Whanganui North Island NZ December 13th 2024

Dear Audiences and Friends,

It has been an intense three days of recording for Adie and me. We have been very fortunate to work with Malcolm Ibell, a Sound recordist, Audio Engineer, who has recently moved to Whanganui. Malcolm is helping us to produce a number of songs performed by Adie and me, here in our home studio. These are songs we will be performing on our tour. Malcolm has been in the Music Industry for over thirty years with some great stories to regale, working with the likes of the Mutton birds, Don McGlashan and recently Anthonie Tonnon. He has worked over time on both sound and lighting.

Finding ways in which to record in our home studio looks chaotic in the photos below, but was in fact, peaceful and great fun to do and we finished before the rain came.

With Malcolm’s calm presence, we were able, collectively, to produce this up coming album of songs, which involved Adie standing in the hallway playing the violin to a microphone, whilst I am in the studio at the keyboard ready to sing behind a sound booth. When Adie was playing the guitar in the room with me, we had his amplifier out in the hallway covered over with two single futons (usually our bedding in the van) to muffle the output of sound, surely this is not a first? It worked well!.

It was very clear to us all when we had produced a good take. When Adie and I were completely immersed in a song, the music and words breathed a life of their own with Malcolm helping to give them the space they needed. Having rehearsed these songs for so long and playing music every day, Adie and I were fully in sync and tuned together well, which makes recording a lot easier and helps save time and money.

Being relaxed in Malcolm’s company, was hugely important and it didn’t take long at all, to feel very comfortable with him at the desk in the next room. Hearing him through our headphones and having him pop in and out the room to sort out leads and mics was easy. It was a delight to work with him. After recording most songs, Adie and I loved darting into the mixing room,… okay it is a bedroom… where Malcolm sat behind his console, to hear an immediate playback with a quick mix of the track, in order to confirm we were happy with the outcome. It was really rewarding.

It was also amusing, as Malcolm named tracks on Logic, to have his valid correction of an apostrophe on one of the songs, as he generously gave knowledge of how to place them. I had it grammatically wrong on the song title “ Love in the 70s.” ‘ drives him nuts ’ as he often says, I now stand rightly corrected, thanks Malcolm! I don’t know if you can see my writing of 70’s in the photo.

Malcolm will be mixing the music in his studio and we will go along to make suggestions to complete the overall sound. I am so excited to hear the final outcome over the coming months.

It would be wonderful to make a Vinyl album, what a dream realised that would be ! if not a CD. However, not having the finances to do so, we will have to look for other ways to get the music out to you. If, however, there are music enthusiasts amongst you, who would like to support our original music by financing such a venture, please press and go to henrimthope@gmail.com You know I’d love to hear from you. If you contribute financially, your name will appear as a much appreciated benefactor if you so wish, on what I believe will be an especially sweet album of songs.

In the mean time, Adie and I will continue to work on our performance for the tour and continue our weekly rehearsals with Ross and Sara in the full line up of Heti & Hope, for our live gigs to come in January 2025.

Wishing you all Seasonal greetings, peace and prosperity for 2025. Merry Christmas.

Arohanui Heti