| Intro |
| Never really had a habit in keeping too many tracks of what I've been doing. |
| I mean, keeping up with the Synth sections of this web is already quite time consuming. But since the web is up, and I have all these space, I was gonna slowly re-write and build up my portfo / show-reel, but well, that's probably gonna take quite some time. |
| But I suppose if I start writing up stuff I've been doing, it'll help to complete this portfo/show-reel thing, at least I won't need to do the later catching up's. |
| So for the moment, these pages will include some info on the songs / arrangements / remixes / productions / projects that I have worked on during the year 2007. |
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2007 marks a new year for me. After Eason Chan's "What's Going On...?" album, |
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I'm pretty much back in Hong Kong for the time being. |
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Not only that I have to move houses in Hong Kong, |
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I also joined an international record company and started helping out. |
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Well... I'll probably be in H.K. for a while now... |
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| 2007/04 | |
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Artist: Eason Chan 陳奕迅 CD Title: Admit It 認了吧 Label: Cinepoly Records / Universal Music, Hong Kong |
| Tracks: 01 煙味 Smell of Cigarettes 02 淘汰 Elimination 03 快樂男生 Super Boys 04 紅玫瑰 Red Rose 05 月黑風高 Darkness in the Night 06 愛情轉移 Call for Love 07 好久不見 Long Time No See 08 愛是一本書 Way I Do 4 U 09 第一個雅皮士 The First Yuppie 10 白色球鞋 White Trainers |
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| Overall Comments: |
| Eason's MANDARIN album, released around end of April 2007. |
| Originally we planned to
have the same 10 songs from the Cantonese "What's
Going On...?" album, but releasing also 10 Mandarin versions, but
on the same album. In the end, due to time/timing, the mandarin part wasn't finished and release date was postponed to April 2007. |
| Only "Call for Love" was recorded in early December 2006. Then Eason was shooting a movie til end of February, so recording resumed in March. 2 songs were dropped, replaced by 2 brand new songs. Simply because, we didn't get any lyrics by mid March, and our Beijing colleagues suggested that we needed 2 more new songs which can really help promote Eason in China. |
| Other than that, 2 other
songs got new arrangement treatments (see below). At the end of the day, everyone's pretty happy as the album did sell pretty well in China. |
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01. 煙味 Smell Of Cigarettes |
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Original Working Title: Alex San Hop Hop Mandarin |
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Music
曲 &
Arrangement 編: Alex San | Lyrics
詞: Vincent Fang 方文山 |
| Produced by: Davy Chan / C.Y.
/ Eason Production Coordination: Stanley Leung Programming: Alex San Additional Programming: Davy Chan & C.Y. Drums: Davy Chan Keyboards: Alex San "n" Bjork Chong Bass : Kelly (Playroom) Guitar: Haji (Playroom) Strings: 陳珀 & 廣州交響樂團 arranged & Conducted by Pak Chan 陳珀 |
|
Recorded at aroom
studio & seewisehk, engineered by Davy Chan & C.Y. |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin version of 裙下之臣 (Don't We All Love Dresses) as on "What's Going On...?" album. |
| The original title that
Vincent Fang 方文山 was called "頹廢" -
as in the lyrics in the choruses. But we had to change the name as it
would not pass the 審批 in China - i.e. they would not give permission for
the song to be published/released as it contains either sensitive song
title or lyrics, as judged by the Chinese authorities. Note: The Cantonese version, also did not pass this, and that's the reason why it did not appear on the china version of the What's Going On...? CD. |
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02. 淘汰 Elimination |
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Original Working Title: E-Jay |
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Music
曲: Jay Chau
周杰倫 |
Lyrics 詞:
Jay Chau 周杰倫 |
Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong |
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Produced
by Davy Chan / C.Y. / Eason |
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Recorded at aroom studio
& seewisehk, engineered by Davy, Rob Porter & C.Y. |
| Comments: |
|
As we didn't get mandarin
lyrics for 2 songs, we needed new songs for the Mandarin album. |
|
Jay's demo was very Jay style - we wanted to keep part of that but yet retain Eason's bandsound style. The demo I first did, I had Verse1 going into Chorus, then Verse2 appears afterwards. However, Jay was very specific and asked us to retain his original structure - Verse1, followed by Verse 2 then Chorus. |
| We took quite a long time recording the vocals, as Eason wanted this to be very good, and in the beginning, he thought he was following Jay's demo too much but yet he didn't want too much of that influence. On the last day for recording, he re-sang this again, and it was actually the last take that we used for the final vocals, in fact he was close to crying when he sang the last 2 takes. |
| Although being a very Jay Chau type song, with quite 80s style american pop ballad melodies, there's something in this song - either you get it or you don't. Even guitarist Ah Yin, usually he doesn't say a lot about songs he plays on, but he said there's something about this song, some feel or some emotions... |
