Michael Hoppe & David George songs charting in S Korea?!

Now here’s something that neither of us could have predicted. It’s an illustration of how the internet has truly made the world a global village.

Michael Hoppe and I were neighbors and met in Los Angeles some years back. We are both ex-pats from England via Canada & both in the Music business; his instrumental CD Solace was nominated for a Grammy.

After he moved to Portland, Oregon, he told me he had collaborated with lyricists in the past, but it had rarely if ever worked out, “Would I like to have a go?”. He emailed me an mp3 of a melodic, beautiful tune he’d written.

Like everyone else, I was riveted to the Egyptian uprising that was unfolding daily on the news. Tahrir Square was filled with non-violent demonstrators. Aerial shots of Cairo police confronting protesters on the bridge at night was particularly moving. It was like the moon was watching.

Around 2AM, headphones on…I cranked up the volume, Hoppe’s music surrounded me and I wrote…I Am The Moon:

I am the moon

At night I rise

And watch the children sleeping

Bridges still in cities dark

A lover lost and weeping

In ghostly light where little stirs

a streetlamp vainly shines

On cobbled streets in dim relief

They sleep through troubled times

I am the moon I journey on

a dark and starry sky

below a cloud has drifted by

a lighter rain is falling

I am the moon

I see it all

a thousand nights I rise

I watch over humanity

And kiss the slumbered eyes

I am the moon

At night I rise

And watch the children sleeping

Bridges still in cities dark

A lover lost and weeping…

I sent it off via email to Portland.

A collection of songs –
Music: Michael Hoppe
Words: David George

Days later another tune arrived from Michael. I had been thinking about North and South Korea, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the wall that they want to put up on the Mexican border, The Berlin Wall that was torn down some years ago and
i wrote The Wall:

As I walk by the wall
That divides us
Every stone that was laid
To keep us apart
Is it you I hear breathing
So desperately
On the other side from me

Over here the gardens are lush from rain
And the water flows like the blood in my veins
Over there the desert winds arid blow
On the other side to me

There’s a crack in the wall where the love seeps in
Where the hope escapes, where a flower grows
Love can weaken the stones
Love can bring down the wall
We can both live together as one

Half a world away, in South Korea, AnnaTebot Lee was identifying with these words and produced this Korean version of The Wall.

Soon our Korean songbird would record The Nightingale – A collection of songs in the culmination of a serendipitous and magical collaboration.

Have you had interesting international collaborations facilitated by the internet? Please share your story with a comment below.

The Nightingale & The Wall by Anna Tebot Lee – are currently on the South Korean charts. Both songs are available as MP3 downloads on Melon and a variety of sites for the Korean Market.

David George, is from the UK, an Los Angeles Filmmaker and former A&M Canada recording artist and a three-time dual citizen of the UK, Canada & the United States;

Annatebot Lee, a singer with three previously released CD’s under the name Shyail Lee – her version of Morricone’s Nella Fantasia is still on the charts.

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