North Otago musicians Jackie and Chris Bell have achieved a world first.
Known as Middle Image, the duo released their new single, "Another Day" through the internet. On the dot of midnight, Dec 31st, it began playing the first music of the new millennium.
The single comes from their debut album "Beginning to end", which is also available through the internet on CD.
The album has been a personal labour of love for the couple, Jackie wrote most of the lyrics, tracing the development of a relationship from beginning to end, as the nam implies. They worked together on the melodies and music.
The Album took fourteen months to complete, in a studio set up at their totara estate. Jackie sang the bulk of the vocals and played some percussion, with Chris playing Guitars and Keyboards as well as backup vocals and a couple or so songs.
Chris described the album as a cycle through moods from positive to negative and back to positive again and ending with a message of hope.
These moods are reflected in the colours on the lyric sheet included with the CD.
When they began recording, they thought it would take about three months, but it took 14 months, and the intensity of the experience was "as close as you can come to having a breakdown without actually having one. "
Chris is full of admiration for Jackies work, saying her lyrics are "poetry put to music" with her unique skill of putting her point across in an unusual yet inspirational way.
Jackie also puts a lot of emotion into her singing, he said.
The album was mastered at All Sounds Recording studio in Christchurch, and was financed by Record Momentum, a new label formed especially to promote the Album.
Middle Image believe the best way to perform their album live, would be on stage with the use of atmospheric lighting.
They also have other new original songs that would form the basis of a second album in the future.
The CD ia available from the internet, direct from Jackie and Chris and from local record stores.(non relevant excerpts of this article have been omitted)