Appeared in preview on 22 November 2022 and was released on 29 November 2022 on

Apple Music / iTunes
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/etats-d%C3%A2me/1655870902

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/06G43ksbVGwBYpzr7seIWg

and many other online music stores.

See as well my artist page on

Apple Music / iTunes (since 1 February 2019),
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alex-m/1450877381

Spotify (since 3 March 2019),
artists.spotify.com/c/artist/4pKHPX…rofile/overview

Instagram (since 28 February 2019),
www.instagram.com/alexm_alexandermihailov/

and my YouTube music channel (since 24 March 2021),
www.youtube.com/channel/UCyoGb58eAgTYhc_rCdZMP5A

My 14th album, "Etats d'âme", contains 13 tracks, ordered almost chronologically and also fitting conceptually. Its duration is 1 hour and 20 minutes. The album was composed, recorded and mixed in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X between 3 February 2021 and 29 September 2022. It was released on SoundCloud on 14 November 2022, when the latest (and last ordered) track was posted, but the earlier tracks were already appearing one after the other (in the order of the album, with the exception that the opening track was created later than most of those coming after it in the album). Music sheets are available for all tracks (upon request).

As the title and the artwork cover suggest (using the same cover artwork for all tracks, and the same first part of title in French, followed by a second part of the title in English), this concept album was intended to capture transient moods and feelings (as if scales of rainbow colours, falling lower or rising higher, as in the artwork), which - like music - come into our soul momentarily, pass through it, and then vanish out of it (but sometimes return, haunting us)... The idea of sudden beautiful instants in life is similarly being reflected in my other long-ongoing (since February 2019) album, "Ephéméries", to be released here on SoundCloud some time in 2023.

The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 5 March 2021.

Etats d'âme

Track 4 in "Etats d'âme" (2022) by Alex M: composed, played, arranged, edited and recorded by Alex M in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X, 12 March 2021 (late evening), and mixed in Logic Pro X, 15 March 2021 (late evening); posted on SoundCloud on 16 March 2021 (before the release of the album as a whole). The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 6 February 2021.

Duration: 6:36 minutes
Tempo: 80 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: A minor

Digital instruments used, in the order of playing and recording:

1. Piano - Steinway Grand Piano
2. Guitar - Acoustic
3. Synthesizer - Bass - Trap Bass
4. Strings - Cinematic - Cello
5. Keyboard - Keyboards - Electric Piano
6. Drums - Acoustic - SoCal
7. Keyboard - Alchemy Synth - Rhythmic - Pulsing Dream Pad (Full)

Etats d'âme - Healing

Track 5 in "Etats d'âme" (2022) by Alex M: composed, played, arranged, edited and recorded by Alex M in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X, 17-18-19 March 2021, and mixed in Logic Pro X, 19-20 March 2021; posted on SoundCloud on 20 March 2021 (before the release of the album as a whole). The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 6 February 2021.

Duration: 7:43 minutes
Tempo: 86 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: D flat major

Digital instruments used, in the order of playing and recording:

1. Keyboard - Alchemy Synths - Synth - Time Warp Synth (Piano Warp 1)
2. Keyboard - Alchemy Synths - Synth - Dreamy Plucks (Saturated)
3. Keyboard - Synth Classics - Soft Analog (Cutoff 0 Resonance 0)
4. Keyboard - Alchemy Synths - Stringed - Chorus Shimmers (Chime)
5. Drums - Electronic - Live Feel 
6. Studio Horns - Single Instruments - Studio Tenor Sax 1
7. Bass - Stinger Bass

Etats d'âme - Middle-March

Track 8 in "Etats d'âme" (2022) by Alex M: composed, played, arranged, edited and recorded by Alex M in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X, 20, 21 and 22 December 2021, and mixed in Logic Pro X, 23 December 2021; posted on SoundCloud on 30 December 2021 (before the release of the album as a whole).

The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 5 March 2021.

Duration: 4:26 minutes
Tempo: 90 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: A minor

Digital instruments used, in the order of playing and recording:

1. Strings - Modern - Cello
2. Strings - Cinematic - Bass
3. Keyboard - Keyboards - Grand Piano
4. Keyboard - Alchemy Synth - Rhythmic - Mystic Timespace (Passage)
5. Keyboard - Alchemy Synth - Guitars - Sparkling Fireflies (Rusted)
6. Studio Horns - Single Instruments - Trombone 1

---------- CELEBRATING TODAY, 30 DECEMBER 2021, 5 YEARS AND 200 TRACKS ON SOUNDCLOUD ----------

This track is my 200th since I began composing and posting on SoundCloud, and celebrates exactly 5 years since I released on SoundCloud my 1st album, Return to Equilibrium [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/sets/alex-m-return-to-equilibrium] (comprised of 8 tracks), on 30 December 2016; I had opened my SoundCloud account two days earlier, on 28 December 2016, and had completed my first compositions in the autumn of 2016.

