For his musical walk “On the Cliffs of Mohr,” Mark Vickness Interconnected brought together acoustic guitar, bass guitar, violin, cello, percussion from the Middle East, the tabla from India.
And an English horn.
And seven world class musicians to play this lovely instrumental inspired by Irish music and a spectacular piece of Irish coast.
“What’s so inspiring to me about working with this group of musicians is that we have the capacity to go from a small chamber group — violin, cello and English horn in the introduction, to an Irish rock band,” said Mark, founder of MVI, that band that he calls a collective.
The track, as the title suggests, was inspired by a walk Mark and his family took on the named cliffs during a trip to Ireland just before the pandemic hit.
“It was an absolutely glorious, inspiring day,” he said, “and I am a huge fan of Irish music, in addition to many other types of music, so I decided to write an Irish sort of piece.”
The classical trio plays a slow, dreamy intro, creating a vista of sea and cliff. Two minutes in, Mark’s guitar begins a brisk walk, the bass joins in, the English horn picks up the pace, the strings return, and we’re off.
For the rest of the piece, it is as if the instruments themselves are the travelers, conversing among themselves, and the listener is along for the ride.
Several of the other eight tracks also give the listener a musical experience of some aspect of nature: “High Desert”; “The Gorge”; “Alluvial Fans”; “Cloud Shadows”; and the album title track, “In the Rain Shadow.”
The fusion of instruments and musical cultures in song and album reflects the incredible variety of experience in the members of MVI.
“All of these players are very seasoned classical players in addition to being jazz players and rock players, world music players, and that’s part of why I selected these people,” he said.
Mark, composer and fingerstyle guitarist, began his music career on piano at age 6. He has bachelor and master’s degrees in composition, studied guitar, sitar and tabla as well as piano, and has performed, arranged and composed in a wide variety of musical roles with several Grammy winners and legendary musicians.
Two-time Grammy winner Mads Tolling is famous as a composer as well as a violinist. He has performed with The Who and Chick Corea among other top international talent.
Matt Renzi, oboe, sax and English horn, has toured around the world for two decades, both as a soloist and with the Matt Renzi Trio. He has played with Marc Johnson, Michael Formanek, Eddie Marshall, Herbie Lewis and others.
Cellist Joe Hebert has a Grammy as part of Santana’s “Supernatural” and has several nominations. He has worked with Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole and others.
Dan Feiszli plays both upright and electric bass, has toured with artists such as Julio Iglesias and Nicole Yarling and is featured on hundreds of recordings as a bassist and a recording engineer.
Ty Burhoe is famous around the musical world for his work taking the tabla into many other world musical traditions and styles. He has been nominated for three Grammys.
Percussionist MB Gordy, one of the top studio session players in Los Angeles, is also a Grammy winner. He has recorded with Neil Diamond, Faith Hill, Guns and Roses and worked on many film and television and movie scores, including American Sniper, The Bourne Legacy, Frozen, “Game of Thrones,” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
In Mark’s view, music is truly “the universal language of humanity.”
“Since college back in the ’70s I have been directed toward trying to give meaning to that idea that we’re all part of one human family. It may be an intensely dysfunctional family, but it’s one family, and music is ideally suited to expressing that.”
“On the Cliffs of Mohr,” he said, is a great example of how he tries to do that as a composer.
“So, an Irish themed music uses the scale that a lot of Irish music uses, and it has a classical type of introduction and moves into an up-tempo sort of rock piece.”
He is particularly excited about the variety of instruments.
“Look at the percussion instruments: You’ve got Ty playing an Irish piece of music on a classical Indian tabla and MB is playing African and Middle Eastern percussion instruments. And I don’t know of another group out there that is using an English horn.”
“On the Cliffs of Mohr” and its album were released last year. Mark is promoting it in advance of MVI’s next album, I Will Find My Way. The group will start recording it this month for release in July.
“Life is a long journey,” he said, “and music can help people find their way.”
For a trip well worth taking, find your way to MVI on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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