Libera Dreams

In one of the speeches at Ely 2022 a mention was made of ‘recording for a new album’. The reference was specific to the new song Come My Way which premiered at Ely. Though there was no mention of an album in the programme, it did include pictures of the boys in a recording studio.
I am excited at the prospect of a new album, even when we don’t know when to expect it. We know that Come My Way will feature on it. I also hope that it will feature Far Away with Luca doing the solo, as it was another highlight at Ely.

What are your thoughts on a new album?

I am thinking a album will be released in 2023.

maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 6:28 pm">1 year ago</span> In one of the speeches at Ely 2022 a mention was made of ‘recording for a new album’. The reference was specific to the new song Come My Way which premiered at Ely. Though there was no mention of an album in the programme, it did include pictures of the boys in a recording studio.
I am excited at the prospect of a new album, even when we don’t know when to expect it. We know that Come My Way will feature on it. I also hope that it will feature Far Away with Luca doing the solo, as it was another highlight at Ely.

What are your thoughts on a new album?

I want " Sing Forever " re-recorded and Grateful heart is something they should record definetely. Do you think there is still time for a 2022 release?

maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 6:28 pm">1 year ago</span> Though there was no mention of an album in the programme, it did include pictures of the boys in a recording studio.

I have a feeling those are photos from their recording sessions for IF down in Bournemouth.

https://www.forum.libera-dreams.com/vie ... 672#p57672

As the colour and style of the chairs match...

Koji said, "finishing it ready to record for our new album" which seems to imply the recording session is yet to come.

An album with the same solos as the concert would be just great! Would love to hear Daniel W. in a studio version of Come My Way!

If they have already had the recording session, then a 2022 release is possible, but if not, then I would expect it to be an early 2023 release.

maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 6:28 pm">1 year ago</span> What are your thoughts on a new album?

As long as they have more new songs up their rather large sleeves than just "Come My Way". The last time they released an album with one new song and a bunch of repeats, it was BEYOND disappointing.

Luckdragon wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 7:50 pm">1 year ago</span>

maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 6:28 pm">1 year ago</span> What are your thoughts on a new album?

As long as they have more new songs up their rather large sleeves than just "Come My Way". The last time they released an album with one new song and a bunch of repeats, it was BEYOND disappointing.

Pun-y

I actually do enjoy when they do new arrangements of old songs with real instruments as opposed to the synthesizers they used on the first albums. With that said, Beyond had a newer version of "Sanctus" which several years back we labelled Sanctus III . Also the "Salve Regina" had a more extensive solo. Those to me were worth it, but yeah new songs are preferred.

However, we do have to keep in mind that they can write/arrange and rehearse only so many new songs so as to not overwhelm the singers with too much new content. Not to mention that most of those buying the albums are not going to be the sort of hardcore fans who would post at this forum. Many are not going to be familiar with songs recorded nearly twenty years ago on an album like Free for example. so in order to be exposed properly to all of Libera’s music they will need this sort of addition.

Lux Aeterna wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 7:06 pm">1 year ago</span> I want " Sing Forever " re-recorded and Grateful heart is something they should record definetely.

Also hoping for these, with the same soloists as in Ely

maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Tue May 24, 2022 1:24 pm">1 year ago</span>

Lux Aeterna wrote: ↑<span title="Mon May 23, 2022 7:06 pm">1 year ago</span> I want " Sing Forever " re-recorded and Grateful heart is something they should record definetely.

Also hoping for these, with the same soloists as in Ely

Of course! Or maybe there is a video somewhere??? Did you notice if there were cameras recording?

For some reason several people asked about this in Ely as well, but alas, no video cameras were spotted.

maartendas wrote: ↑<span title="Tue May 24, 2022 6:10 pm">1 year ago</span> For some reason several people asked about this in Ely as well, but alas, no video cameras were spotted.

I think people have got used to the idea because of the SJSS concerts. But I can confirm, I saw no video cameras.

It does raise the question though, will they film again in the future? I loved being able to watch the Xmas concerts back. Clearly there is a cost involved, but perhaps they sold enough streams to make it worth while?

Don't forget the Christmas concerts were shorter and were performed twice each time.
Then the video went to post-production before to be released, it was not live streamed.

The double recording provides the staff enough material to avoid exposing for posterity any false note during a song.

