LISTEN: Ding dong, shredding on high

Olly Rybarczuk is a local guitarist, teacher, producer and session musician, best known for his work with the Jersey Music Service, Jenca Music School, RSL Rockschool and Audible.

He also plays guitar with local harmonica virtuoso Giles Robson and Brighton-based progressive metal band GAIA, and has done composition and production work for record labels, indie games, social media personalities and other clients locally and internationally.

“This year I set out to create an arrangement of the classic Christmas carol ‘Ding Dong Merrily On High’, as I enjoy basing these pieces on simple repetitive melodies that give me a lot of creative freedom to work around arrangement and structure-wise,” Olly said of this year’s Christmas cover.

“I decided to try to approach it in a similar style to my submission for last year, using a dense arrangement of guitars and keyboard instruments that allow me to incorporate several layers of harmony that highlight the chord progressions and intricate counter-melodies within the piece.

“My main influences for this kind of arrangement include bands like Queen that incorporate a lot of dense harmonies in their songs, Dream Theater for their use of the 7 string guitar which provides an extended range for low heavy riffs and higher technical lead parts, early Genesis and King Crimson for the role of the keyboard parts providing a huge soundscape layer underneath the piece, and also some of my classical influences that use a wide range of orchestral harmony such as Bach and Vivaldi.”

Have a listen…