Calming and pure one moment, exciting and vivid the next, this album lights up the imagination and relieves the mind of the mundane. Catherine evokes a fabulous array of emotions typically reserved for emotions that ebb and flow only under the moonlight.
~Wendy Oakley~
The many loves of Catherine Duc…
I play piano, keyboard and some Irish instruments such as the low whistle, tin whistle and bodhran. My first instrument was the keyboard, which I started learning when I was 8. I started learning classical piano when I was about 12 and have only taken up the Irish instruments recently after a trip to Ireland. I also have some Asian instruments such as a dizi flute from China and a bamboo flute from Cambodia. During high school, I was in the choir and at primary school, I was offered a place in the Australian Girls Choir (which I didn’t take up). I’ve only been doing some vocal recording in the last 5 or so years. I recorded all of ‘Visions and Dreams’ including the vocals in my home studio. I really like the flexibility of having a studio at home and being able to compose and record music whenever I like it. My album ‘Visions and Dreams’ is a blend of my favorite styles of music. I enjoy listening to World, ambient and chillout music like the Cafe del Mar, along with atmospheric electronica such as Chicane and BT. In the last few years, I’ve really been interested in film soundtracks and my favorite composers are James Horner (Titanic), Harry Gregson-Williams (Chronicles of Narnia) and Howard Shore (Lord of The Rings). My main influences when I started composing music were Enigma, Deep Forest and Delerium as I found the way they blended world music, electronic beats and ambient textures had a very fresh and interesting sound. I like the modern classical composers like Debussy, Satie, Dvorak and Holst. I’m also a big fan of Celtic music – from traditional Celtic folk songs to Celtic crossover like Celtic Woman, Enya and Riverdance to pop and rock artists like The Corrs and Mary Black.
‘Visions and Dreams’ was recorded using a lot of different ethnic instruments from Asia, The Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America combined with ambient backgrounds, electronica rhythms and ethereal vocalises. If you like Enigma or Enya, my music is similar to their styles. The mastering was done at the Sony Mastering studios near Sydney. I didn’t actually go there (it would have been really nice to visit the studios though) and sent the CD by post to them. A couple of phone calls later to the engineer and it was all done.
I’m now working on my next studio album, which will have more Celtic music influences. I hope to go to the Billboard film music conference in LA later this year. I’ve been to California once when I was at school and most of my relatives live in California. I’d really like to see more of California, especially the coast and would love to visit San Francisco again as it reminds me of my hometown, Melbourne.
Catherine’s Words of Wisdom for Women Musicians…
Try to enjoy the musical journey rather than the destination! I’d like to share one of my favorite inspirational quotes written by the author Mark Twain: ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.’
I’d just like to encourage musicians who are reading this to have a try at things (or as we say down in Australian – ‘have a go’). You won’t know what you can do unless you have actually tried it. And if you fail once, just get up and try again and do things a little differently. After all, Edison failed about 10,000 times before he got the light bulb right! When I first started recording music, I received some critical reviews from some listeners. I didn’t stop there and give up – I used it as fuel to improve my musicianship and a couple of year later ended up receiving the Best Instrumental Artist Award at the Los Angeles Music Awards.
Please feel free to say to hi and introduce yourself at: www.myspace.com/CatherineDuc
My main website for more information on my music including free MP3 samples is: www.CatherineDuc.com
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