Over the past 5 years, I have released on SoundCloud 200 tracks (of which 66, or almost precisely 1/3, in collaboration), 18 albums (of which 13 own and 5 in collaboration), 1 medley album in collaboration and 1 single in collaboration. I have had 54562 plays, 8524 likes, 3897 reposts and 4799 comments. My tracks have been included in hundreds of playlists. On SoundCloud today, I have 1623 followers and I follow 1527 colleagues, music creators or fans. The 8 more recent of my own 13 albums are also available online via the major music stores. My 5 earliest own albums and all collaborations are exclusively and freely available for streaming only here, on SoundCloud.

My top 10 (i.e., top 5%) tracks (by reposts, and - then - likes), so far, are as follows:

1. I Can Now Only Recall Distant Music [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/i-can-now-only-recall-distant-music]: 99 reposts, 244 likes
2. Ephémérie 4 (Extended Orchestral) [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/am190212v23-ephemerie4extended]: 97 reposts, 224 likes
3. Beyond [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/beyond]: 76 reposts, 152 likes
4. Going Back in Time [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/going-back-in-time]: 71 reposts, 124 likes
5. Aqua (collaboration with Andreus) [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/aqua]: 69 reposts, 132 likes
6. Nature morte [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/nature-morte]: 65 reposts, 120 likes
7. Phoenix (collaboration with Tom) [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/phoenix-tom-alex-m]: 59 reposts, 114 likes
8. The Lost Innocence of Childhood (collaboration with Tom) https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/the-lost-innocence-of-childhood-tom-alex-m]: 59 reposts, 104 likes
9. Did I Survive? [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/did-i-survive]: 57 reposts, 116 likes
10. Optica (collaboration with Andreus) [https://soundcloud.com/alexander-mihailov-96713983/optica-alex-m-andreus]: 57 reposts, 107 likes
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Etats d'âme - Sadness and Hope

Track 1 in "Etats d'âme" (2022) by Alex M: composed, played, arranged, edited and recorded by Alex M in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X, and mixed in Logic Pro X, 18 September 2022; posted on SoundCloud on 25 September 2022 (before the release of the album as a whole).

The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 6 February 2021.

Duration: 3:53 minutes
Tempo: 120 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: Eb

Digital instruments used, in the order of playing and recording:

1. Keyboard - Keyboards - Simple Physics Piano (Flutter 0% Tremolo 50%)
2. Keyboard - Alchemy Synth - Arpeggiated - Dew Drops (Broken Tape)
3. Strings - Cinematic - Viola
4. Keyboard - Alchemy Synth - Leads - Analog Unison Lead (Flanger)
5. Keyboard - Alchemy Synth - Arpeggiated - Clockwork Melodies (Pondering)
6. Drums - Electronic - Titans of Bass
7. Synthesizer - Soundscape - Distant Air
8. Synthesizer - Sound Effects - Ocean Waves Modular

Etats d'âme - The Sea, the Sea!...

Track 2 in "Etats d'âme" (2022) by Alex M: composed, played, arranged, edited and recorded by Alex M in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X, 3-4 February 2021 (over midnight), and mixed in Logic Pro X, 4 February 2021; posted on SoundCloud on 19 February 2021 (before the release of the album as a whole). The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 6 February 2021.

Duration: 7:21 minutes
Tempo: 62 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: D minor

Digital instruments used, in the order of playing and recording:

1. Guitar - Acoustic
2. Piano - Steinway Grand Piano
3. Bass - Upright Studio Bass
4. Strings - Cinematic - Cello

Etats d'âme - Nearby

Track 3 in "Etats d'âme" (2022) by Alex M: composed, played, arranged, edited and recorded by Alex M in GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro X, 6 February 2021 (before dawn), and mixed in Logic Pro X, 6 February 2021; posted on SoundCloud on 5 March 2021 (before the release of the album as a whole). The album artwork cover, also used as the cover of each constituent track, was created in Tayasui Sketches on 4 February 2021, edited and annotated in Paint and saved in its final form on 6 February 2021.

Duration: 5:53 minutes
Tempo: 106 bpm
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Signature: B minor

Digital instruments used, in the order of playing and recording:

1. Guitar - Acoustic
2. Piano - Steinway Grand Piano
3. Strings - Romantic - Cello
4. Bass - Upright Studio Bass
5. Drums - Electronic - Sequential DrumTraks

Etats d'âme - Anticipating

I have always admired music, of diverse styles. Like most of us, I have tried learning to play a few instruments at a basic level in my teenage. But it is only now, in the 21st century, that modern software allows anyone to fool around being the composer, the designer of a whole composition, simpler or more complex, organising together the parts of the various instruments - and to hear the results of this experimentation or inspiration instantly! That is how I have recently begun enjoying the distraction of attempts at composing during my leisure, discovering an amazing dimension of life, and art, perhaps the most intangible, heightening and hypnotising one, and the closest to the soul... (21 August 2017) ... Forgot to mention: music is for sharing - that's why we are all here! (4 September 2017)