The people behind the songs
Han Epskamp
Life-work is a musical project founded by Dutch songwriter Han Epskamp, the name coming from songwriting being his life's work and also stating that the topics of the songs deal with life in general. When producer Tim Ellis asked him late 2009 if he could use some help on the production of his songs it resulted in the first recording, the ballad 'Wonder where you are' with soprano Karen Orchin. Han liked her voice so much that she recorded a second song: 'My heart', which was remixed by Pete Hammond and got to number 4 in the Euro-HiNRG Top 50 club chart in October 2010. Afterwards 'Wonder where you are' was also remixed by Pete Hammond in a dance version and got to number 2 in theEuro-HiNRG Top 50 club chart in February 2011. 'You won't see my tears' then was especially written for Karen's voice. Han wrote already in primary school at the age of 10 and kept on writing till now, but only on a more professional level for the last 12 years. He got known in Holland through a contest for young composers who had to make a melody on an existing poem. He got through to the finals in 2002. In 2003 his song 'Holiday' by the group LIGHT got 3rd in a Songcontest of the Dutch TV-show 'Man bijt Hond'. In 2004 he reunited the group Mai Tai for singing his song 'Bring back the music' which was selected for the Dutch preselection of the Eurovision Songcontest. The song didn't win but got released on CD in a mix by Pumpin'Dolls. Mai Tai recorded a second song in 2005 called 'Don't forget to live', mixed by Almighty Productions. In that year also the album 'Don't move' was released by countrystar and friend SHANNAH. For this album Han wrote the ballad 'At my place'. His song 'Out of Sight', an uptempo dance song, became winner in the Song of the Year competition June 2009 in the dance section.
Rossana LaqualeThe latest track 'Queen of the World has Rosanna as lead vocalist.
Jon Dixon
'Queen of the World'
(StarLab Remix) Jon Dixon is the skilled musician/programmer/engineer with an incredible ear for producing high-quality pop remixes. He has worked at some of London’s best known recording studios including Utopia, Unit 3, PWL, Matrix, Konk, Whitfield Street, Roundhouse, Town House, Livingstone etc. In the early to mid-90s he worked as a programmer and engineer for remix teams and artists such as Dave Lee (aka Joey Negro), Take That, Serious Rope, Mike McEvoy, James Taylor Quartet, EMF, Pascal Gabriel, John Wadell, John Coxon, Betty Boo, Snowboy, Pete Wingfield etc. In 1995 he began working freelance for Almighty Records eventually being employed full time by the gay dance label in 2006, working as the label’s first in-house producer from their Unit 4 studios near Archway, north London. From 1998 to 2005 Almighty were the most in-demand commercial remix team, and Jon headed up Almighty Associates (Almighty, Dataluxe, Hit Squad, Unit 4, etc) working on remixes for Cher, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Alcazar, S Club 7, Anastacia, Enrique Iglesias, Alexia, Steps, Pink, Kylie Minogue, Deborah Harry, Pet Shop Boys, S Club Juniors, Lolly, Usher, Emma Bunton, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Scooch, Liza Minnelli, Ronan Keating, Atomic Kitten, B*witched, Abs, Savage Garden, Elton John, Geri Halliwell, Darren Hayes, Shania Twain, Precious, Ricky Martin, Martha Wash, Gabrielle, Nelly Furtado, Donna Summer, Liberty X, Dina Carroll, LeAnn Rimes, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, A1, Dana International, Stephen Gately, Martine McCutcheon, Roxette, Lara Fabian, Jamiroquai, Milky, A*Teens, Darius, Samantha Mumba, Lulu, Kaci, Faith Hill, Soft Cell, Hear’say, Louise, Westlife, Jennifer Holliday, Whitney Houston, Jimmy Somerville, Mary Griffin and many more. Jon produced 80% of the label’s own releases during that period, acts including Deja Vu ft. Tasmin, Rochelle, Jackie ‘O’, 2 Hope 4, Indigo, Hannah Jones, Sarah Washington, Belle Lawrence, Tracey Cole, Obsession, Who’s That Girl, Ignition-X, The Kinky Boys, The Cover Girlz, Alisha King and Jamie Knight. The Almighty ‘Definitive’ sound was very much Jon’s trademark sound. He was also Dataluxe, an American-market aimed remix team that enjoyed considerable success in the US Billboard charts. He left Almighty as a full-time employee in 2002 to start working on his own remix and production team Crash, with fellow Almighty colleague Giulio Pierucci. Crash worked for over a year remixing artists such as Samantha Mumba, Lemonescent, Holly Valance, De’Lacy, Bond, Nicole Russo, Dannii Minogue, Weekend Players, E-Smooth, Rick Guard, Milky and Chocolate Monday. Jon returned to Almighty on a freelance basis from 2004 until 2010, during which time he and another ex-Almighty employee, Andy Wetson, set up a joint venture, 7th Heaven. During this period he produced remixes for Almighty of The Saturdays, Usher, Katherine Jenkins, Cilla Black, Kim English, Tight Fit, Diana Ross, Wynonna, Scarlette Fever, Kimberley Locke, Alexandra Burke, Dan Hartman, Bellamy Brothers, The Supremes, Thelma Houston, Agnes, Erasure, Katy Perry and others. Soon 7th Heaven gained momentum and Jon left Almighty to concentrate full-time on 7th Heaven remixes and productions. Since when, 7th Heaven have gone from strength to strength remixing current pop and dance names on both sides of the Atlantic. He has naturally progressed into production work and radio mixes (Katy Perry, Scotty James, Alan Connor, etc), as well as 7th Heaven’s own output. In 2016 Jon was commissioned to do some 7th Heaven dance mixes for TV star Jane McDonald which lead to the them working together on various projects including the hugely successful ‘Cruising with Jane McDonald’ series on Channel 5. Jon has produced all the songs for the show and is now into series 4. This led onto Jon producing Jane’s latest album which saw a departure from his dance heritage but allowed him to stretch his arranging skills working horn and string sections as well as some amazingly talented musicians and singers including producing a duet with Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet). 