Stripped – Album Preview and EPK
On February 1st, I released my eighth CD, a collection of interplanetary solo piano soundstories and dreams, entitled Stripped. With hints of new age, pop, and rock and roll, my neo-classical delayed piano style owes as much to Rick Wakeman or Howard Jones as it does to George Winston or Jim Brickman. Subtitled, ‘Solo Piano Soundstories and Dreams,’ the compositions themselves are an array of storytelling. “This album is a soundtrack for your imagination and dreams; but not sleep inducing! Sure, it provides the expected backdrops of pensive tranquility and spiritual longing, but perhaps also genuine excitement, conflict, silly humor, and torrid passion. This is not solo piano to meditate to – but, if you let it, this CD will tell you a story of relentless hope, romantic dreams, and real triumph.”
“I wanted this record to really feel like I’m sitting in front of you playing a concert for one.” Unlike my previous highly produced ambient CD’s, each of the songs on Stripped was recorded on the piano in one live take with no overdubs, no MIDI, and no quantization. “I had learned to think differently about music, to break it into pieces to be assembled in a studio. Notes and rhythms to be layered…. With Stripped, I wanted to do the opposite and take several of my previously released ambient/electronic pieces and distil compositions that I could play live with just a piano. In the studio, that meant each take was all or nothing. You have to really emotionally go for it each time…and then try not to completely screw it up halfway through…”
Though Stripped revisits some of my earlier ambient compositions, not all of the CD was pre-planned. “When ‘tape was rolling,’ I’d often improvise for awhile and work my way into each piece. Some of these ‘intros’ really and captured the moment so I left them in the final mix. Three of these improvs developed a life of their own…(*) This CD is so much more satisfying and emotional and soulful than anything I’ve ever done before. I hope that Stripped not only soothes you, but also challenges you, inspires you, and perhaps even surprises you from time to time.”
Throughout 2011, I will be performing impromptu concerts in “unlikely places” using a solar/battery powered electronic piano.
“There is something completely different about performing on the beach, or on a lava flow, or perhaps just a local farmers market on a Saturday afternoon… I love the idea of music in unexpected places…
I hope to see you out there!”