About a week before Advent performed at the MARPROG festival in 2009, we decided to try adding "Oglethorpe's Dream" (a miniature Alan had just composed for Stick and harpejji) to our set list. Alan brought his Stick to Ben's place and they ran through the piece for the very first time together. This was one of the best passes from that brief session, captured informally on a Zoom H2. While somewhat imperfect, this recording still provides a reasonably good indication of how the arrangement was meant to sound. We hope you enjoy it!

ADVENT - Oglethorpe's Dream (1st rough rehearsal excerpt)

Under Solen - Full version

Music & lyrics by Adam Levin

Adam Levin, keyboards
Peter Stoller, vocals

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


Lyrics:

In a house on a hill lie the remnants of a life
gone without a rhyme or reason and nobody asks why
There are letters half written and opened books half read
but nobody's there to finish any page that was left

It's outlived everyone who once planted on its ground
They once filled its rooms with music; now there isn't a sound
No one seems to know why they each fell from its mound
or why no one's left to climb the steps that lead to the house on the hill

There's a house on a hill that, through every change, stays blind
with its grand facade untarnished, standing frozen in time
like a ghost that's still waiting for someone to return
But the keyless doors they left through locked behind in the house on the hill

House on a Hill

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

Music by Adam Levin | Lyrics by Joe Lobell
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Joe Lobell (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)
Arranged, produced & performed by Adam Levin | Engineered by Jay Mark

As separate tracks:
I. Pandora's Box (w/'Modern Mind')
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-part-one-modern-mind
II. Needle's Eye 
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-part-two-needles-eye
III. Testament
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-part-three-testament

(Condensed) 'Islands Suite':
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-suite

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

01 STRETCH 12 - 25 - 85

Dolls by The Electric Fish 1997

Wayne Zito's fusion band before joining HoG.

Tune starts at 40 sec mark

Dolls

A composition, or at least an attempt, at a legit original piano piece. This may be the final version of this track, but I've said that before. I leave it to others to decide whether it works. Composed, performed, and recorded by Brian Holt in 2019. The piano is a 1911 Steinway B.

Je ne trouve pas mes chaussures

Je Ne Trouve Pas Mes Chaussures

Here's a little disgusting display of virtuosity.  Your typical neoclassical -isms, with the expected added harmonic twists....you know, because it's me.

Artwork by Solo Goodspeed.

Knee Oak Lassie Call

Composed and recorded by Mark Ptak. (Berklee College of Music Traditional Theory assignment written in the style of J.S. Bach, from the late 1980's.)

Original Ideas

2-Part Invention in A Major (Mark Ptak)

Arnie Miot. Dave Weintraub, Doug Grama  dave was awesome !

altered states

Piano - Jonathan Ptak, 
Everything else - Mark Ptak

Don't Ask Me Why - Billy Joel (Cover)

Welcome to our SoundCloud site, dedicated to Advent and its members. If you really like what you hear and are interested in finding out more about Advent (or possibly even buying some of our music), please click on the "Advent Website" link above. Most importantly, though, we hope that you enjoy the tunes.

ADVENT - Oglethorpe's Dream (1st rough rehearsal excerpt)

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