A French Flavour for Bastille Day

It's been almost ten years since I finished work on the second Amanaska album 'Circles'. The song 'Sleep' has appeared on many compilations around the globe since then, and had almost 600,00 plays on one YouTube clip posted from Buddha Bar Volume IX.

The inclusion on the Buddha Bar compilation led to me being invited to compose 6 new tracks for a project called Buddha Bar Ocean.

I flew to Paris for 10 days for the final production days and enjoyed the amazing hospitality of the George V Records crew and their fine restaurants (my favourite being the Buddha Bar of course).

Paris has always been one of my favourite cities so what better way to mark the 10 year anniversary of this song than to release a French version for Bastille Day 2015.

Raleigh Williams worked on the French translations and delivered a wonderful vocal performance in the studio a few weeks agp.

The track is available now from the online store or worldwide on iTunes soon.

Enjoy, Simon

Buddha Bar Ocean

Three years after the birth of the buddha-bar Nature concept, Allain Bougrain Dubourg and the George V Records team form an alliance, for our listening pleasure.
More specialized, more worked, but still magic and dreamy; buddha-bar Ocean takes you in an aquatic travel around the world; from the unique marine depths of Brittany’s coasts to the impressive breaking Australian waves.
On the video side, more than 500 hours of footage were edited to keep only the best: 12 video clips (of approximately 3minutes 30) from the of Nature Productions team.
On the music side, different artists from the four corners of the world have collaborated to form a bunch of thousand aromas: Amanaska (Australia) signs 6 titles more appealing one than the other. Daniel Masson also worked hard to make two new gems.
This prestigious alliance offers us a wonderful DVD, with incredible images ringing the alarm to save our planet. Let us react and act!

Winter Escape

Deep House & Downtempo audio harmony from Amanaska combined with the latest photography artwork from Andy Maccoll from 8pm. Loop Bar has just upgraded their sound system and combined with their amazing interior visual space which consists of projected images full screen onto walls plus a separate cinematic viewing room this will be an amazing way to have a little night out with friends and enjoy some incredible music and photography from two of Australia's celebrated artists.

On the Road Again

Amanaska have hit the road again with a fully loaded van complete with surfboards on top. We are doing a 14 show tour of south west Victoria for Musica Viva. Had had a great time so far in the Geelong region and arrived in Warnambool this afternoon ready for more tomorrow. The sunsets have been amazing and Matt and I even managed 2 sunset surf sessions in. It is always a pleasure touring with Matt, Raleigh and Vinod.

Simple pleasures are the BEST!

Had the most wonderful experience with my 9 year old daughter today when she asked me to teach her how to play Golden Slumbers by The Beatles. We sat together at the piano where I showed her how to play the chords and sang it a few times.

I then jumped on my Wurlitzer A200 and left her on the piano and we played it together four or five times more. We have been listening to Abbey Road for years on my parents original vinyl copy and it has obviously stuck.

This evening before bed we were serenaded with Golden Slumbers. Aweseome!

Super fun weekend of music in Melbs

If you are in Melbourne this weekend there are 3 gigs happening that I am super excited about. First one is on Saturday afternoon at the Merri Creek Primary Fete where I will be joined by Raleigh Williams and another surprise guest vocalist play tunes from Escape. 

on Saturday evening Raleigh and I head into the Paris Cat in the CBD to play 2 sets of acoustic jazz with David Gooey and Adam Speigl. There will be a few Amanaska tunes in the set too.

Finish off the weekend at The Royal Derby Hotel in Fitzroy at 5pm for some super tasty funk and soul with mamatone.

Morning Escape

There is nothing quite like watching the sun rise on an early morning beach walk to get inspiration for some new tunes.

New Buddha Bar release

I have the pleasure of having Gandhara from 'Escape' opening the latest release from Buddha Bar in Paris which is released worldwide this week. You can purchase it here

Born in 1996, Buddha-Bar has been the ultimate reference of Lounge Restaurants and above all of Lounge music compilations around the World. With the creation of a Hotel Collection under the same brand name, Buddha-Bar confirms its vision of Lounge and signs a new edgy and modern music collection: Buddha-Bar Hotel. 

Retaining the Lounge & World DNA, the new compilation selected by DJ Ravin (Buddha-Bar Worldwide executive DJ), marks a turn in the story of the Buddha-Bar compilations with an atmosphere even cosier and more elegant but still as enchanting as ever. 

This Buddha-Bar Hotel opus will feature jazzy notes as well as world and electronic sounds that have made George V Records famous for more than 15 years. Bands such as Thor or Amanaska will be featured as well as some new ones like Sachmode, Rampue or Marlon Hoffstadt.

Buddha-Bar Hotel Paris, embark on a Chic & Zen journey, pure pleasure !

Live at Evolve this weekend

Simon will be presenting a live set of Amanaska and Pravana music this weekend at the Evolve Yoga Festival in Melbourne. Joining him on stage will be Janine Maunder on vocals and Vinod Prasanna on bansuri (flute). 

Evolve is an affordable community celebration of all things yogic. We bring together over sixty renowned presenters, a vibrant array of markets, food and music in three beautiful locations, to inspire one conscious yoga community.

Hope to see you there.

http://www.evolveyogafestival.com.au