I update this blog only when I have something to say and also when I have time, and today it happens to be twice! As I mentioned briefly in my previous post I’ve simply released a track once it’s finished without saying anything ahead of time and also saying very little once it’s been released. Unfortunately Imphenzia is basically 99% productivity and 1% promotion which is not how it should be if you want to reach out to a wide array of listeners.

My first step towards making Imphenzia more interesting is to announce the release of tracks ahead of time. What I am trying out is first of all compiling a YouTube video clip of the track with some simple yet colourful graphics. By embedding this on my web site and also announcing it to channel subscribers on YouTube and though Imphenzia on Twitter it raises awareness and hopefully the anticipation of a coming Imphenzia track.

My second step is through the new Next Release page. Here I announce the track that is queued up to be released next and I also give visitors an opportunity to request this track to be released totally free to the public. The idea with this is that promotion and word-of-mouth is extremely valuable and by relying on a larger number of people requesting the track to be released for free it would encourage fans to spread the word further in order to reach the goal of requests before the release date. The reward of this is a free track in exchange for promoting Imphenzia through social networks, messaging, twitter, blogs, etc. I set the goal to 300 requests for the first release although some serious WoM will have to take place in the next 3 days to get there, but I am still hopeful!

By the time you read this the release date of October 31 2009 may already have passed for the Tranquil Edit of Duplicate My Soul, but there might be another track queued for release so please have a look at this page http://www.imphenzia.com/release - request the free release if available and make sure to tell everyone about it!

My third step is to offer competitions where everyone who participates will at least get something (generally in the shape of free music) with the potential to win something bigger. The first competition is a task to write a short review of Duplicate My Soul and post it again on social networks, blogs, and music forums. You can see the competition page here to get the idea: http://www.imphenzia.com/music/competitions.php

So whether these steps are the right ones or if they are effective means of promoting my music remains to be seen but again, I am hopeful!

The original version of my latest release “Duplicate My Soul” is now available on the official Imphenzia web site. It’s a 5 minute 41 second long trance journey starting with a lengthy and emotional intro that lasts about a minute and a half. An ambient boom and morphing pads sets up the track before a lonely and piano is introduced with a single not melody. As the harmony flows a detuned trance lead is added to intensify the mood. As the track evolves it is a journey through combinations of traditional static beats and euphoric sections literally projecting my soul through what you hear. This track has a lot of meaning to me and there are two reasons of why this track was named “Duplicate My Soul”. The first and foremost reason is that I am about to become a father with my first child due in March so I am literally duplicating my soul so to speak =) The second reason and what will probably be the guess amongst listeners is that the track also duplicates my soul in terms of music. This track contains very strong trademarks of what Imphenzia sounds like in terms of how the track was constructed, how the melodies flow, how the layers come together, and the overall feel.

The track is available for instant high quality download for those of you who have the Imphenzia All Access download feature enabled - If you don’t then have a look at this feature on the tracks page.

You can also listen to Duplicate My Soul [original] track here:
Hi-fi stream (limited to 2 minutes)
Lo-fi stream of entire song
Hi-fi clip

As I mentioned, the original release is already available and I have also completed 3 additional edits with a fourth one being finalized. Instead of releasing all the edits at once I have to improve my approach to getting the word of Imphenzia spread so I’ve decided to release tracks over time rather than a bunch of them at the same time. I hope to see some more returning visitors this way and it may also hopefully help in terms of promotion as Imphenzia relies solely on Word-of-mouth.

The edits that will follow the original release are: Tranquild Edit, Submerged Edit, Extended Club Edit, and an Imphenzia first with an Acoustic Piano edit. The Tranquil Edit is a 110bpm chilled out version with a melodic relaxed feel featuring a similar intro but a very different beat and a prominent lead with retro styled portamento slides. The Submerged Edit is an “offbeat” with the bass offset to 16th Triplets creating a rhythmic beat that made Hypertraxx very famous (as they filled their album with that style =). The Extended Club Edit does not have the dreamy intro and should be more DJ friendly, it also has a different set of sounds although it sounds very similar to the original. Finally, the piano version is totally different and this new ground for Imphenzia. Even though I play the piano sometimes my piano tracks are rarely released and taking the melodic influences from Duplicate My Soul and creating an acoustic piano track was a lot of fun so if fans like it I will continue to release the odd Piano track as well - we’ll see how it develops once the piano version has been released.

You can preview the versions here:

I hope you enjoy this new track and make sure to tell everyone you know about it =)