Name: Mike Lazarev - Simple Piano For These Complex Times by Headphone Commute
Duration: 1 min 40 s
Description: It's been a crazy year so far and so I took a day off. From everything. I spent the day reflecting on the present. I spent the day away from noisy thought. In the evening I sat down at my piano, took a breath, and played the simplest tune that I could muster. It is minimal and slow. It's in a major chord but still feels sullen. I wanted to share it with you in hopes that it will bring you peace.

Something I’ve been working on. It’s still a work in progress, but I think it sounds good enough to share at this point since it likely won’t be finished any time soon.

The Far Side of Quiet (WIP)

Gibran Alcocer - idea 22

MessageToAnais - EricHasBeen

Henrik has been an integral part of the Ambientologist family from the beginning, and it’s with great pride that his work be showcased as an early member of the label family, and more still in offering a rare full length album.

The album is now live! Without a doubt this will be the most fitting soundtrack to your winter.

Buy here: http://bit.ly/34mDmaE

Henrik Meierkord - Själ (Album Mini-Mix)

Live piano improvisation over a beat for Piano Day 2020.

Hold On

Available here:
https://thesisproject.us/projects/thesis-17
&
https://thesisproject.bandcamp.com/album/thesis-17-ceeys-constant-presence

To be released on the conceptual collaborative-minded, boutique label Thesis, is the new joint project by the two neo-classical and contemporary ambient acts of CEEYS, and CONSTANT PRESENCE, the new outing between Peter Broderick [Erased Tapes, Type, Efterklang], and Daniel O’Sullivan [Grumbling Fur, Guapo]. Released during Q3AMBIENTFEST, a sterling three-day event of avant-garde, experimental pop and ambient-classical taking place in Potsdam, Germany during the first weekend of April, the limited edition 10inch EP, enriched with Zen ideology, comes replete with bespoke artwork, exclusive handmade packaging, and laser-etched designs.



CONSTANT PRESENCE, the new mesmerizing project by soundsmith Peter Broderick and multidimensional songwriter Daniel O'Sullivan, has been sporadically performing across the globe since coming together in 2019. This new, recorded body of music will see their release alongside the cello-piano brothers, Sebastian and Daniel Selke aka. CEEYS, who also happen to be the founding partners and curators behind Q3AMBIENTFEST. Looking to celebrate the notions of duology, unity and harmony, the EP features two ambient tracks that are enshrined in the teachings Shunryu Suzuki, a twentieth-century Soto Zen monk who gained popularity in the Western world for his teaching of Zen Buddhism outside of Japan. This nature of dualism becomes ever more pertinent when factoring in the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bringing together of new and old worlds, and the pairing of Potsdam and Berlin. The East-West divide is something also very admissible to the works of the Selke brother’s, who imbue various elements of their East German upbringing within their recordings and philosophical approaches. Now celebrating its fourth year, Q3AMBIENTFEST is CEEYS’ labour of love, and it was a great honor, love and respect that they can now release something together with the multitalented and accomplished minds that are Broderick and O'Sullivan.



The Thesis Project, now on its 17th release, has set about on uniting two different artists together to create limited, custom designed bodies of music. Uniquely crafted and designed by Gregory Euclide, each 10” jacket for THESIS 17 consists of laser cut-etched designs portraying brutalist architecture and atomic structures glued on top of airbrushed designs that use the homemade Black Walnut Ink that Euclide made himself from the trees on his property, then letter pressed with the THESIS logo. Each record is hand numbered in an edition of 300, and will be made available on the second day Q3AMBIENTFEST, where it is also possible to get the record hand-signed by the artists. During the second day of the festival CONSTANT PRESENCE will share the stage with CEEYS, for a unique performance that juxtaposes the notion of duality and harmony yet further, in a show that will combine professionalism with liveliness, method with lightness of touch, and efficacy with flexibility.

THESIS 17

Nothing Special

Today we are proud to premiere a track by Hior Chronik, taken from an upcoming compilation on 7K! Records, titled String Layers. As the title of this release suggests, the 18 compositions on this collection are dedicated to, designed around, and created specifically for violin, viola, violoncello, and contrabass, “drawing a varied and multicoloured narrative through the contemporary instrumental music.” The compilation features 18 composers from around the world, including some of the already known names, and indeed, some of my favourites, such as Simon Goff, Echo Collective, Vito Gatto, Ceeys, Aaron Martin, Himmelsrandt and of course, Hior Chronik, among the many. The works are modern classical in nature with a barely noticeable crossover to the electronic ambient world, featuring textures and treatments to carry the voices of the stringed instruments. Hior’s piece is particularly gentle and moody, slightly sullen in the lower register, brooding over the boundaries set forth by the abstracts society and the conditioned mind, and in the process reminding us not to heed them, and do your own thing.

