Before I present my Christ­mas 2012 Amper­Art design, I wish to to tell you about the two incred­i­ble kids who inspired it.

Lydia Jayne, 12 years old, and her broth­er Alden Blake, 14, are excep­tion­al­ly tal­ent­ed chil­dren. Both of them are visu­al artists and both of them are musi­cians. They’ve even pro­duced short films together.

Just recent­ly they pro­duced their 2012 Christ­mas album. 

When I say “they pro­duced” I real­ly mean that — they pro­duced it all by themselves.
Lydia sang the lyrics and added percussion. 
Alden played all the instru­ments — Gui­tar, Bass, Glock­en­spiel, Xylo­phone, Ukulele, and Percussion.
Alden also record­ed, mixed, mas­tered, and pro­duced every­thing. Want more? He is the album cov­er artist as well. In short, there were no adults involved at all! (To men­tor Alden in my area of exper­tise, I changed a few ele­ments on the cov­er art that appears on this Amper­Art page, but not Alden’s orig­i­nal art which is on their own site.)

I’ve known these kids for sev­er­al years, heard them play and watched them draw, but I had no idea they were this incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed. I actu­al­ly had tears lis­ten­ing to Lydi­a’s and Alden’s ren­di­tion of these songs. Lydia has a strong, soul­ful voice and unusu­al­ly great styling – as if she were a vet­er­an songstress. Alden’s inflec­tions, phras­ing and cadence with each of his instru­ments con­veys the pre­cise mean­ing of the part of the song he’s playing.

Lydia and Alden are amaz­ing­ly tal­ent­ed. The term genius comes to mind.
I espe­cial­ly like Lydi­a’s per­son­al­i­ty and Alden’s ukelele on “Hol­ly Jol­ly Christ­mas,” and their heart­felt ren­di­tion of “Oh Holy Night.” For a solo gui­tar treat, lis­ten to Alden’s “Car­ol of the Bells.”

Lis­ten free — click here (http://​lydi​a​jayne​.band​camp​.com/​a​l​b​u​m​/​c​h​r​i​s​t​m​a​s​-​s​p​i​rit)

Enjoy the beau­ti­ful, charm­ing, joy­ous music these chil­dren have cre­at­ed, absolute­ly free. In the spir­it of Christ­mas you may wish to help kick-​start their career by pur­chas­ing a song (name your own price) or the entire album. These chil­dren are donat­ing a por­tion of the pro­ceeds to the World Wildlife Fund. 

These kids, and their Christ­mas album, inspired my 2012 Amper­Art edi­tion. For­tu­nate­ly, one of the album’s songs, “It’s the Most Won­der­ful Time of the Year,” con­tains an amper­sand (actu­al­ly, the word “and”) in the lyrics.

 

 

 

You may view, down­load and print a high-​resolution pdf of this spe­cial Amper­Art edtion here:      Let­ter size 8½x11 inch­es       Tabloid size 11x17 inches

Best wishes for a Christmas season full of happiness, love, cheer, and wondrously beautiful music!