BERMUDIAN singer LeYoni Junos is about to release a new compact disc including duets with her father Leon Jones. What makes the recording unusual is that her father died 17 years ago.

The project is the culmination of an idea that came to Ms Junos four years ago after she found an old audio cassette of her father singing and playing guitar in a live performance at a hotel.

She transferred songs from the live tape onto a CD and then added her own voice to the recording.

The CD is called Amor, the word that was written in pencil on the old tape cassette. The official launch will take place on February 14, the 17th anniversary of the day Mr. Jones was buried and four years to the day since she found the tape.

Ms Junos, 43, a bus operator and Salvation Army shelter volunteer, said the profoundly poignant nature of recording a duet with her late father had only hit her in the recording studio.

"I was standing in the studio alone, with my headphones on, with my father's voice in my head and only then did it really strike me what I was doing," Ms Junos said. "I was very emotional and really nervous."

Mr. Jones was a well-known guitarist and ballad singer in Bermuda before his death from a heart attack at the age of 45 in 1988.

He started playing guitar at the age of 11. He took classical guitar lessons in Mexico, also studied music in New York and went on to be a teacher of young local guitarists. Mr. Jones was a regular performer in hotels such as the Bermudiana and the Princess, as well as lending his musical talents to the Department of Tourism.

"Four years ago, I was going through a box of old tapes and I came across this cassette with the word 'Amor' on it in Dad's handwriting in pencil," Ms Junos said, explaining how the project came about.

"It had been recorded live in November 1985. When I played the tape, I was surprised at the quality of the recording for a home-made tape. It sounded as if it was one of the shows he did in the dining room of a hotel.

"I listened through it and took notes on the order of songs and their length and then the idea of a CD just sort of germinated. I thought, 'This should be put out there for people to hear'.

"I noticed my father was singing a little slower than some other recordings he made and he sounded more mellow. We had never performed together. But I started to think that maybe I could sing with him."

Ms Junos took the tape cassette to Steve Easton, of the Just Platinum Recording Studio, and he transferred it onto a CD in January last year.

"I was hoping to produce the CD in about a month, but I was very naive about the amount of work involved," Ms Junos said. "Apart from the recording, I wanted to do the graphics for the CD cover myself and you need to pay attention to detail if you want a product you can be proud of.

"The I went to the Kingdom First Recording Studio on Cemetery Road to make the recording, with the engineer, Dwight Jones. As soon as I walked in there I felt comfortable."

All the songs are cover versions of songs for which Ms Junos has paid royalties.

The most unusual track on the CD is a recording of Ms Junos singing Papa Can You Hear Me? (sung by Barbra Streisand in the film Yentl) overlaying a recording of her father singing the Beatles song, Yesterday.

"My father always wanted me to sing Papa Can You Hear Me?,because he thought it was apt, as he thought I was a bit rebellious," Ms Junos said. "Shortly after my father's death I sang the song at the Southampton Princess in front of many musicians and old friends who gathered to pay tribute to my father.

"When we recorded it, I sang the song a cappella and then Dwight overlaid it on to my father singing Yesterday. I had noticed how similar the rhythms of the two songs were and how they could complement each other. That was the piece I was most nervous about. Some people who've heard it have said it's very moving."

Other tracks on the CD include Three Times A Lady, Always On My Mind, You Are So Beautiful, I Left My Heart In San Francisco and Perhaps Love.

The CD cover unfolds to reveal a short family history, written by Ms Juno, which explains how many of the songs have a personal relevance.

Ms Junos did not reveal the cost of producing the CD, but said: "It's a tribute and I'm very excited about it. It's been emotional and a labour of love and I have not regretted it. It was a learning experience for me."

She added that the CD was dedicated to the "three leading ladies" in the life of Mr. Jones, his mother Lydia Furbert, his wife Myrtle Jones and his daughter, herself.

q The official launch of Amor will take place at the Bermuda National Gallery (at City Hall) on Monday, February 14, between 5.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. Although admission will be by invitation, Ms Junos issued an open invitation to anyone interested in her father's music.

q Anyone interested in ordering a copy of Amor (at a cost of $25) can do so by calling 291-8555 and leaving their details on a recorded message, or by going to the launch.