The Naiad is the result of a collaboration with my former neighbour, Hans Stiksma.
(Just before I moved away from Groningen and went to a small village, very close to where Anne-Marie lives).
He's a very talented musical guy, does lots of cool musical arrangements with his musical pal Jan Faber.
Their artist name is Two Men Left.

They had a very nice instrumental track that needed lyrics, melody and vocals.
We were happy to oblige.
Anne-Marie wrote both the lyrics (which are about a guy's obsession for a certain painting) and the melody .
On top of that she created a wonderful video for it.
Apart from that we thought this song could use some addional RTs as well as a soloist.
Both the Acoustic Guitar and String Quartet made it to the final mix.
Brent's soloist was replaced by Hans' guitar playing (he played the exact notes Brent did).

There is also a different mix created by Jan and Hans themselves (which has some different nuances), which can be found HERE

Hope y'all like it!
Rob


RTs:
378 Guitar Acoustic Strumming Double Time
2200 Guitar Nylon Background Country Brent
2334 String Quartet Rhythm PopChamber

Hello, Rob & Anne-Marie

This is very nice song.
The sounds of Piano, Choir, Guitar and Strings fitted to the video very well.
Another version is also very beautiful.
I like both versions.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best Regards.

Beautiful song and I love the arrangement.

Melody and Vocals and lyrics are top notch!

And the video is completely engaging.

Rob & Anne-Marie, this is really sweet. Great vocals and harmonies.

Excellent delivery all around.

Trevor

Very professional. The additional work completed by you and Anne-Marie blends perfectly with the original foundational music. Your works continue to get better and better. I'm left wondering after each post, how will they top this? But you always do.

Beautiful,, both lyrically and musically. The piano is haunting; the story is so well interpreted by the video.
As always the singing is superb. You two can just put another feather in your caps

Paddy G

Hi Rob & Anne-Marie,I totally agree. I enjoyed my watch and listen a lot.

Guenter

thank you, much appreciated!

Rob and Anne-Marie,

For me, this may be your best yet - a great song, video and outstanding vocals... Excellent!

Bob

Terrific piece. Kudos to all involved.
Both mixes were good. Interesting to hear slightly different interpretations.

The video was really nice. Seemed like a lot of work!

Very enjoyable.

fj

Really beautiful!!

I completely agree.

You are the experts at matching outstanding songs with outstanding videos.

Great job on this one.

What they said. Great work all round.

One thing that you folks have in abundance is taste. Your productions
never stray from that. You may never know quite what to expect
before watching one of your video's but you always know that it
will be classy. And this is no exception.


Like Lawrence said "Melody and Vocals and lyrics are top notch!
And the video is completely engaging."

We could not agree more. Congratulations to the entire
team.

J&B

Very pretty music, and a great production all around guys!! Mix and arrangement are sweet, great vocals, and a very well done video!! Take care. Greg

Thanks Lawrence!
It was quite some work to make The Naiad "leave" the painting.
Anne-Marie

Hi,
You've always got amazing video clips ! I want the same ! : )

Hello,

another great one.

Super acoustic guitar part.
Great video and production

Sergio

Rob, your vocal leads a little more in this and sounds sensitive but strong with Anne-Marie's support.
Terrific arrangement.

I second that. Very Classy!! This is great work in every way. Tom

Beautiful song that allows me to feel the emotion of a viewer being taken by the painting featured in your video, specifically the beautiful woman in the picture. I think the song has me really appreciate and experience the emotion that the viewer feels for the artwork which is a new experience for me as a listener and inspires me as a composer and video editor.

I really like your mix and the flow of the arraignment for both recordings for your song. I’m not sure why, but the sound cloud seems to have more clarity in some parts of the mix that really jump out at me. Both arraignments are worthy and exceptional productions and show a gifted musical ear.

The feature of the art literal comes to me at the end. I was impressed with the beautiful woman seemingly comes to life and comes out of the painting. Curious as to how this was done, but maybe like a magic, some things are only shared with some.

This was my first experience hearing and watching what you do, look forward to more.

indeed, I was wondering how you separated the girl from the trees!

That was quite an undertaking to start with an instrumental piece and add lyrics, melody and video! And you completed each of those tasks so well! The song is just beautiful as you have presented it, and the video is equally engaging! And very tasteful, as several others have already observed!

wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

Hi Atze,

Thank you so much for your positive comments.
I made the NAIAD come to life by using the face of another naiad on another painting of John William Waterhouse, that resembled her very much. The arm is from a completely different painting by a different painter (don't remember which one, Google found it for me).
These changes can best be seen when you watch the video full screen on YouTube.
After I made a cut out of The Naiad and made her come forward, I had to "paint" the gap she left on the painting. I made tons of cut outs on different spots of the painting and pasted them on the place the Naiad originally stood. So it was filled by Waterhouse's paint and strikes, only without him knowing and on places he didn't mean to paint trees, water and grass

Glad you like it!

Anne-Marie

Thanks Trevor, Charlie, Paddy, Guenter, Bob, Floyd, David, Mario, Peter, J & B, Greg, Pradon, Sergio, Ray, Tommy and Pat for you nice and positive comments.
Appreciated as always.

Rob and Anne-Marie

VERY clever! I am totally impressed!