| Pak Chan 陳珀's strings came back originally being very "Disney" style, a little bit too much on the fantasy side of things. But after another re-write, it was good and matched the emotions, especially after the breakdown section then the strings coming back creating the tension and climax for that uprising feeling. Thanks so much, 珀姐! |
| In a way, we're all very happy and proud to be able to work with Jay. Thank you Jay, for the nice song! Cheers! |
|
Technical Note: Wanted to use the Yamaha CP-70 type Electric Piano sound for this song. The CP-70 sound used now is a mixture of the Grand Electrix VSTi and also some other VSTi samples. |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Arrangement Demo Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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03. 快樂男生 Super Boys |
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Original Working Title: Broken |
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Music
曲:
C. Y. Kong |
Lyrics 詞:
易家揚 |
Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong |
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Produced by 梁榮駿 / C. Y. ,
Co-Produced by Davy Chan & Stanley Leung |
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Recorded at aroom studio
& seewisehk, engineered by Davy, Rob Porter & C.Y. |
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| Comments: | |
| The 2nd "New" song on the mandarin album. This was one of the songs that Eason held from my demos, and our Beijing colleagues picked the song as it's a more medium-fast tempo song, that would help Eason in his performance during promoting the album. | |
| Actually I originally wrote the song back in Oct 2005. Eason always said it's very R'n'B but strange, since it's not that electronic. Well, in fact, i never intended this to be R'n'B, or maybe I wanted a bandsound-ish arrangement doing some r'n'b chords sequences. The original demo was done in female key. maybe i thought it might be a nice female sad song! Haha! | |
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Davy really helped spiced uup the rhythm part when doing the live drum
session. Then when Pal (Pal Sinn) came into play bass, I was saying, why
not let the bass stand out on this song. So Pal played quite a bit of
fill-ins and licks on the bass part which really got the song going. Then Ah Yin added guitars and everything kinda sounded quite nice together. |
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| Well, maybe in the end it sounded a bit like Maroon 5. I dunno. I guess it's just a mixture of pop/rock and a bit of funk and so on. Eason hasn't had this kind of medium/upbeat tempo kool-ish song for a while, and we're all glad that he really likes it : ) | |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Original Demo Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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04. 紅玫瑰 Red Rose |
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Original Working Title: Love Song mandarin |
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Music
曲 &
Arrangement 編: Kubert Leung
梁翹柏 | Lyrics 詞: Francis Lee
李焯雄 |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin version of the same song 白玫瑰 (White Rose) as on "What's Going On...?" album. |
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05. 月黑風高 Darkness in the Night |
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Original Working Title: Cold Feet Mandarin |
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Music 曲 & Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: Lin Xi 林夕 |
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| Produced by Alvin Leong
& C. Y. Co-produce/Production Coordination: Stanley Leung Synths, Cubase Programming & PC Manipulation: C.Y. Kong Drums : Davy Chan Bass : Sai Wai 細威 Guitar : Ah Yin 亞賢 (Yin Wong) Chorus : Patrick Lui Strings: 陳珀 & 廣州交響樂團 arranged & Conducted by Pak Chan 陳珀 |
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Recorded at aroom
studio & seewisehk, engineered by Davy, Rob Porter & C.Y. |
|
| Comments: | |
| Mandarin version of the song 黑擇明 (Reaper Will Find You) as on "What's Going On...?" album. | |
| Lin Xi
林夕 first wrote mandarin lyrics titled 值得不值得
(Worth It or Not Worth It). Then Eason told Lin Xi a story about a taxi driver and Lin Xi turned the story in to the totally re-written lyrics for this song. |
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06. 愛情轉移 Call for Love |
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Original Working Title: Fuji Mandarin |
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Music 曲: Christopher Chak | Lyrics: Lin Xi 林夕 | Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong + Pak Chan 陳珀 |
| Produced by Alvin Leong
Production Coordination: Stanley Leung Synths, Cubase Programming & PC Manipulation: C.Y. Kong Drums : Davy Chan Bass : Sai Wai 細威 Guitar : Joey Tang Percussion: Davy Chan & Kevin (Hardpack) Chorus : Patrick Lui Strings: 陳珀 & 廣州交響樂團 arranged & Conducted by Pak Chan 陳珀 |
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Recorded at aroom
studio & seewisehk, engineered by Davy, Rob Porter & C.Y. |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin
version of the song 富士山下 (Sorrow is Meaningless) as on "What's
Going On...?" album. Aldo theme song to the China movie, "愛情呼叫轉移 Call for Love" |
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07. 好久不見 Long Time No See |
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Original Working Title: LTNC (Long Time No See) |
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Music
