Brobdingnagian Bards released Memories of Middle Earth in 2003. Ten years later, we are excited to re-release the album, newly remixed and remastered. The album debuted at DragonCon to a swarm of excited comments. Now we are ready to officially release the album on September 22, 2013 aka Bilbo's Birthday or Hobbit Day. Starting today, you can pre-order the digital album on iTunes and Amazon
This was the first album that Andrew McKee and I ever recorded, mixed and mastered on our own (if you leave off that absolutely horrible self-titled album of 1999 which we destroyed all copies of). Andrew was our engineer. He did an outstanding job for a first recording. By 2003, we had already recorded five albums together. Andrew researched audio engineering for months. We bought some good mid-level microphones. The final product had an ethereal sound that I still love today. The album was released and for the most part was extremely well-received. So well, in fact, that we were invited to play a Lord of the Rings Oscar Party in 2004 when Return of the King won numerous Oscars.
As much as we loved it, there were a few problems with the original recording though. We recognized back then that we did not have any low end to our instruments. So we used EQ to totally cut out the low end altogether. It's a neat effect, but it means the album lacked body. Andrew also rushed the release of his song “Legolas” to get it on the album. That track is one of the most-criticized songs to date. Finally, the album was more New Age-y than folk. I think that was more my call. I was wanting more Enya and less folk. Looking back, I realized I should've done what we do best.
The album fixes all of those problems. It sounds contemporary, but less New Age-y. There's more body to the album as we put the low-end back in. Andrew used his new mixing and mastering techniques and used EQ to put instruments in their proper place. And finally, he finished “Legolas”. It sounds a zillion times better.
All in all, I'm extremely happy with the new album. I can't wait to officially release it on September 22nd, Hobbit Day. It took ten years to return this album to what it should've been. It is well worth the wait.