2018 shows no signing of slowing down with more TV commissions together with an exciting selection of 7th Heaven dance mixes and productions. For a ‘rest’ Jon also plays keyboards in a local band ‘The Freudian Slippers’ which are gaining a reputation locally (in the East Midlands area) as ‘the band to watch’. |
Pete Hammond
Life-work is privileged to work with Pete, who has done remixes for the first 6 singles. Pete 'Mixmaster' Hammond is an icon in the British pop industry. He has an impressive list of hit productions on his name, not only as a remixer and producer for Stock, Aitken and Waterman, but also as a sound engineer, writer and musician. After PWL he produced and mixed records for many artists including hits for "Take That", the at the time new Japanese band T.R.F. Pete has been credited on 140 UK hits singles (11 of which were No. 1 and 55 were TOP 10) and countless albums between 1978 and 1995. In late 2002 he started writing & producing with Bruce Elliott-Smith, by 2003 they had notched up several successes including the massive club hit "Love me right" by Angel City (Ministry of Sound) and a UK number 7 co-write for Dannie Minogue. In early 2004 he joined Angel Management. He set up a new studio in Purley where Bruce and Pete were very busy writing & producing for several signed projects! In January 2008 his partnership with Bruce Elliot-Smith ended, although he still does the occasional project with him. Since remixing Alphabeat's "Boyfriend he has been asked to do 80's style remixes for a number of high profile acts. Pete has worked with Kylie, Rick Astley, Lonnie Gordon, Debbie Harry, Bananarama, Gloria Estefan, Donna Summer, ABC, Sinitta, Boney M & many more. http://www.petemixmasterhammond.com/
Karen Orchin
Coming from N Ireland and a family of singers, Karen made her debut aged 2 at Butlins when her performance of Zippidy Do Dah set her on a track that has taken her through singing in pubs and clubs, numerous musical theatre roles and into the world of opera.
At the Theatre Royal, Brighton, roles include Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Julie (Carousel), Yum Yum (Hot Mikado). At the Dome, Brighton, she has appeared as Maria (The Sound of Music) and Margo (Desert Song). Karen has also worked her way through most of the remaining soprano roles in the G & S portfolio some of them more than once. Karen has featured as a soloist at The Royal Albert Hall and has sung on a number of original cast recordings debuting new work. One of the more interesting recordings she made was for a competition to find Malta's new national anthem when the song made it into the final three for a public vote, no, it didn't win. Karen has toured with both Regency Opera and English Festival Opera and has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall and sung in the Holland Park Opera season. Roles include Mimi (La Boheme), Violetta (La Traviata), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Desdemona (Otello), Floria Tosca (Tosca) and Nedda (I Pagliacci). Jon Musgrave
'You Won't See My Tears' & 'Woman of Secrets'
(Club Junkies Remix) 'Dolce Far Niente' (Production) MIX & RECORDING ENGINEER Jon has done the Club Junkies remix of 'You Won't See MyTears' and 'Woman of Secrets' and the entire production and mix of 'Dolce Far Niente'. He has recently been working with new R&B/UK Garage artist Aaron Soul - he's a new signing to US label Def Soul. It's early days, but Jon's sure he's going to pretty big in the US/UK. Jon has also been working on several tracks with the new R & B artist Shaun Escoffrey, including the single "Space Rider ". Being at home working on both pop and leftfield projects, his credit list includes: Queen & David Bowie, Culture Club, Boy George, High Lamas, Beverly Knight, Omar & Angie Stone, S Club 7, Darryl Hall & Kylie Minogue. JRMX
JRMX (Joel Storry) did the remixes for 'Lost in Time'.
Tim Ellis
Tim’s a creative person in the true sense of the word, as he writes/produces, and also paints in oils. Tim’s had releases in all territories with Library Music and songs placed with major artists/bands on most labels including; Universal/EMI/Sony. Tim’s oil paintings are in high demand, and he was recently in the final running for the ‘Not The Turner Prize Award’. Tim is a workaholic and is currently busy writing/producing a second library music album for Moments/Spectrum after the highly acclaimed first album ‘Artnoyze’, as well as working on new material, co-writing and producing for clients. Tim contacted Han and offered his production skills to turn his demo's into real songs. His assistant Mark Turner asked Han what kind of voice he wanted
for the first recording (Wonder where you are) and Mark's first choice was Karen Orchin. She was available and Han liked her voice so much she recorded a second song 'My heart' which was released first. 'You won't see my tears' was written then with Karen's voice in mind. |
