2011 is nearly half over and so far it has been a busy and very productive time. All of the current projects have been worked on and some new ones have been added to make things even busier and next week it's off to Toronto for a visit to NXNE and to see some old friends.

A Paul E. Phonics four song E.P. entitled "A Fragile Peace" was released on May 12th and has been played on a few podcasts.  A free download is available at www.5thestaterecords.com or through Facebook at the Paul E. Phonics Band Page.

Another goal was to get some older songs recorded for a "songwriter portfolio" and seven songs were finished.  To keep the melodies and lyrics more transparent they were recorded in a more traditional form with acoustic guitar and some backing elements, mostly organs, bass and drums which gave them a more singer/songwriter feel.  However, alternative versions of two have already been created and are much more in line with the kind of releases that have been coming from Paul E. Phonics.  Perhaps these will be included in the Paul E. Phonics live set and released on a future E.P.

Speaking of the live show, steps have finally been taken to get that going at full speed and if all works out there will be some live shows this autumn and Paul will not be alone on stage.  More info on all that when the details are worked out.

Union Of Resonance is also going strong but had to take a back seat for a while to get other things done.  But there is finally a new entry, a nice little guitar instrumental called "A Brief Escape".  Stop by and check it out.

5th Estate Music has also undergone some internal changes and once the details are worked out there will be more about that. I'll just say that soon the Berlin Office will not be the only one and leave it at that for now.

So as you can see there has been quite a bit going on here and the second half of 2011 promises to be even busier.  But before all that it's time to enjoy a little travelling, a bit of business at NXNE and then some camping to get reacquainted with nature for a few weeks.  As they say, all work and no play...