Here's something I recorded recently. It's an a capella arrangement I did of a Russian folk tune with words by Lermontov, usually referred to as "Cossack Lullaby". I learned this song when I was studying Russian in school, and have always thought is was lovely. I wanted to record one of the Russian folk songs that I knew, and this one seemed well-suited to the solo treatment.

I only did the first two stanzas--there are two more, but the first two make a nice short song and stand well on their own. The translation as I understand it is:

Sleep, beautiful little one
Lull-a-by
Quietly the clear moon looks down
Into your cradle
I will tell you stories,
I will sing you a song,
Sleep on, close your eyes,
Lull-a-by

Over the rocks runs the Terek
And splashes its dark wave;
An angry Chechen crawls along the bank
Sharpening his dagger;
But your father is an old warrior
Hardened in battle;
So sleep, my darling, be peaceful,
Lull-a-by

So here's the deal: I don't know if it's due to the fact that the song is a capella, but sounds basically terrible coming out of computer speakers. Even the pair of relatively nice Bose computer speakers we have just do not handle this song well. And my Powerbook speakers absolutely destroy it--all kinds of odd buzzing and stuff happens, I think probably due to the vocal sound causing the actual computer to vibrate. It sounds just great in headphones though, so I encourage you to use them. If not, I make no promises. I'm sure this is in part an issue that could be solved by mastering, so I'll leave that to one of my more talented friends.

›› Cossack Lullaby (Spi mlodyenyetz).mp3

Toolbox: Powerbook G4, Garageband, Tascam 424mkIII as mixer/XLR converter, cheap AKG mic, three tracks of vocals.