Conspicuous songs from state of the art to state of the union with collisions of jazz, classical, rock, pop, funk and soul only rarely knocking each other over, reaching towards or pitifully falling short of irony and wit.

More music...

Back to the piano:
facebook.com/share/p/17Ryoavidp

Blissful Behemoth
(homage to Gentle Giant):
soundcloud.com/blissfulbehemoth/sets

"Burt on the brain"
(tribute to Burt Bacharach):
facebook.com/share/p/1F4ttheyD4

Mining the pop reserves:
facebook.com/share/p/162ZDig7uC

Wind-down relaxation:
on.soundcloud.com/UD6L6B3mEqegJf7B9

More virtual concertizing:
facebook.com/adamlevinmusic/posts/3614903578536336

virtual concert

Music & lyrics by Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Album: TLU2
soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandID=1245099&albumID=1611&content=albumInfo


"...magically combines an intimate and somewhat dreamy touch with an extreme and almost painful sincerity...[the music] has a personality...a mysterious quality of bearing your inner image in it, like a semi-transparent silhouette of one’s soul visible behind the veil of sound. No wonder Ellen Weiss chose this tune! It is a true masterpiece."
- On-Reflection

Family Portrait

Music by Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Albums:

TLU2
soundclick.com/adamlevin/?albumID=1611&content=albumInfo

Essentials
differentdrummusic.com/Essentials.htm

One of the challenges often put to composers is, try something different or “outside of the box”. As habitual artists, it’s easy to slip back into comfortable, predictable tendencies or trademarks. This piece was a concerted (pun unintended) rebellion against my own inclinations, pursuing a more minimalist path instead, even if I didn't completely get there. It was later set to ballet and choreographed in performance.

"...a fine contrast between the darker sound of the bass and crystal clear keyboards turns it into something magical."
- On-Reflection

"...the crystalline 'Mantra'...initially an attempt at bare-bones minimalism, the embellishments of this musical mandala take it – and us – from its Reich-ian roots into the sublime territory that is Adam's own."
- Peter Stoller

(Prior listener responses at soundcloud.com/adamlevin/mantra1)

Mantra

Music by Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Solo piano rendition:
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/things-left-unsaid

Albums:

TLU2
soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandID=1245099&albumID=1611&content=albumInfo

I  S  L  A  N  D  S  .  .  .
soundclick.com/adamlevin/?albumID=1608&content=albumInfo

"...one of his most sinuous, sensuous melodies gets a rich, intimate jazz (a la Levin) treatment. And check out the great bass work!"
- Peter Stoller

"...amazing arrangement and performance...the short, quirky harmonic shift still sounds great..."
- Ian Smit, Monkeyworks

"...lovely...delicate and touching! This instrumental brightened up my day...a wonderfully appropriate name for this tune....The bass is much to my liking in this tune, it adds such a lovely flavor...nicely done..."
- On-Reflection

Following an unsettling, extended period of music left unwritten, unfinished or undeveloped, this piece was its culmination, nearly three years sporadically in the making. An earlier, melodic flute part was taken over by portions of the acoustic piano, upright string bass and electric guitar parts in this arrangement. Although conceived as an ensemble work, there is also a solo piano rendition. (Among its projects, the piece is the namesake for writer-actor Kathryn Sanders’ play, in which it was featured alongside other instrumental works of mine.)

Things Left Unsaid

Peter Stoller, vocals
Adam Levin, keyboards

Music & lyrics by Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)


Albums:
Blissful Behemoth
differentdrummusic.com/BlissfulBehemoth.htm

Essentials:
differentdrummusic.com/Essentials.htm

"A colourful and moving melody, dreamy harmonies straight from the heart of prog rock and a naturally pleasant voice are the elements that make this piece of music simply delightful. There's some sweet sincerity about it that just makes you want to listen to it again and again...strong and tender...and its key changes are delightful!"
-- On-Reflection

While Sunlight Slipped Away

John Eyre, vocals
Adam Levin, keyboards
Tomas Stark, organ

Recorded in Wales (John Eyre, assisted by John Weathers & Ant Bowles), New York (Adam Levin, assisted by Jay Mark), and Sweden (Tomas Stark)

Music & lyrics by Adam Levin
(c) (p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Album: Essentials
differentdrummusic.com/Essentials.htm


"Outstanding...beautiful and touching.... lovely chord progression...  a real singer's song... delightful, warm voice... bittersweet aftertaste... certainly has a face, and it's a beautiful one...really moves me...

So finely lyrical, so touching, so subtle... delicate and subtle colours of emotion... a full palette with both sunrise tones of the birth of a feeling and its darker shades of sadness at the feeling's sunset... A language that speaks to every heart."

