Zzaj

Arrival

I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry

It's a calm day at Maliau Basin in Sabah, Malaysia. The dawn chorus is a distant memory and birds seem to be calling for the sheer pleasure of it. Insects dominate the soundscape though with their loud and constant chorus. Longer version at https://youtu.be/a0ORDlC7DkM

Lazy afternoon in Borneo

This song is my contribution to help celebrate Piano Day 2023. Life has been messy in the last couple of years, so I haven’t really been able to release new songs lately, despite my desire to do so. ‘Hello old friend’ is all about reconnecting. Reconnecting with my piano, which is my current instrument of choice to express whatever I’m feeling. Reconnecting with myself, as playing the piano allows me to sit still, process things and just be myself. And, as a result of all this, hopefully reconnecting with my audience at a deeper level, as I feel like I’ve been living very far away from everything and everyone.

Cover artwork by Rita ( ritaslittleworld_ on instagram ).

Hello old friend (Piano Day 2023)

✦ Nocturnes Beyond the Mirror
A piano cycle by Artur Tokhtash

There is a mirror that never forgets.
It gathers light as memory, and sound as breath.
Through it drifts the living shimmer of night —
a quiet space where everything listens.

Within this luminous depth, the winged beings awaken:
moths of tone, dragonflies of resonance,
small creatures woven from radiance and air.
Their flight is not escape, but awareness —
joy moving through form, existence realizing itself.

Sometimes, across that silent field,
a single wing touches the surface of water.
The instant trembles — light, sea, and being
fused in a single pulse of recognition.
Then the motion dissolves,
and the mirror keeps the trace of what it once saw.

The piano speaks in this language of reflection —
not about longing, but about presence,
about the bliss that arises
when everything remembers it has never been separate.

In this night, sound and silence breathe as one.
Music does not describe the world —
it is the way the world remembers itself in light.



✦ Ноктюрны за Зеркалом
фортепианный цикл Артура Тохташа

Есть зеркало, которое не забывает.
Оно собирает свет как память,
а звук — как дыхание.
Через его глубину течёт живое мерцание ночи —
пространство, где всё слушает.

В этом сиянии пробуждаются крылатые существа —
мотыльки из тонов, стрекозы из резонанса,
маленькие создания, сотканные из света и воздуха.
Их полёт — не бегство, а осознание,
радость, движущаяся через форму,
бытие, узнающее само себя.

Иногда над тихой поверхностью
однокрылое прикосновение касается воды.
Мгновение дрожит —
свет, море и жизнь
соединяются в едином пульсе узнавания.
Затем движение исчезает,
и зеркало хранит след того, что когда-то увидело.

Фортепиано говорит на этом языке отражений —
не о тоске, а о присутствии,
о блаженстве, рождающемся в тот миг,
когда всё вспоминает, что никогда не было разделено.

В этой ночи звук и тишина дышат вместе.
Музыка не описывает мир —
она есть способ, которым мир
вспоминает себя в свете. 

The Mirror Sleeps with Light

Piano Music Collection 42

Chet Baker - The Evolution Of An Artist

There's A Small Hotel

'I Loves You Porgy' by George Gershwin, I. Gershwin, D. Bose, D. Heyward is from Act 2 Scene 3 from Porgy and Bess an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name.

Solo piano interpretation performance by Christopher Simmons from the CD 'Trio Tribute Trilogy'. 

"His approach has nothing to do with "chops" or ego. Rather than show off his hands, Christopher has chosen to put the music first. He makes us aware of the melody and the real feeling of the tune." ~ Don Thompson. OC.

I Only Have Eyes for You

Cheryl Patterson

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