Mark Laurent

Hi guys

We've been in lockdown in Auckland for the last month (almost over now) and while it's a pain in some ways it's also been a good time to catch up on my backlog of material. I'll shortly be uploading an album of demo recordings on Bandcamp;
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And I've posted a few videos to Youtube - hope you enjoy them.

A Small Lament @ Level 4
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Beaten Paths – Millennium Hippies
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Green Chair
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Improv In Greyscale
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Maybe Even Time
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All the best,
Mark

Hi everybody
Sorry you haven't heard from me in a while. I confess that I sometimes forget N1M is here until they send me a reminder email. I really appreciate the encouraging messages that many of you have sent me - as you know the live gigs have been few and far between for many of us so this online contact is all the more precious. I've still been uploading vids to Youtube and my Facebook pages now and then, and maybe some of you have seen those. I'll post different tracks to N1M soon as you must be sick of the same old ones by now. Anyway, thanks for choosing to sub to my little channel. Please keep in touch - that's how the world goes round eh?
Blessings and friendship,
Mark

Hi All

N1M reminds me that I should send you a message every now & then, which is a good idea. Sorry it's taken so long. I've tried previously but the system seemed to have some glitches. Anyway it appears to be working. It's always a bit of a miracle to my small brain that all this stuff whirs around in cyberspace & actually gets there at all.

Several of you have asked if I'd post more tracks on N1M but I can only upload 3 at a time on the free subscription option, so which one do you think I should delete to make room? I really appreciate it that you're interested in my music so the best thing I think I can do is give you my links & invite you to check out my stuff on other platforms as well. I've got over 120 vids on Youtube (a few also on Vimeo if you like the higher res format). 10 albums on Bandcamp, which are all WAV files, much higher quality than the mp3s you get on iTunes, Spotify etc. Anyway here are some links.

Bandcamp; (expired link)
Youtube; (expired link)
And if you'd like to connect on Facebook; (expired link)

All the best - please stay in touch.

Mark

Hi guys, I've just posted another song, Crazy, from UnderGrowth, an album I recorded in 2010. It's free for streaming or download so please help yourselves, & if you like it you might like to check out the rest of the album (& perhaps buy it) from my Bandcamp page. Here's the link.

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Hope you're all having a nice day (or night) out there, wherever you are. We're having a really nice, hot summer here at the moment in Auckland.
Take care,
Mark

Happy new year everyone.
I've just uploaded another track, & it's available for streaming or download. It's titled IMAGE & I wrote it after sitting in a cafe one afternoon looking at the glossy magazines full of beautiful people with expensive clothes, cars & houses. It didn't make me feel inadequate as I made my value choices many years ago, but it made me aware of the huge pressure advertising media puts on us to conform & consume. IMAGE is my (tongue-firmly-in-cheek) response.
All the best,
Mark

Hi guys,

N1M tells me it's good to write something at least once a month so you won't get bored with me & move away. :) Well I've posted a new song as a little Christmas gift. It's an (expired link) of Silent Night. I've never been much of a Christmas carols guy - in fact the schmalzy versions that get played in the shops this time of year mostly just annoy me. But I was asked to create an alternative version of one for a show that one of the big churches in Auckland is putting on this month & decided to take up the challenge - I thought it'd be good for me to get over my prejudice. The only one that came to mind is Silent Night, as it's such a beautiful little song & has a nice story too.

On Christmas Eve in 1818 a blizzard stranded the tiny village of Ogledorf, nestled in the Austrian mountains.
That same day the people of St Nicholas' church found their organ broken. So the priest and organist began composing a song that could be sung without an organ, yet beautiful enough to express their Christmas joy. All day and all night long they worked and at midnight the gentle carol Silent Night was born. The pure clear tones echoed through the hills, and the world has been captured by the beauty of that simple song ever since

Neat story eh? Well anyway I just started messing around with it a bit & I've posted the result here. It's free to stream or download. I had to delete my song Anyway from my little playlist as N1M only allows you to post 3 tracks before you start paying, so sorry if you enjoyed that one. It's going to be available soon on Bandcamp. But in the meantime I hope you all have a great Christmas, & let's not forget the real Christmas story - not just the one the merchandising industry tries to sell us.

Take care out there,

Mark

Hi guys,

Thanks to those of you who've asked if I'm going to upload more songs. I've got heaps of them but N1M only allows you to upload 3 at a time without upgrading to premium, & I'm not yet convinced that N1M is going to work well enough to spend the dosh (maybe I'm also a cheapskate...?) :) Anyway I've deleted 1 of the 3 that was there until now & uploaded another track. I think I made the setting free to download so please help yourself if you'd like. It's called That's What It's Like & it's a blues recorded live at a gig in Byron Bay, Australia, a few years ago. Hope you enjoy it.

Take care out there, & feel free to pass this on if you have friends you think would enjoy the music.

All the best,
Mark

Hi All,

Thanks for subscribing to my N1M page. To tell you the truth I haven't used this site much so far & am still unsure if I've got energy for it, but I'm really grateful that whatever you heard or saw here you liked, & I'll do my best to post more in the near future. It's not that I haven't got a heap of material - here's a link to my Youtube channel if you want to have a look - (expired link)
- it's just that there's such a lot of stuff out here in cyberspace & I don't really just want to add to the white noise unless there's some point to it.

Actually, if you like what I'm playing & would like to have some of the albums probably the best thing I can do is give you my Bandcamp url, which is where several of them are (there'll be more coming soon). Here you go;
(expired link)

N1M is 'telling' me it's good to add a video link to newsletters so here's one - it's called Anyway & was inspired by a poem of Mother Teresa (doesn't sound very rock'n'roll does it? :);
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And here's another one, this inspired by the work of a famous New Zealand kinetic sculptor, Len Lye;
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All the best - please flick me a note if you'd like to chat.

Mark
mark@(expired link)
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Hi guys
Thanks very much for subscribing to my Number1Music page - to tell you the truth I joined this thing on spec & haven't really done anything with it yet so that's very nice of you to come along & prompt me by your presence. I'm not even very sure how this site works yet but I'll try to give it a go. If you'd like to see a bit more of what I do (I know I haven't posted much here yet) my website is (expired link) & my Youtube channel is (expired link) & you can find me on Facebook, Fandalism etc. Let's know if the kind of thing I do interests you & I'll try to post some more here.
All the best,
Mark