- Дмитрий Чувелёв . Вокал записан с небольшой моей помощью в нашей студии ReBURN (Нетания, Израиль).
https://zvonko.link/MiedemvMemphis/

Ура! Наш труд, наконец, доступен практически всем!
Альбом Юлия Кима "Букет из разнотравья" выложен на стриминговые площадки.
Запись и сведение мои, Иерусалим, Израиль, 2020 год

https://open.spotify.com/album/0ReptuW3FTuSYuBJ07TZ3m?si=aPAncQjtQBqIeBKNHIFl5A

https://zvuk.com/release/33140704

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_leYLxmMevLp5LVJwG_et87GXgBJ_Tthik

https://music.apple.com/ru/album/%D0%B1%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B5%D1%82-%D0%B8%D0%B7-%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%8C%D1%8F/1735570497

https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0CXVBNJSS?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_v8TSJt2ASz22y6lsQaxeP0ftQ

https://music.yandex.ru/album/30206245

Repost from Olshansky Fusion Duo:
Hey, friends!
We're happy to announce the release of Olshansky Fusion Duo new album, and here are some thoughts on importance of finding the right people to work with.
Music exists only in the moment you play it. While recording you perform music, you keep it alive, and you want your future listener to feel it. How do you do that? It's definitely not just adjusting microphones and pushing the record button. That's when a sound engineer steps in. An ideal sound engineer, hopefully, the one who loves your music, who's willing to give it enough thought to get your concepts and ideas, and does their best to make it work, make it sound real. Not to mention them being high level professional, good-natured and reliable person, etc, you name it.

Now, we feel extremely lucky to have with us Philipp Barsky, an ideal sound engineer who puts as much love and effort into recording and mixing as we do into writing and performing. We can't thank You enough, Philipp, and we mean it.
Our latest album is now available on various platforms ( the link is in the first comment ), and our new project is under way.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5SEElUlzAbX3EbZTQpzZNL?si=JWSRXPmPSPq5rXKDFVgnbA

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЁН, РАСПРОСТРАНЁН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ МАКАРЕВИЧЕМ АНДРЕЕМ ВАДИМОВИЧЕМ ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА МАКАРЕВИЧА АНДРЕЯ ВАДИМОВИЧА 18 +
Только что отыграли с Филипп Барский концерт в Сдероте - это одно из мест, где 7 октября всё началось. Зал, практически он же - бомбоубежище. Все прошло хорошо. Надеюсь в следующий раз приехать сюда уже в мирное время.