曲: Salsa Chen
陳小霞
| Lyrics: Lin Xi
林夕 | |
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Produced by Davy Chan /
C.Y. / Eason |
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Recorded at aroom
studio & seewisehk, engineered by Davy Chan & C.Y. |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin version of 不如不見 (Better Not to Meet) as on "What's Going On...?" album. |
| 1st song recorded and also back in Sept 2006. It was also the song that Eason sang many many many times. (Must be like 200 takes or more!!) Emotions are difficult ; ) |
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08. 愛是一本書 Love Is Like a Book (Way I Do 4 U) |
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Original Working Title: Way I Do 4 U |
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Music
曲: Davy Chan |
Lyrics 詞: 易家揚 | Arrangement 編:
Hardpack |
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Produced
by Davy Chan / C.Y. / Eason |
|
Recorded at aroom studio, engineered
by Davy Chan |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin version to the song 心深傷透 (Deeply Hurt) as on "What's Going On...?" album. |
| This has "New" arrangement, totally different to the Cantonese version. But in fact this was the original arrangement that Davy had and we spiced it up. |
| Yes, that was the original intention way back when we were doing the cantonese album. Eason wanted the arrangements to be totally different from each other. |
| Lyricist 易家揚 is actually very clever. The demo he got was Davy's original demo, which he sang "The way I do, I do for you" in the chorus. And the mandarin lyrics came back as 我們會來讀 愛 這本書 - and 會來讀 愛 sounds very close to "Way I Do, I" - so on some of the backing vocals, Eason actually sang "way i do"... |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Demo Exerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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09. 第一個雅皮士 The First Yuppie |
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Original Working Title: Orange (Mandarin) |
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Music 曲: Kubert Leung 梁翹柏 | Lyrics 詞: Yiu-Fai Chow 周耀輝 | Arrangement 編: Ted Lo |
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Produced by Kubert Leung 梁翹柏 |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin version of the song 最後的嬉皮士 (The Last Hippie) as on "What's Going On...?" album. |
| This got a new spiced up jazz/big band arrangement. |
| One of the brass section players was actually musicians who came to Hong Kong and performed live at a jazz club. Apparently Ted Lo was there at the gig and asked the musician to play on the track! |
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10. 白色球鞋 White Sneakers |
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Original Working Title: Sunrise |
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Music 曲: C. Y. Kong / Eason Chan 陳奕迅 | Lyrics 詞: 姚謙 | Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong |
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Produced
by Davy Chan / C.Y. / Eason |
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Recorded at aroom
studio, engineered by Davy Chan & Rob Porter & C.Y. |
| Comments: |
| Mandarin version to the song 粵語殘片 (Cantonese Old Movie) as on "What's Going On...?" album. |
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| 2007/06 | |
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Artist: Candy Lo 盧巧音 CD Title: Process Label: Candy Lo / Wow Music, Hong Kong |
| Track: 04 愛到不能 Where Love Disappears |
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04. 愛到不能 Where Love Disappears |
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Original Working Title: Overload |
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Music
曲 &
Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics
詞: Jessie Yau 游思行 |
| Comments: |
| This was actually written around April 2006. In fact Candy recorded this in mid 2006, but waited until like April 2007 before plugging the song on radio. It did pretty well on the charts. |
| I could write a long story
about Candy Lo. I knew Candy years ago, when she was in Black & Blue. Then
after her first solo EP, I was supposed help her produced the following
album, but due to many reasons, I quitted. Well... my bad, but really, the
record company was to be blamed!! Candy wasn't happy (with me, heheh) and tho things were sorted out back then, we weren't keeping contact , tho we would still greet one another if we bumped into each other at different places. |
| Nearly 7 or 8 years later, while I was in London, we started emailing and finally she's kind of forgiven me ;P and asked me to write a song for her. I really felt that I owed her this for many years and basically I did this for her free, including the piano session played by Anthony Sun. |
| We're still keeping contact, and I guess I do like helping out this "Rock Chick Little Woman" : ) |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Demo Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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| 2007/06 | |
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Artist: Eric Suen 孫耀威 CD Title: So Far...So Close Label: Go East / Universal Music, Hong Kong |
| Track: 04 永遠保護你 Forever Protecting You 05 秒殺 Second Kill
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04. 永遠保護你 Forever Protecting You |
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Original Working Title: Protection |
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Music
曲:
Meng Qi Chan 陳孟奇 | Lyrics
詞: Lin Xi
林夕 | Arrangement 編: C.
