Relaxing Classical

Hymns of Bantu

Improv on Marin Marais' Pièces de viole, Livre II, Suite No. 3 en ré majeur "Les voix humaines" (Arr. Selaocoe & Thomas for Vocal and Cello)

Field: Nocturne No. 9 in E Minor, H. 46

Nocturne No. 9 in E Minor, H. 46

Bach: The 6 Partitas, BWV 825-830

Partita No. 4 in D Major, BWV 828: V. Sarabande

Tshepo - I

Ravel: Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis

3 Chansons, M. 69: No. 2, Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis (Transcr. Chamayou for Piano)

Field: Complete Nocturnes

Nocturne No. 2 in C Minor, H. 25

Thirteen miniature journeys, each a complete world in ninety seconds.

In this new album, Samuel Hamish Gray continues his exploration of spontaneous composition — music created entirely in the moment, unpremeditated yet intricately formed. Each piece was conceived, performed, and completed in a single take, bound only by one strict parameter: a duration of exactly one minute and thirty seconds.

Within that constraint lies astonishing freedom. The result is thirteen concise piano works — cinematic, lyrical, sometimes fragile, sometimes dramatic — each a distilled emotional narrative. Gray’s playing moves from shimmering introspection to bold, cinematic resonance, his improvisations sculpted by instinct and refined by long experience in both classical and jazz idioms.

Listeners familiar with his Sirius Suite (2025), a meditation on loss and love, will recognize the same immediacy and tenderness, but here the focus is on compression: each piece a single breath, a fleeting vision, a self-contained journey.

Gray is known for his fully spontaneous solo piano performances in Norway, New Zealand, and beyond, and for his forthcoming long-form work Norgesvenn (2026), recorded as one continuous arc. These new miniatures reveal another side of his artistry — concise, pure, and perfectly balanced between composition and improvisation.

Perfect for reflective playlists, film and documentary use, or simply quiet listening, each piece can stand alone, loop seamlessly, or fade into thought — small universes of sound, carved from silence.

Miniatures

Impromptu à l’aveugle I

Vanessa Williams - Colors of the Wind (Pocahontas), slower ballad piano

The title of this album my attempt at translating the Farsi phrase قارچ‌های غربت to English. It comes from the poem "The Sound of Water's Footsteps" by Iranian poet Sohrab Sepehri. 

A more literal translation of the phrase would be Mushrooms of "Ghurba", an originally Arabic word that has several meanings, including senses of estrangement, alienation, loneliness, being away for home, and longing.

I composed many of these pieces during and after Israel's 12 day war on Iran in the summer of 2025. Being  an Iranian living abroad for 15 years, I had never felt Ghurba the way I felt it this summer, as I realized more and more that Iranian lives matter to exactly no one.
Ghurba and all its meanings overshadow most of the pieces in this album. 

The music heard on this post is the final track, which is an improv piece with the same title as the album.

In the album art, I tried to depict a mycelial network creeping up the piano and my body, and expanding into the ground, maybe a thread or two reaching the other side of the world where home is.

As Sepehri's poem says "Who cares if sometimes the mushrooms of ghurba start to grow?" 

You are right Sohrab, nobody does...

Nocturne No. 1 in B-Flat Minor - Remember to Forget

Every track that gets put out gets better and better.
x/x/18

Nocturne No. 9 in E Minor, H. 46

Alice Sara Ott

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