Today I’m presenting you with the track Time Passenger by the composer and piano player Johan Famaey from Belgium. Johan was tough to play the accordion by his father at the age of 4 and at the age of ten he started learning to play the piano and also started working on his first compositions.

In 2005 I moved to Qingdao, China and spent 4 years there teaching, composing and working together with Chinese musicians. Those Chinese elements in music have been since then a part of my music. When you listen carefully, you’ll hear those Chinese elements.

The track Time Passenger was released as a single on the 14th of October, 2020.

Tell us something about your track Time Passenger!
It may come as a surprise, but the melody of Time Passenger came to me one day after Ennio Morricone passed away. I have very vivid childhood memories about his music, more specifically ‘the secret of the sahara’ and the spaghetti westerns. When he passed away, I couldn’t help to think about his music which featured a tune of a watch: it’s very moving and so symbolic of the concept of time. I have used this element in the introduction and at the end, because it feels like a personal deep connection with Morricone’s music, which I heard when I was a child. The music of Time Passenger gives away a lot of autobiographic elements. When I let María listen to Time Passenger for the first time, she had this picture of a witch in mind, who would reflect, go back in time, to be in control of fire instead of being consumed by it. Her video is a perfect match for the music, and it sets the mood in such way that both of us feel very deeply connected with it. The video is a tribute to the victims of the witch hunts. We hope that what we feel, can be passed upon our listeners and viewers.

Thank you Johan for this!

More information can be found on these links:
Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Website / Spotify

Today I’m presenting you to the track Wreckage bý the composer and piano player Frank Iva. Frank grew up in Kampala, Uganda and was the only kid in an adult church choir. Singing is what got him interested in playing the keys. In 2006 he moved to San Diego to pursue a degree in music.

The track Wreckage is taken from the EP Piano Tape which was released on October 24th, 2020.

Tell us something about your track Wreckage!
All songs on the EP were recorded in one improvised take. I just sat on the piano and tried to portray six moods that I was feeling through the pandemic. My wife and I named the tunes after listening back to each of them.

Thank you very much for this Frank!

For more information, please check out the following links:
Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Website / Spotify

Today I’m presenting you to the track Hope by the British artist Ascending Everest, or Stephen Martin, which is his real name. You can read more about Ascending Everest on the blog here! Stephen has been playing the piano for about 25 years and released his first tunes in 2018.

The track Hope was released as as single on the 1st of October, 2020.

Tell us something about your track Hope!
We all need more hope in our lives, right? I know where I go to for hope, and I’ve tried to capture some of that and impart it onto the track. The intro was something I originally wrote as a downtempo track (this mix will be released later in the year), and the full piano version then just came together as I found the right inspiration for it.

Thank you for this piece of music Stephen!

For more information, please check out the following:
Instagram / Twitter / Spotify

Today I’m presenting you to the track Epilogue by the composer and piano player Aysedeniz Gokcin. Aysedeniz grew up with classical music and was always afraid to share her own compositions with anyone. While she was recording her Beethoven Senses album she had an extra recording day which was used to record some pieces of her own.

The track Epilogue is taken from the album Dreamscape which came out on October 2nd of 2020.

Tell us something about your track Epilogue!
Epilogue is the first composition I wrote, and at that point I was so sad about the situation people were facing, and I wrote it as a piece to heal.

Thank you for sharing this track with us Aysedeniz!

For more information, please check out the following links:
Facebook / Instagram / Website / Spotify

Today I’ introducing you to the latest track Until Then by the artistries We Dream of Eden (which I have posted about here) and his companion Jonny Southard.

We Dream of Eden, or Kirk Smith which is his real name, is a composer from Memphis America, and Jonny Southard is an UK based composer.

The track Until then was released as a single on the 9th of October, 2020.

Tell us something about the track Until Then!
We really enjoyed each other’s work and decided to collaborate. Johnny sent me the original piece as a solo piano and I got to spend a few days dressing it up with ambient and cinematic textures. It was a really fun project to work on!

For more information about We Dream of Eden, check out the following links:
Facebook / Instagram / Spotify

Jonny has a Spotify page, so check that out as well, here!

Today I’m introducing you to the track Reunion by “The Selke Brothers” or CEEYS which is the name they uses when releasing music. The brothers are in real life Sebastian, on the cello and Daniel on the piano.

