Calendar Songs

From October 2006 to September 2007, singer-songwriter Tamara Barnett-Herrin conducted a real-time experiment in songwriting and remix culture unlike any other. For one year she wrote an original song a month and posted the parts of that song on www.calendarsongs.com for anyone, anywhere to remix and upload back onto the site. The end result is a compilation of the 12 best mixes - Calendar Songs Volume 1.

For one year she wrote an original song a month and posted the parts of that song on www.calendarsongs.com for anyone, anywhere to remix and upload back onto the site.

The end result is a compilation of the 12 best mixes - Calendar Songs Volume 1.

Calendar Songs began with a manifesto. Each month's song had to be inspired by the events of that month, as well as written, composed and recorded entirely within that month. The challenge was set.

As the months progressed a dazzling, sometimes bizarre and always innovative jigsaw puzzle started to grow. Enabled by Creative Commons licensing, remixers and countless enthusiasts from every continent joined Calendar Songs to add their voices. The site features individual playlists for each remixer, monthly pages for each original song and its remixes, message boards and videos. Now with almost 300 mixes streaming on the site (and more being added almost daily) Tamara is releasing Calendar Songs Volume 1 as a download and as a limited edition CD on her own Calendar Songs Recordings.

The 12 mixes span all genres and colours, each one dramatically different from the next but all unified by Tamara's smart songwriting and rich, expressive vocals. There is fuzzy, dubby, electronica in eskimo-esque's ?Play' mix of October, and minimalist sensuality in Max Plank's minimal techno ?Stalactite' mix of January. Then there's the delicate live sound of Welsh acid-folk band A-line in the ?Crystal Cuckoo' mix of December, the glorious Francophone pop of ditto-ditto's ?? la Parisienne' mix of June and British classical composer Ross Lorraine's lush Latin take on April.

Calendar Songs Volume 1 is a unique and joyful musical experiment, an online phenomenon shaped by a brave and original talent.