-- On-Reflection

Words on the Wall

Wendy Boulding, vocal
Adam Levin, keyboards

Music by Adam Levin | Lyrics by Elena Rye & Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Elena Rye Pellicciaro (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

(Based on the poem 'Thoughts' by Elena Pellicciaro)

Albums:
A Different Page
differentdrummusic.com/A_Different_Page_CD.htm

Essentials
differentdrummusic.com/Essentials.htm

"I keep coming back to hear 'Do You Feel It?'  It's so beautiful and sad, it brought me to tears... beautiful music."
- Thomas Piercy, classical clarinetist-conductor-vocalist

This song owes its existence to a poem by Elena Rye that I happened to hear her recite. Despite the poem’s lack of meter, it immediately suggested a musical form to me and lent itself to lyrical adaptation. Using the poem as a guide and structure, I composed music directly from it, editing and tailoring the poem into lyrics and song form without sacrificing essential content (although Elena is the ultimate judge of that!) Some music derived from words in the poem proved even more effective and emotional without them and became instrumental passages, further demonstrating that poetic and lyrical forms and criteria can be as different from each other as poetry and music are.

In this rendition, my musical collaborator Wendy Boulding contributed to its pacing, phrasing, and ebb and flow, in addition to her vocal performance.

Do You Feel It?

Wendy Boulding, vocals
Adam Levin, keyboards
Danny Obadia, sampled flute & percussion

Music by Adam Levin & Wendy Boulding | Lyrics by Wendy Boulding
(c) (p) Adam Levin & Wendy Boulding (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Albums:
A Different Page
differentdrummusic.com/A_Different_Page_CD.htm

Essentials
differentdrummusic.com/Essentials.htm

"...awesome and inspiring...sweet angelic voice, powerful deep lyrics. What a positive impact!....completely captivated me. It gave me such an inspiration! Like a breath of fresh air!"
- Walter Clark, jazz keyboardist-vocalist

So Alive

Music by Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Albums:

TLU2
soundclick.com/adamlevin/?albumID=1611&content=albumInfo

Essentials
differentdrummusic.com/Essentials.htm

"It’s so cosmic…dreamily atmospheric…like a changing face of the sky.  There’s some subtle emotion about it…something beyond words."
- On-Reflection

Groundless

I. Inspired by the Sound of Your Own Voice
II. Verbalosity
III. Family Discussion

Music & lyrics by Adam Levin
(c)(p) Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Albums:
Blissful Behemoth
differentdrummusic.com/BlissfulBehemoth.htm

et al.
differentdrummusic.com/et_al.htm

Blissful Behemoth / et al.

ver bal o sis

I. Pandora's Box (including 'Modern Mind')
II. Needle's Eye
III. Testament

Music by Adam Levin | Poetry by Joe Lobell
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Joe Lobell (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)
Engineered by Jay Mark

Album: Islands
soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandID=1245099&albumID=1608&content=albumInfo


Movement One ('Pandora's Box') resembles a slightly twisted piano concerto, Two ('Needle's Eye') a piano in solitary confinement, and Three ('Testament') an electric guitar sneak attack....with jazz, classical and rock elements forming the erratic atmosphere. Or a lengthy Rorschach test with no correct answer. Using a roadmap and compass, the first movement is marked by themes and variations, the second hosts a development with thematic signposts at the entrance and exit gates, and the third reflects them all back at you in a funhouse mirror.

Joe Lobell’s poem ('Modern Mind') in 'Pandora’s Box' was written independent of the music, and vice versa, yet almost magically fits that music’s mood, pace and duration (right down to the poem’s own references to “islands”.)

"Lovely! I'm enjoying listening to this immensely. Who can resist such subtlety of emotion and such powerful imagination? The music has a Personality and it's a very attractive one....really great writing and playing...the sound quality is stunning, crisp clean and wonderfully dynamic."
- On-Reflection

"Really cool. Jazzy and advanced. The poem framed by the music. Very hip rendition. Exhilarating. I forgot how good the poem is. Your feeling musical exposition (not backdrop but surrounding) multiplies the poem. Your reading is, in a nutshell, cool. Makes me want to do a full album with you (a big project I know) of my poems and your musical expositions and turning the album into a show."
- Joe Lobell, poet ('Modern Mind') (1951-2019)

"Portraying issues of human isolation and connection is 'Islands', one of Adam’s most challenging and invigorating works to date. If Joe Lobell's poetry in 'Modern Mind' exhorts the contemporary artist to dig a well of inspiration in the morass of modern culture, Adam's magnum opus engages in a bit of seriously playful one-upmanship, daring the listener to keep up with him as he takes us on a rollercoaster ride through an apparently haphazard collection of themes that is ultimately revealed to be an intricately balanced construct, bringing order out of chaos just as a kaleidoscope wrings symmetrical beauty from broken glass. Joe tells us each individual is 'an island in a universe of islands'; Adam shows us how all those islands are connected."
- Peter Stoller

Islands

Adam Levin, keyboards
Wendy Boulding, John Eyre, Adam Levin & Peter Stoller, vocals

Songs by Adam Levin
w/Wendy Boulding ('So Alive') and Elena Rye Pellicciaro ('Do You Feel It?')