Young DaDa Ensemble records their debut album

The Young DaDa Ensembles hit the recording studio in March, to record their debut album, 'The First, but not the Last'.

Crosstown Recording Studios, in the Fairfield area of Liverpool, opened its doors to the Young DaDa Ensemble, who performed and recorded a mixture of their own work, covers and arrangements of their favourite songs.

A distinctive and eclectic sound pervades the album, which reflects the diverse range of backgrounds and influences of the groups' members.  Evolve (the most musically experience of the two groups) produced a number of pieces composed, arranged and led by individual group members themselves.  Joel led an African song, Craig led a samba extravaganza, Matthew performed a song he had composed himself and Tyler led the group in performing his own song on rock instruments.

Explore had spent the term 'exploring' musics from round the world.  They chose a vibrant Japanese Taiko drumming piece, a calm, zen-like Chinese song which they had composed themselves and a lively twelve-bar blues number.

Recording in the studio really helped the young people to raise their game, striving for perfection in rehearsals as they knew they would only have a couple of hours to record the finished pieces.  Over the weeks, they learnt about pitch matching, playing to a click track, balancing different instrumental sounds and troubleshooting to ensure a perfect performance.  The experience gave them a great insight into the professional music industry.

'The First and not the Last' is available for purchase, priced at £7.  For more information, please contact Sam Wade - samw@dadafest.co.uk.