Y. Kong |
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Produced by: Alvin Leong
|
| Comments: |
| This was one of the first A&R works I did for the company I joined - basically I picked this track for Eric. When I first heard the demo, I thought this was a bit like how Eric used to be, but now he's grown up and he can still be that lovely prince, but in a more mature way. |
| Some people did have
doubts about this, some thought it might be a little bit childish or maybe
this type of song are only done by younger artists such as Alex Fong. But
Alvin, Stanley and I all thought if Eric does this in his way now, it'd
work. Well, turned out that it's become one of the tracks that a lot of people like on the album. |
| It just makes me smile and I so love seeing all Eric's fans singing along in his live shows. |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Arrangement Demo Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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05. 秒殺 Second Kill |
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Original Working Title: See-I-See |
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Music
曲 & Arrangement 編: C.
Y. Kong | Lyrics
詞: Joe Lee 李峻一 |
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Produced by: Alvin Leong
|
| Comments: |
| Eric needed an uptempo song. Alvin sent him this demo of mine, which was written again in Oct 2005. The tempo of Eric's version is actually slightly faster than the original demo. He sang all the choruses as well. |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Demo Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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| 2006/07 | |
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Artist: Hacken Lee 李克勤 CD Title: My Cup Of Tea Label: Universal Music Hong Kong |
| Tracks:
01. 紙婚 (feat. David Garrett on Violin) 06. Twins
08. 生命四重奏
10. 晚安
11. 紙婚 (feat. 李嘉齡 on Piano) |
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| Overall Comments: |
|
Well... we would never have thought we'd be working on Hacken Lee's album.
It was quite a challenge as Hacken wanted this album to be light and simple, kinda minimal-ish, cutting out a lot of instruments on the arrangements. And...btw, the bonus DVD was kind of my idea... I've been doing multi audio on my home-made DVDs for a few years, thought it'd be fun to have on this. I hope everyone has fun with it! : ) Thanks for supporting ! |
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02. 紙婚 (feat. David Garrett on Violin) |
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Original Demo/Working Title: J07 |
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Music
曲: Jean Chien 錢文璟
| Lyrics 詞: Wyman Wong
黃偉文
| |
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監製 Produced by C. Y. Kong |
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Produced
by C.Y. |
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Recorded at aroom studio & seewisehk, engineered by Davy & C.Y.
Vocals, Violin & Strings Recorded at Avon Studios, engineered by Anthony Leung & Amic Mixed at nOiz by Simon Li |
| Comments: |
| Jean's song. Hacken
requested a piano song, and Jean really put effort into this one. Anthony Sun helped out on the piano while Ted Lo helped out on the strings arrangement. Originally we had full string quartet written and recorded for the song, but after we got David Garrett to play violin, the strings were kept to a minimal (and saved for the other piano version). |
| Pal borrowed an acoustic bass from Tom Lee Music, and played some on a few tracks on the album. On this track he also played electric bass which was used after the first music break solo. |
| David Garrett was just
amazing. (Man, you ARE tall!) When he first came into the studio and
everyone was saying, gee this violin sounds so nice - that was when he was
just tuning up. Thank you so much , David! |
| The title 紙婚 Paper Marriage has various meaning - in the song it means marriage based on paper. It's also a chinese saying - the 1st year wedding anniversary is also called 紙婚 Paper Marriage. |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Demo Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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04. 分岔口 The Divaricating Road |
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Original Demo/Working Title: Wind Still Blows 風還在吹 |
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Music
曲: Salsa
Chen 陳小霞 | Lyrics: Hacken 克勤 | |
| Produced by C. Y. Kong Co-Produced & Production Co-ordination: Stanley Leung Keyboards & Programming: C. Y. Kong Drums & Percussion: Davy Chan Piano: Anthony Sun Acoustic Bass: Pal Sinn Strings Arranged & Conducted by Ted Lo Strings: Hong Kong Sinfonietta (香港小交響樂團) Backing Vocals: Hacken Lee |