This can't be done in Ely, I mean to sell twice the seats of the large cathedral and for the boys to perform twice a full concert in a same day.

Exactly!

Historically the choir has been very protective of any rogue recordings that may make their way onto the internet perhaps showcasing them in not the best light. Partly this is because someone recording Libera on a mobile device from the 20th row of a large concert hall is going to make them sound far worse then they would have sounded at the time. Once in awhile I have come across such a recording on the net and it's completely garbage. There is often sound distortion and other problems because the sensitivity of the microphone on somebody's mobile device isn't designed for anything other than basic human speech, while a professional microphone of the sort that would go into the mixing board, even for a streamed concert, has much greater sensitivity and costs 100 times more.

I completely understand Libera’s desire to only put out high quality content without any glitches. Having attended concerts at which they had legitimate technical problems with just the regular equipment, never mind any equipment that would be recording or streaming the concert, I understand their hesitancy about this. Who can forget the terrible distortion we heard in Saint Louis in 2017? At one point the boys could barely hear each other as they were singing and moving into a new stage formation and kept looking around at one another to make sure they were maintaining the melody.

At this same concert Merlin, while singing “From a Distance”, had to be repositioned by Robert, in the middle of the song , to a stationary microphone because his regular individual microphone attached to his face had failed in some way! That was the first time I ever saw Robert get up in the middle of a song to reposition a member of the choir or to do anything else. Thankfully, Merlin handled it very well and even found it a bit entertaining, earning a few compliments later about it in the signing line

Imagine if this happened during a livestream

fan_de_LoK wrote: ↑<span title="Tue May 24, 2022 8:09 pm">1 year ago</span> Don't forget the Christmas concerts were shorter and were performed twice each time.
Then the video went to post-production before to be released, it was not live streamed.

The double recording provides the staff enough material to avoid exposing for posterity any false note during a song.

This can't be done in Ely, I mean to sell twice the seats of the large cathedral and for the boys to perform twice a full concert in a same day.

Exactly this. It's just the way Libera rolls. Sam likes his sound toys and isn't going to allow raw audio anytime soon.

The big question is whether this is going to be commercially viable in the future. Libera already seems to be struggling to make domestic appearances even though COVID restrictions have pretty much vanished in the UK. While most boy choirs get by with a piano player and acoustics, Libera has to cart around an entire orchestra, their instruments, and tons of sound equipment. That's expensive and logistically complicated.

On the other hand, choirs who have more of an online presence have flourished through the pandemic and beyond. OVCC simply posts two music videos a month and rakes in the YouTube cash. Each of their videos gets hundreds of thousands of views and they're quickly approaching 1 billion total views. Libera would never approach those numbers because they're far more niche, but I think regularly-produced simple videos would be extremely viable for them, especially with all of YouTube's monetary options like fundraisers and paid channel memberships. They wouldn't even need the whole choir all of the time. Fans would go crazy over solos, duos, trios, and small groups as well. Later, use the audio from those performances to create albums. Easy-peasy.

Yes, I know it'll never happen, but one can dream.

https://www.youtube.com/c/OneVoiceChildrensChoir/

You have kind of highlighted the problem there with the YT thing. One Voice have 10x as many subscribers as Libera. Libera just don't get the volume of views to make a significant amount of money. By quick calculation, they would have earned approx. $400k over the lifetime of the channel if all videos were monetized. That's not a lot of money for the 13 years the channel has been up. Even the most popular of the SJSS videos on there has only earned them approx. $1,500. (I base my figures on information found on the net, as I have never monetized a YT chan)

It would be really interesting to know if the sales of the SJSS streams made them money, after all costs. But yes, then we come back to, where would it be filmed? I presume that the double concerts were a response to the covid pandemic and this Xmas will be back to a single concert somewhere. I actually really enjoyed the double concert format. I was able to enjoy new songs better by hearing them twice.

As for the sound equipment, on my first jaunt to see Libera in Guildford in 2015, I did wonder if the microphones were enhancing the boys voices (e.g. autotuning) and even after attending and enjoying some concerts, it wasn't really until I heard some of the boys in other settings, without microphones that I finally accepted... no, they actually are that good! Of course the sound setup is all part of the concert experience which is why the concerts are so great, but it does add a lot of cost compared to other choirs who can just rock up, trundle on stage and sing with a bit of organ accompaniment.

Uhm, is this topic about a possible new album or about a possible new concert video/DVD?