Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Christmas Medley 2011.mp3)

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Length: 03:20, Size: 7.66 MB

This is the first Christmas medley that my girlfriend actively participated in. She plays the clarinet in the slow part in the beginning  This year’s medley is a mashup of “Silver Bells” and “Jingle Bell Rock”. Hope you enjoy it!

For the techies among you it might be interesting to know that all guitars were recorded clean and going straight into the computer (i.e. no amp or microphone). All the guitar sounds come from plugins. That’s a first for me, as I’ve always recorded amps with microphones in the past. But I have to say that guitar plugins have evolved quite a lot and they sound really good, so I’ll probably keep doing this for future recordings because it’s a lot less of a hassle.

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Christmas Medley 2009.mp3)

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Length: 02:45, Size: 4.07 MB

This year I had no idea what xmas carols I would use for my traditional Christmas medley until the day I wanted to actually start recording it when my girlfriend said “two of my favorite ones are White Christmas and Winter Wonderland”, so that was the inspiration for this medley. I immediately knew that it would be a good combination. The first part “White Christmas” is all acoustic. I played the lead part on both my nylon and steel string acoustic guitars. One is panned to the left the other panned to the right. For the second part of this year’s medley, “Winter Wonderland”, I went into overdrive mode and it turned out to be quite heavy this year. Hope you enjoy it!

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – April Weather.mp3)

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Length: 04:31, Size: 7.26 MB

Who would have thought that I’d actually pump out another song just shortly after last year’s Christmas Medley…well, okay it took two months, so sue me

The rhythm track of this song was a single take jam session I did a few weeks ago that I was lucky enough to record (often times I’ll just jam something cool, not record it, and immediately forget it, which leads to me screaming profanities at my neighbors, housemates, and other random people that happen to walk past the house ). I re-recorded the song with a click track, added some solos and – taa daa – this is the end result. I admit, it’s kind of random, but it was still pretty cool to just come up with a 4 minute piece of music while jamming.
Since the music is so random I thought the title “April Weather” was appropriate because in Austria the weather in April is pretty random and the song reminded me of it

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Christmas Medley 2008.mp3)

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Length: 03:27, Size: 5.37 MB

Yet another year where I didn’t record much…well, actually I did somewhat, but none of it is ready for release yet. Ah well, I managed to finish my yearly Christmas medley on time This year it’s a medley of the traditional German carol “Süßer die Glocken nie klingen” or “Sweeter the Bells Never Sounded” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”. Enjoy!

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Christmas Medley 2007.mp3)

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Length: 02:46, Size: 4.38 MB

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I’ve recorded something. Shame on me In any case, the Christmas season has caught up to me and as every year I spent a few hours on two weekends to record this medley. This year it’s a medley of the traditional Austrian Christmas carol “Still, Still, Still” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”. Hope you enjoy it and have a Merry Christmas.

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Christmas Medley 2006.mp3)

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Length: 02:51, Size: 4.21 MB

This is the traditional Christmas Medley I record every year as a present to my friends. This year it’s a medley of the traditional Austrian Christmas carol “Es wird scho glei dumpa”, which translated means something like “It’s going to get dark soon”, and Mariah Carey’s hit “All I Want for Christmas”. Also I managed to sneak in the “Little Drummer Boy” at the end. Merry Christmas!

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Time Shift.mp3)

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Length: 03:11, Size: 5.10 MB

I put this little piece together on two weekends in a period where I wished that a time shift would occur and I could jump ahead a few weeks in time (to know what comes next, of course …this was just before I moved from Austria to California). I really enjoyed recording the verse solo guitar for this one, in particular because of the cool guitar sound that is sort of in between crunchy and distorted and played with the neck pickup in single-coil mode of my 7-string. Also the tapping part of the main heavy solo was quite challenging to get it the way I wanted it.

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Dont Bother None.mp3)

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Length: 02:55, Size: 4.21 MB

This is a cover of Yoko Kanno’s beautiful song “Don’t Bother None” from the soundtrack of the awesome Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop. This recording is different from my other recordings in that there’s only vocals and my crappy nylon acoustic guitar. Even the percussion in the background is just me hammering away at the body of my acoustic guitar. Additionally, except for parts of the main guitar solo, I only play with my fingers and not with a pick on this track. Enjoy!

Download audio file (Martin Ecker – Christmas Medley 2005.mp3)

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Length: 03:47, Size: 5.75 MB

This is my Christmas Medley 2005. It’s a medley of the traditional, German Christmas carol “Oh du Fröhliche” and John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas”. Of course, there’s a bit of shredding in there as well, otherwise it wouldn’t be one of my recordings, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless