John Ludi
John Ludi's JournalAging Indie/Prog Musician Retires, Billions Yawn.
People of DU,
I have decided to celebrate 40+ years in music by retiring from it. The reasons for this are myriad, but it is mostly due to my sense that the time has passed for me to do much good in the world with my work as the future trajectory of our civilization (and our planet) seems fairly obvious...and that my output is VERY out of step with most of the musical trends of the past couple decades or so, to the extent that the idea of developing an audience at this juncture seems improbable.
I'm grown tired of swimming against the tide, and it would be against my principals to swim WITH it...so it’s time to let it all go.
From this point onward I will probably not do much more than post the occasional self-indulgent cover tune on YouTube. It is highly unlikely that I will release more original music.
All of that being said, I am planning on getting my current ten albums in front of as many pairs of ears as possible over the next couple of years, thus this email. I am hosting all of these current albums on a file-sharing service called Sync. They are MP3s encoded at 320kbps and each directory includes lyrics, credits and artwork as well. These are all FREE...however, you can always donate at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnludi if you feel so moved.
The albums are listed below, along with my best attempt at a description. I’m extremely eclectic and it’s pretty much impossible to lock my work into any specific style or genre...each album is very much it’s own thing.
Feel free to share these albums (or this message itself)...you can review them, play them on your station, annoy your neighbors, frighten your pets, etc., if they appeal to you. As with any other creative work not in the realm of public domain, please don’t use it in commercials or such things without my express permission. If you think any of my songs/compositions would be perfect for your film project or whatnot, just get in touch with me.
Also, my interviews, off-grid living, travel and assorted live/ one-off music videos are on YouTube, if that is of interest to you.
(I also, for the sake of non-grid dependent posterity, am interested in sending out some LIMITED physical copies of some of my albums...in CD and/or DVD collection form. This would be limited to the continental US due to media mail postal rates. Let me know if this is of an interest to you.)
Thank you...and best of luck in the times to come...you’ll likely need it.
2022 - The Quiet Earth Orchestra - World Without Words 2
(Genres - Ambient, Instrumental Prog, Soundtrack)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/0f88b0ef0/buemczpt-qz22gsdk-44uirtrb-sttvgv4x
This is an album of Instrumental Progressive and Ambient pieces and is probably the last album I will ever make. I wanted to go out on an up note. It is fairly innocuous and pleasant to listen to, with lots of layered textures that sound rather nice in a pair of headphones.
2020 - John Ludi - Mistakes Have Been Made
(Genres - Rock, Indie, Prog)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cd4d39720/7tfk5nf8-uktc942a-egzeza2z-wrrs8w3b
My final album as a socially-concerned eclectic singer-songwriter-instrumentalist. It’s all over the map musically, but could be considered Progressive in the same sense that Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie and Todd Rundgren could be considered Progressive. I consider this the apex of my recording career and the best one to start with.
2015 - John Ludi - Obsolescence
(Genres - Rock, Indie)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cd86c5fb0/cn5b65xe-5xgsawrm-k9ihes2g-76asmw7b
One of two albums I put out in 2015, it is the “internally-focused” album. It’s an album of songs reflecting on aging, loss, and mortality, for the most part.
2015 - John Ludi - Rage
(Genres - Rock, Indie, Punk)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/419c6df60/ixnrrhhq-kps8djhh-fjpuq45z-bn77ifs3
One of two albums I put out in 2015, it is the “externally-focused” album. A lot of my older “punk” songs from the past were redone, as well as a few new pieces. The topics are generally political, environmental, social...and overall deal with a civilization in a state of collapse.
2008 – The Quiet Earth Orchestra – The Quiet Earth Orchestra
(Genres - Prog Rock)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/b5cff4a30/ijg3q7pq-wt2jqeb7-rnqh54ht-rymn476t
This is my homage to 70’s Progressive Rock, and has occasional elements of Yes, King Crimson, and ELP blended together with a darker Gothic musical and lyrical sensibility.
2008 – Soft War – Soft War
(Genres - Rock, Indie)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/4a539e890/24z6h6py-z3s4zk8b-ye5yx3k6-4e5ws7uu
Much more of a Rock/Indie Rock album, but still very eclectic and diverse in its presentation and scope and a rare collaborative effort (I mostly work alone) that I am extremely proud of.
2005 – John Ludi – Rise Above or Fall Below
(Genres - Rock, Indie)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/3b1eba2e0/7tacia2p-bx54uzpa-yw62ieaz-82j8wtb8
A favorite of many of those who know my work, it is a study in musical eclecticism that is lyrically focused on notions of materialism versus spirituality and transcendence.
2001 – John Ludi – Hell’s Laughter and Heaven’s Ache
(Genres - Rock, Indie, “Goth”)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cc1f7b710/x9zf5v45-trnqprra-hsbk9w3a-et7gu35n
My first release as “John Ludi”, this album is not the best work I’ve ever created in terms of production, but there are a great many songs that I am extremely proud of.
1995 - The Quiet Earth Orchestra - World Without Words
(Genres - Ambient, Soundtrack, Worldbeat)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/34dee06f0/imqmbeqr-cx7cm7rm-fmptmcf3-gqzndym4
One of the few projects from my earlier years that I have decided is worth putting out there, this is an instrumental work that (like WWW2 from 2022) alternates between ambient pieces and percussion-based pieces. Interesting and (mostly) pleasant background music, basically.
1982-1989 – John Ludi – 4-Track Wonderland
(Genres - Rock, Prog, Experimental)
https://ln5.sync.com/dl/70a4764a0/fsypqh6e-sdi6g3ia-cewdbu7h-7wipmtut
Musical baby pictures, basically...but some of them are pretty decent musical baby pictures. If you find my more recent work compelling in any way, this would be a good way to hear how I started out on the path I followed over the past 40+ years.
Weekly Ludi #40
This initial attempt at an actual music video from several years back is Weekly Ludi #40. It’s a song about becoming old, obsolete and invisible...a phenomenon that comes to us all, if we live long enough. (NOTE; the song is NOT 6:27 minutes long...the upload did something odd and I didn’t find out about it for a while, so I’ve left it that way.)
Weekly Ludi #39
Weekly Ludi #39 is a soothing Ambient respite from my usual musical rantings about our collective doom...and it features cats! It is from my new (and final) album; The Quiet Earth Orchestra – World Without Words 2.
https://soundcloud.com/john-ludi/the-thing-in-the-woods-adopts-a-couple-kittens-by-john-ludi-as-the-quiet-earth-orchestra
Weekly Ludi #38
Weekly Ludi #38 is a song about war profiteering, from a while back...because no matter the merits of any particular conflict, SOMEONE is making money off of it.
https://soundcloud.com/john-ludi/futile-rockets-fail-by-john-ludi-greg-kutcher-as-soft-war
They threw accusations
at the air over our heads,
we responded with sanctions,
fuel for the fire we fed.
We declared an embargo,
they filled the canal with mines.
We ignored every caution,
they crossed over all lines.
Feed the beast and warm its belly,
watch it grow and grow.
Sing its praises and trumpet its virtues
as it drags you all down below.
We called in an air strike,
they stopped their shipments of crude.
So we unleashed the full fury
of wars unholy brood.
With no intention of winning,
every life lost was lost in betrayal,
but the office fills up with contracts
when futile rockets fail.
Feed the beast and fill its belly,
watch it swell and bloat.
Give it blood and give it bodies,
give it tanks, napalm, and boats.
I don't expect compassion from you...
so you won't get any mercy from me.
Imperialism and conquest:
history is but one endless fight
for the fool-hearted folly,
for the financier's delight.
For who cares for tomorrow
when the blood of today brings you power?
They will forfeit our future
as the dreams of the damned fully flower.
Feed the beast and drown in its belly:
a victim of your own designs.
Pernicious and bloated and greedy and craven,
as the hope for the future declines.
Feed the beast and stroke its belly,
for its comfort, profit, and delight.
Then pray to your false gods and run for cover
as it blots out the last rays of light.
Weekly Ludi #37
Weekly Ludi #37 is one of my infrequent covers (I mostly do originals). Great song by a great band. Hope I did it justice.
Weekly Ludi #35
Weekly Ludi #35 is from The Quiet Earth Orchestra self titled album. It’s part of a larger theme, lyrically; The “Prophet” speaks to the masses, telling them to "slow down', get off the treadmill, and think for themselves. Then, out of sheer gratitude, the masses try to kill him. Same old story, basically.
https://soundcloud.com/john-ludi/slow-down
Look up from your duties and peer beyond the haze,
do you see the years that you've spent running through a maze?
Are you a bit part player on an empty stage,
attending to the ritual and pacing in your cage?
Look all around you now and tell me what you see:
millions of voiceless machines pretending they are free
whose every fleeting notion is written as in stone,
fleeing from the uncertain and fearing the unknown.
All eyes upon you as you waver on the edge.
All jaundiced observations as you stare down from the ledge.
So whose life are you living and by whose unspoken rules?
Why did you pass your future into the hands of fools
who trod down well-worn paths yet never found their way?
Why do their listless echoes inform your life today?
All eyes upon you as you waver on the edge.
All jaundiced observations as you stare down from the ledge.
And sudden gasps of shock as their eyes raise to the sky,
as you throw off your chains, spread your wings and fly!
An angry crowd has gathered, they're calling out my name,
a mob of naysayers who shoot down every claim.
Behind them stand all those who forged all their chains,
(keeping it all the same).
I back away to flee but there's nowhere to turn.
Smoke wafts in the breeze as my books start to burn.
All the words now just forgotten, mocked and spurned.
(The pattern always returns.)
And as I struggle, to a platform I am led,
with handcuffs on my wrists and a hood over my head.
I call for help but the fickle faithful have all fled
(they only value you when you're dead).
Weekly Ludi #34
Weekly Ludi #34 is an entire album, one which serves as a benign musical epilogue to 40+ years of a life in music, writing, video work and activism. It is half ambient and half instrumental progressive rock, and it is free to listen to on Youtube, free to download song-by-song on my Albums page on Soundcloud, and available for purchase on Bandcamp (links in the video notes). It marks the point where I gracefully decline into total obscurity as the world goes mad and implodes (which won't be hard as obscurity is how I’ve rolled in general in the past ten years or so). It’s a pleasant headphone experience, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Weekly Ludi #33
Weekly Ludi #33 is the final piece created for the new Quiet Earth Orchestra album. It’s a large, ponderous and good natured herbivore that just wants to lumber along its way in life and not be eaten.
https://soundcloud.com/john-ludi/brontosaurus-by-john-ludi-as-the-quiet-earth-orchestra
Hearts!
Thanks to whoever gave them to me...I'm not a frequent presence, so it means a lot to be considered for them!
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Member since: Mon Apr 20, 2020, 08:41 AMNumber of posts: 589
