I feel very thankful and fortunate to have had a truly amazing summer in 2014.  I visited no fewer than seven counties between July and August.  I witnessed so many amazing things in Romania, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, and Iceland. I spent quality time, working, playing, and planning for the future with close friends and colleagues. I met and befriended many new and truly wonderful people whom I now consider close friends.

I was asked many times both by friends and family in the US, as well as the local people in the various cities I was in, what I thought about all the various political instability in the world today.  The questions invariably centered around something to the effect of "Aren't you worried/concerned/afraid to be traveling at the moment?"

My standard answer, which I became quite practiced in reciting, was:  I think that if some alien species which did not speak any human language came to Earth and visited New York, Washington DC, Bucharest, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, Copenhagen, and Reykjavik it would have a very hard time telling us all apart.  Despite our small cultural differences, people everywhere generally want the same things.  We all look quite similar when we smile and laugh as well as when we cry.

It is said,  everybody loves something, is afraid of something, has lost something, and is looking to find something.  Which will you focus on?  Will you give love unconditionally, or will you help create fear in effort to mask your own?  Will you help yourself and others get lost, or will you try your best to find something of true value and meaning?  Will you focus on artificial divisions and all the reasons why you think you can not do something, or will you open the borders of your heart to new experiences and opportunities for growth? The choice is yours.  It is all of ours.



A deep and humble thanks to everyone in Romania, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, and Iceland for sharing part of your lives and wonderful culture with me.  The memories will last a lifetime and have already become a formative experience to my creative process.  Thank you!

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"Autumn Rains" is the second installment in a trio of neoclassical solo piano albums composed, performed, and produced by Andrew Souter. These projects have been two decades in the making and represent a return to traditional music composition, engaging song-writing, and the pure passion of emotional story-telling. This trio represents Andrew's most personal and intimate music. It is quite literally a love project. We hope it may help you on your journey, as it has us...

"Autumn Rains" is music inspired by the spirit of Agape. It is an album dedicated to the concept of spiritual love and universal compassion clothed in the metaphor of transcendental natural beauty. It is an album that simultaneously expresses deep love for both the creator as well as the creation. It is said God gave us music so that we could pray without words. It could be added that nature was provided as an example of exactly how to do this effectively. In this spirit, Autumn Rains is a prayer of gratitude for the opportunity to learn from the natural beauty of this world, and an expression of a sense of respect for the inescapable universal equality that nature imposes. It humbly attempts to capture deep feelings of awe, granduer, idealism, and a belief in the innate goodness of the world even when we all face exceptionally hard lessons.


Andrew Souter -- Without Borders

This is a piano solo improvisation that I played on my piano on the morning of Piano Day 2024. It had rained all night and the morning sun glittered in the drops of water on the leaves and flowers of the plants. A truly magical sight.

Dies hier ist eine Piano solo Improvisation, die ich am Morgen des Piano Day 2024 auf meinem Klavier gepielt habe. Es 
hatte die ganze Nacht geregnet und die Morgensonne glitzerte in den Wassertropfen auf den Blättern und Blüten der Pflanzen. Ein wirklich zauberhafter Anblick. 

PIANO DAY 2024 - Raindrops glitter in the morning sun

Icelandic Rain   The rain in Iceland is sharp and stinging and misty and all-encompassing.  It rains frequently, contributing to the vibrant green colors in Iceland.

Iceland

Icelandic Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vX4UbnoQVs
https://www.facebook.com/NyctalgiaOfficial
https://archive.org/details/NyctalgiaFate (Free piano sheet music download)

I started working on a couple of piano songs that I will release time by time... Since I have no idea how to record (and mixing) a piano, the quality is pretty bad.. You should listen to this song by using good speakers or headphones...

This is just a demo recording but I hope you will be able to enjoy it anyways... Otherwise, you can download the piano sheet music to this song and try to play it by yourself! =)

Thank you very much for your support!
Have a good time everyone!

Silvio Pfiffner

Nyctalgia- Fate

Oblíbená píseň na svatební obřad v podání harfy.
Objednat si můžete na www.artepertutti.cz

E. Gouding - Love Me Like You Do - Harfa

Beyond The Woods

Ezio Bosso - Bitter and Sweet

Tak Tak To Ja - Hania Rani & Dobrawa Czocher (A F TE Remix)

For many years, whenever I play the piano and compose, before even touching the keys to play, I stay still. I begin from silence. I enter into a precise, recognized state and from this silence, the sound appears. It is an essential and directed sound that surpasses obstacles and divisions. It is not a mental or intellectual process but rather it is music that flows from emotion through melody and harmony, which, throughout time, have been the primordial elements of the power of sound.

“Quarto Tempo” is the space beyond the confines of the three time periods: past, present and future where the before, the now and the then, meet and cancel each other out. This inexplorable space is the setting where I find an attitude open to listening of the music and the sentiments that spring from it. This desire to go beyond these limits is a constant that is central to my work.

The historical view that at one time placed the musical time periods distant from one another has now changed from temporal, prospective and spatial; this modifies the relationship with consequentiality. One is not influenced only from what comes immediately beforehand but rather is impacted in the same way by a sound from five hundred years ago as by a sound from five years ago. 
The running of the tape or the turning of the needle on the vinyl of the LP, symbols of the running of time, is replaced by Hard disk where memory, rather than this running, exists. Here, the spanning of time becomes space.

Personally, I am interested in Music within mythology. This very music that through the powers of sound, charmed dolphins and made trees dance in the myth of Orpheus, sound that through its objective power, made the walls of Gerico come tumbling down. 
I believe that music, the universal language, should speak to everyone and needs not extensive explanation, at least in a deeper sense, but rather should be allowed to resonate within us so that we can hear what it evokes. 
The relationship I have with music has for many years, been tightly interwoven with my own search for personal evolution. It is an education that approaches, in essence a mirror. Through music I find myself in a vast and limitless flow. I have the opportunity to transmit my aspirations, to communicate what I feel and what I believe.

When A Gypsy Makes His Violin Cry

Bas Vliegenthart

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