I came across another box of Reel-to-Reel tapes in the basement a few months back. One box titled “Instruments of Peace” (Recording Session) 4-Channel caught my eye.
So this edition of Found Sound takes us back to the Summer of 1979. At that time, I was part of a singing group called “The Instruments of Peace” (IOP). Originally formed in 1977 with the encouragement of Dick Bumpass and under the auspices of the Baptist Student Union of the Annapolis area, IOP went through several iterations and I joined the group in the summer of 1978. We sang at a variety of venues and presented concerts of Christian musical styles from classical to contemporary. We arranged and recorded many of our own accompaniment tracks, but also presented a few selections a capella. One in particular was an arrangement of the Spiritual “My Lord What A Morning.”
In the summer of 1979, we decided to do a recording of some of the selections in a ‘session’ held at the Glen Burnie Baptist Church. I recall the sanctuary had pretty nice acoustics and they had just installed a custom built mixing board that was quite advanced at the time.
So, I fired up the ol’ TEAC deck, cleaned the heads, threaded the reel and prepared to transfer the session from 35 years ago to the computer. It took a couple of tries due to the TEAC acting temperamental, but it’s almost 40 years old!
I was pleasantly surprised with the sound. So I thought I’d share.
I created a lyric video, partially because I wanted to try my hand at it by learning a new technique with a program called ‘Blender’. I used some licensed stock sunrise footage and did some custom graphics.
Hope you enjoy.
The Instruments of Peace (at the time of this recording):
- Jenny (Cheston) Francis – Soprano
- Amy (Cheston) McMonigle – Alto
- Amy (Hunter) Stoddard – Alto
- Richard Strickland – Tenor
- Doug Jackson – Bass