Preorder here : https://7K.lnk.to/StringLayers

String Layers

TRACK PREMIERE : Hior Chronik - Pay No Attention To The Boundaries

It's been a crazy year so far and so I took a day off. From everything. I spent the day reflecting on the present. I spent the day away from noisy thought. In the evening I sat down at my piano, took a breath, and played the simplest tune that I could muster. It is minimal and slow. It's in a major chord but still feels sullen. I wanted to share it with you in hopes that it will bring you peace.

Mike Lazarev - Simple Piano For These Complex Times

Today I'm featuring a track by a Toronto based composer, Joshua Van Tassel, taken from his upcoming album, titled Dance Music Volume II : More Songs for Slow Motion, scheduled to be released in September of this year on Backward Music. During these troubled times, I feel like I keep going back to cinematic, ambient, and sombre music more and more. Almost every email I receive begins with "How are you holding up?" and it's almost awkward to admit that I'm okay, obliged to all this music that surrounds me to keep me centred, calm, and virtually connected to musicians that outpour their soul. Such is the case with music by Van Tassel. "Every day we are exposed to scenes of despair, ugliness, and struggle," says Joshua in the intro, "and I wanted to make a really beautiful album." The album is inspired by an electronic musical instrument named Ondes Martenot which is played by moving a metal ring along a wire (generating oscillations in the transistors). And "like the instrument that inspired it [...] the music is elegant and expressive, the score to a movie inside your head." The "Eternal Turtle" is a slow blooming piece, featuring The Venuti String Quartet, and Van Tassel on the electronics, piano, and of course the Ondea, the modernized version of the instrument.

"‘Eternal Turtle’ was the first piece I recorded for “Dance Music Volume 2”, and features only the Ondea. I had gotten the instrument about 2 months prior, and had been practicing every day, very slowly, and trying to play in tune. It’s very similar in tuning principle to a violin, where the slightest finger turn can cause the note you’re playing to be sharp or flat. I had started to experiment with more effects pedals as well, and created the ambience you hear at the very beginning of the track almost by accident withe a Chase Bliss MOOD pedal. For some reason, the sound immediately made me think of a giant, slow, and very old turtle moving slowly through and even older forest. I improvised the main line that runs through out the piece thinking about how this creature would move, then layered everything else immediately after. Compared to the other pieces on the album which in some cases took weeks, this one came out in one sitting and was the first time I felt like I had touched on the sound of the album I wanted to make. It was a lovely gift from a turtle I hope to thank in person someday." --Joshua Van Tassel

Dance Music Volume II: More Songs For Slow Motion

Eternal Turtle

TRACK PREMIERE : Joshua Van Tassel - Eternal Turtle

Swedish pianist, Henrik Lindstrand is due to release his third solo album, and I've got an exclusive track premiere for you today! Nordhem is a finale in a trilogy of Leken (2017) and Nattresan (2019), released on One Little Indian Records. I suppose now is a good time to mention that the label's owner, Derek Birkett, has recently changed the imprint's name to One Little Independent in light of a fan letter that outlined why the name and the logo are offensive to the Indigenous People culture. So while OLI has recognized and adjusted its image, the music it spreads through the world is unchanged. The album, and indeed this single, conveys a very innocent and emotional message, through melancholy storytelling that rides the waves of sorrow and joy, mystery and honesty, minor and major chords. It's a beautiful short tune that carries its dialogue through a reticent melody, and I could even see myself playing it in the dark. "Lindstrand communicates emotions through a soothing and intimate universe that seamlessly blends genres into his own ecosystem of sounds from the piano. 'Stora Huset' uses exquisite and elegant simplicity to recall summers spent at a countryside mansion where his mother lived, decorated with moose antlers from a bygone era." I'd love to draw your attention to the entire new album [and the whole trilogy], but for now, here's the track!

Nordhem

TRACK PREMIERE : Henrik Lindstrand - Stora Huset

Glåsbird composition for the forthcoming Return to Sea and Sardinia project run by photographer/artist Daniele Merzeddu and his team:
https://seaandsardinia.org/

Return to Sea and Sardinia:
January 2021 sees the centenary of D.H. Lawrence’s documented trip that resulted in his acclaimed book, Sea and Sardinia.

Return to Sea and Sardinia will follow in the footsteps of Lawrence’s journey exactly 100 years on from the day he set out.

Documenting the journey will be Daniele Marzeddu; a multi award-winning director experienced in documentary filmmaking.

The centre piece of the project will be the film that records Lawrence’s retraced journey - scheduled for release at arts and cultural venues across the UK and Sardinia in April 2021.

Return to Sea and Sardinia will also curate captured material into a limited-edition photo book, featuring a commentary about the locations and scenes as they existed in Lawrence’s day and also today, 100 years on.

Glåsbird joins the Return to Sea and Sardinia project to compose the soundtrack to the film, in which the approach will trace the signature sound/place compositional style.

return to sea and sardinia

Here are some original solo piano pieces...  some mixes from my podcast... some exclusive track premieres...  and some tracks from the albums I review on Headphone Commute... Enjoy!

Mike Lazarev - Simple Piano For These Complex Times

Headphone Commute

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Karin-Maria Brunner

Fab~aen

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