| Recorded at aroom studio &
seewisehk, engineered by Davy, Rob Porter, & C.Y. Vocals, Violin & Strings Recorded at Avon Studios, engineered by Anthony Leung & Amic Mixed at nOiz by Simon Li |
| Comments: |
| A nice song by Salsa Chen 陳小霞, and Hacken really likes this song. He even wrote lyrics for it. Ihe original demo demo, Salsa really slowed down in every first line in the chorus, creating a tension. We actually had that on the first arrangement, but Hacken wanted the song to be shorter and more direct. So give and take, in the end that was left out. But hey, it's still good : ) |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Demo Arrangement Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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06. Twins |
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Original Demo/Working Title: Bingo |
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Music
曲 &
Arrangement 編: C. Y. Kong | Lyrics: Riley Lam
林若寧 |
| Produced by C. Y. Kong Co-Produced by: Davy Chan & Stanley Leung Production Co-ordination: Stanley Leung Keyboards & Programming: C. Y. Kong Drums & Percussion: Davy Chan Guitars: Joey Tang Acoustic Bass: Pal Sinn Backing Vocals: Hacken Lee Viola & Violin arranged by Vincent Liauw Featuring: Solo Viola & Solo Violin: Ming Pak (白明) |
| Recorded at aroom studio &
seewisehk, engineered by Davy, Rob Porter, & C.Y. Vocals, Violin & Strings Recorded at Avon Studios, engineered by Jeremy & Amic Additonal vocals recorded at The Invisible Studio by 馮翰銘 Alexander Fung. Mixed at nOiz by Simon Li |
| Comments: |
| Written around May 2007. Hacken wanted this song to be like twin brothers singing together, kind of like 2 vocal parts harmonising each other. Everyone put a lot of effort in this. The Viola / Violin parts also enhanced the twins character a lot. I must say, this is not something that we normally do, but it was fun doing it. |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Demo Arrangement Excerpt | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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08. 生命四重奏 The Quartet of Life |
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Original Demo/Working Title: Edmund Song Quartet |
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Music 曲: Edmond Tsang | Lyrics: Keith Chan 陳少琪 | Arrangement 編: Ted Lo |
| Produced by C. Y. Kong Co-Produced & Production Co-ordination: Stanley Leung Strings Arranged & Conducted by Ted Lo Strings: Hong Kong Sinfonietta (香港小交響樂團) Backing Vocals: Hacken Lee |
| Recorded at Avon Studios, engineered by Anthony
Leung & Amic Mixed at nOiz by Simon Li |
|
10. 晚安 Goodnight |
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Original Demo/Working Title: Harry 5 Tokyo Tower |
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Music 曲 / Arrangement 編: Harry Ng 伍仲衡 | Lyrics: Lin Xi 林夕 |
| Produced by C. Y. Kong
& Stanley Leung Keyboards & Programming: Harry Ng Guitars: So Tak Wah Additional Percussion: Davy Chan & Au Lap Kei (基) Strings Arranged & Conducted by陳珀 in Guangzhou Backing Vocals: Hacken Lee |
| Recorded at Avon Studios, engineered by Anthony
Leung & Amic And also at at aroom studio, engineered by Davy Mixed at nOiz by Simon Li |
| Comments: |
| These 2 songs I helped produced. |
|
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11. 紙婚 Paper Marriage (Feat. Colleen Lee 李嘉齡 on Piano) |
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Original Demo/Working Title: J07 Colleen |
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Music 曲: Jean Chien 錢文璟 | Lyrics 詞: Wyman Wong 黃偉文 | Arrangement: C. Y. Kong |
|
監製 Produced by C. Y. Kong |
|
Keyboards & Programming: C.
Y. Kong |
| Recorded at Avon Studios,
engineered by Anthony Leung & Amic And also at aroom studio & seewisehk, engineered by Davy & C.Y. Mixed at nOiz by Simon Li |
| Comments: |
| For Colleen's
piano version, originally we had a simple piano arrangement, but after she
recorded that I felt that it would be a waste of her talent playing that
as she's like amazingly good. So, as Colleen went back to Germany after Easter, I did a total revamped piano arrangement for the piano part. It's way more difficult to play as the song is in A Minor key, it too me a while to get the demo done. Colleen recorded for two days, she practiced a lot and try to play as much as possible. Seriously, she's good, it's not usual to see someone who can learn and play such difficult piece in such short time! Thanks so much, Colleen! |
| Sound Clips (MP3 Excerpts) | |
| Piano Arrangement Demo | Excerpt of Finished Mix |
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More to come....
(Including... Hins Cheung... More Eason...)
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