Guess what? Last week I finished the last of the new recording and fixes for Pairings. Hooray!! I'm so excited about the music we have created on this album and I can't wait to share it with you. I hope you're excited, too!

Before that can happen, though, there are still a whole lot of steps to take. First will be the mixing, which will be an interesting and time-consuming challenge because the tracks were recorded in three different studios with three different engineers, and the arrangements are spare, so there's nowhere to "hide" any imperfections there may be. After that will come mastering and I'll have to get mechanical licenses for the jazz standards on the album. Then there's graphic design, manufacturing, shipping, digital distribution, and (if I really want the album to get a chance to be heard!) promotion.

In the end, the cost of releasing Pairings will be around $18,000. I've put in over $6,000 for studio time, music arrangements, and musician session fees, but I'm coming to the end of my resources and I hope you will considering contributing to the crowdfunding campaign I just launched. My goal is to release Pairings on April 15th. If you are a fan of homegrown, independently-released music, please consider being part of the campaign. Until February 19th, you can even get credit with your name in the liner notes of the CD!

I would also be grateful if you could help spread the word about the crowdfunding campaign through your own networks. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, e-mail, or even good old-fashioned word-of-mouth would be a tremendous help!

Here's the link that you can send to your friends: www.gofundme.com/fawnfritzen. Click through to watch the video about the campaign. I've included some snippets of the music along with some behind-the-scenes photos and videos from recording that I did in Toronto.

Photo by Jeffrey Care