Our music is about the buildings that surrounded us in our childhood, growing up on the streets of East Berlin. Walls, or WÆNDE in German, have shaped us from the very day we were born – both historically and musically.

In our childhood, in our Hellersdorf prefab building, we could hear each other practise our instruments though the paper thin walls of our bedrooms – same was true for the neighbours above and below us. So in these times of walls, they kept on knocking – not exactly with musicality but with passion – in their very own rhythm onto radiators, their apartment floors or the ceiling.In our releases, we are trying to come to terms with our memories, impressions and feelings regarding Europe’s largest prefab estate back in those historically and emotionally charged times. 

The track Reunion is taken from the album HAUSMUSIK which was released on the 9th of October, 2020.

Tell us something about the track Reunion!
REUNION is inspired by the song “Union“, included on our previous album, WÆNDE. If one also connects a “reunion” with the re-forming of a previously separated music group, we remember the reunification of the two German states 30 years ago. To this end, we have extended our title “Union” a little further.

Thank you Sebastian and Daniel for sending me this track!

Today I’m introducing you to the track Water by the Swedish composer and piano player Peter Sandberg. Peter is from the city of Uppsala and has been a full time composer for the past eight years.

The track Water is taken from his latest album, Återvända, which was released on September 25th of 2020.

Tell us something about your track Water!
I wrote and recorded ’Water’ at Ocean Sound Recordings in Norway. A remote studio, right on the shore of the Norwegian Sea. Quite isolated, I went there searching for inspiration and new ideas – so this track was the first of a few to take form around that idea of going to the edge of the world searching for something new. But the experience also brought on this big urge to return home to my family and became a reminder of what really matters the most to me – which the track ’Treasure’ is all about.

Thank you for this track Peter!

Today I’m presenting you with the latest track, Yoaké, by the British singer songwriter, multi instrumentalist and composer Andrew Sloman. Andrew is originally from England but is now living and working in Tokyo, Japan. He has been playing the piano since the age of eight and has sung and played the guitar in different band as a teenager.

The track Yoaké is taken from the EP with the same name, which came out on September 14th of 2020.

Tell us something about your track Yoaké!
The song Yoakè (meaning Breaking Dawn in Japanese) is a composition of rebirth and awakening. It symbolises leaving a past struggle behind and flourishing towards a bright new future becoming the best that one can be. I recorded it in my home studio in Tokyo. It’s a dedication to my mother who passed away last year. She was my biggest musical inspiration and someone I always shared my musical ideas with. In my last conversation with her before she passed away, we were listening to the piano ideas for this release in the hospital on my iphone. She told me how beautiful they were and how I must do something with them. The ideas were recorded using a digital keyboard and samples. When I returned back to Tokyo after her funeral, I decided to buy myself a real piano and record the compositions the best I could do.

Thanks so much for this Andrew!

For more information, check out the following links:
Facebook / Instagram / Website / Spotify

Today I’m introducing you to the composer and piano player Antoine Laval, or Lavalle and the track Rain. Antione grew up in a small town between Hamburg and Bremen and is a son of a jazz musician. He learned to play the piano at the age of six, and later switched to drums.

The track Rain is taken from the EP Fade Out, which was released on the 16th of October, 2020.

Tell us something about your track Rain!
Rain is a peaceful, slowly pulsating composition in which three simple separate themes are joined through the adept use of processing effects which alter the classical piano sound and offer a new way of looking at a familar aesthetic.

Thank you for this Antoine!

For more information, please check out the following links:
Facebook / Instagram / Spotify

Today I’m introducing you to the track Quiet Journey by the Canadian composer and piano player John Bickerton, now living in Brooklyn, New York. John has his background in classical composition and jazz improvisation.

The track Quiet Journet is featured on the album Heartland which was released on the 14th of September, 2020.

Tell us something about your track Quiet Journey!
The track Quiet Journey is a meditative, reflective piece that uses minimalism to create a somewhat dark, mysterious atmosphere. The piano used was a wonderful 7’ 4”” Bosendorfer grand piano. I loved the treble range of this piano because it could really speak. All 18 songs on Heartland were recorded in a single day but it was a quite a marathon day.

Thank you very much John!

For more information, please check out the following links:
Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Website / Spotify