Victorious Combinations

  We are pleased to share our latest song Without Confliction from our new Amnesia album. This video was created by our bandmate Daniel Clement, his first foray into the world on animation.  The song is likely the most romantic song Combine the V has ever done, a story about a conflicted assassin who falls in love with his target. It has proven to be quite an epic! 

  Amnesia is now available on our bandcamp site for listening and buying and you can order the cd from that site as well. So the options are slowing opening up to check out our new album. It is streaming on Tidal now and available for download from the iTunes music store as well.  On December 19th, the night of our Cd release party the album will become available on most streaming site, excluding Spotify, and of course be available for sale at our show the the Fox ! 

  We are excited to announce our CD Release party on Friday December 19th at the one and only Fox Cabaret with our pals Skaboom closing the night.  Early show, doors at 7PM, Combine the Victorious will begin at 7:45 sharp and Skaboom with follow starting at 8:45 until 10. Tickets available here 

 We have spent most of the past year writing and performing new material, some of which we've released as singles up to this point but also finishing off five additional new songs all of which shall be collected as a new full length album.  Since our guitarist Danial Clement joined the band we have upped the speed with which we write and record. Additionally we've altered our sound to incorporate a lot more guitar and moved into new territories. As the song Monsoon Afternoon indicates Combine the Victorious has adopted a more organic approach to our music, blending traditional Latin rhythms with our darker sounds.  Isabelle's vocal melodies and lyrics really shine on this new collection. There is a wonderful sense of joy to the new songs, pulling the moods from darker tones and lifting things up to a more hopeful and positive vibe.  Nine songs, all made to fit onto vinyl, which is our goal, and ready for a full release.  tracks will include: Danser tout les temp...

  BE25045 Release Date - April 4 2025 We are pleased to release out latest single, it forms part of a three songs that explore a similar tonality. Monsoon Afternoon features another exquisite guitar part from Daniel Clement supported the delicate vocals of Isabelle Dunlop, Recorded in the early winter of 2025 the song embraces a more mature sound and explores the subtle balance of hope and realism.  Words and music by Combine the Victorious (Dan Clement, Isabelle Dunlop, Mark Henning)  Production, engineering and mixing by Mark Henning Recorded, mixed and mastered at Boutique Empire Studio, Vancouver, Canada.  Artwork by Boutique Empire  Have a listen thru any of the links below! Apple Music Spotify Amazon Bandcamp

 Well we had a decently busy year, with our biggest show to date back in June opening for Images In Vogue and a mini tour to Manitoba in August, three shows in November and hopefully a lot more in 2025.  We've decided to complete writing and recording a batch of new material to combine with a few of our previously released singles to make a full length album. Vinyl is being considered this time, which would be a first for us, as we've really only pressed CDs of our first album The World Over and done very limited runs of CD-Rs for other releases just to promote.  The first of the new songs is now complete with a couple more started in the demo stages. Hopefully we'll have four songs done by New Year's Eve!  Stay tuned and I'll drop previews of the songs on this blog and our soundcloud page. Really want to make as great an album as we can and I'm feeling as though we'll have the material to make it memorable!

 We are almost ready to release our next single, this time the very upbeat Goodbye Bad Times. I think it's easy to hear the impact that Daniel Clement has made on the band's sound, as this one is about a quirky and fun as anything we've ever done: possible even more so!  Have a listen today on exclusively on Soundcloud , or come hear it live on June 8th at the Rickshaw when we perform it as part of our set opening for the legendary Images In Vogue! 

  For the past two years we have been playing music with my long time friend Daniel Clement on guitar. Dan and I have been friends since highschool, and shared our first band together back in the 80's in White Rock, B.C.  After many decades of creating independently we have rejoined forces to enhance the sound of Combine the Victorious. Isabelle and I have been writing together since 2005. We've had several successful song licenses to television and film over the years but we have always remained primarily a studio project. With Dan's addition on guitar our sound is more complete and we feel better represented when we play live. His influence has helped up find faster songs for the repertoire and accelerated the writing and recording process; we already have our next single (Danser Tout le Temps) recorded and ready for mastering and three more tunes are waiting in the wings for us to finish off. It's very fun and exciting. This year we've played more live shows th...

 We have been recording a new single this past month. It is a funny one that emerged quite naturally right before a rehearsal. I had been sorting through my overly large and needlessly over complicated Ableton Live set and hit a wrong scene and a basic four on the floor kick and hi hat pattern played. The scene had been set at 130 bpm though, which is much faster than most of the songs we play, so it set me to playing a simple octave sequence on A. It had a Kraftwerk-like charm.  When Isabelle and Dan (Daniel Clement is our new guitarist) arrived I played them the core elements and Dan quickly came up with the arpeggio guitar part, which later came to define the chorus. Isabelle left the room momentarily but when she returned she was singing in French! Why? dunno, but it all felt right. Danser tout le Temps was born! We jammed on it for a few rehearsals and even tried a super loose version of it at our last Cascade Room gig.  It wasn't fully realized at that point though...

 It is really exciting to release this single today! This is the first song we've written with our new guitarist (and longtime friend) Daniel Clement . I Really Like Your Style is a slight departure from the trip-hop inspired songs of the past few years. We start out with a kind of homage to that sound but then quickly shift into a more uplifting reggae influenced sound that builds to a charming chorus filled with Isabelle's lifting melody.  This song has been brewing in the background for a while now but truly came to life when we shared it with Dan. The addition of the guitar changed everything about our approach and the song transformed into the shape we have today. During the past months one day in rehearsal Dan and I were jamming on a descending riff and then Isabelle popped into the studio and sang the line "Is this everything you wanted." I was so surprised by that melody and the lyric I knew we had to incorporate it into the song. I had been needlessly concern...

 We are excited to release our next song, " I Really Like Your Style ." This will be the first song we have written with our new guitarist Daniel Clement . It's been a bit of a journey getting this one together.    It started as a completely different song back in 2021 with now only the chorus line remaining the same. Originally I had written a completely different lyric for the verses but they were not working for me on review a year later. So early 2023 we abandoned the old arrangement and began the version we will be releasing. Isabelle took over writing the lyric for the entire song, and thanks to a lucky moment while we were rehearsing we unveiled a totally new intro for the song. I have been consciously attempting to keep our ideas in a certain tempo and mood in hopes of creating a unified collection of material for a full length release. Well " I Really Like Your Style " has turned into a happier song, with a strong lean into reggae for influence in the c...

Hello! Isabelle here. Just wanted to share a little bit about our song Thunde r from the lyrical perspective.  The lyrics for Thunder were born from an idea sparked at my studio at the shop, the hum of the sewing machine plain to hear in the backdrop of my original voice memo. “I’m feeling you, it’s coming through like thunder” I've often found that as I sew or iron away my mind can drift off into analyzing conversations and moments that have been caught in my head. Last summer we were in the process of moving from our home of 24 years and I realize that I was kind of saying goodbye to that place. It had always been such a safe, protective and creative space. It was like losing a friend. The same as with friendship there is an ebb and flow as we need it and it’s okay when things change, in fact it’s completely natural. As we walk away from an old home I feel no pain because I believe in the new adventure and all that it holds. The cool thing is that I played the nugget ...

We shall be releasing our first new song in almost two years next week on April 30th. After a lot of woodshedding we've come up with a refined new sound. The song is titled "The Bolsheviks".   You can hear it on soundcloud today, or add it to your playlists on your favorite streaming site on Tuesday the 30ths. Once again the brilliant Robert Edmonds has created another stunning cover for our music. After over 12 years he still impresses us!