I’m excited to spend this morning in a company of a new name to my ears in this constantly evolving, vibrant music scene. Although Chronos is officially a sophomore full-length album for this self-taught pianist, Johann Pätzold [his first was a record titled Minds out on Timezone in 2011], it is the first time I am presented with his stunning music, courtesy of InFiné. This Rostok-based (northern Germany) multi-instrumentalist and producer’s discography includes a few more self-released EPs and two more for the imprint, Monumentum (2017) and Odesea (2018), including compositions for Dior fashion shows and HBO programmes. But today I’m listening to Chronos, and premiering “Nothing Lost Yet” from this upcoming album, out on April 23rd. The piece, nearly halfway through the album, is a texture-rich cinematic journey, balancing elements of modern classical composition with an electronica momentum of the progression arc – if you listen closely you can hear influences of Trentemøller, Apparat, and Jon Hopkins in the mix. “Wide open spaces are filled with elegiac strings and reverberating electronic percussion, fine-tuned to the millisecond: everything is in the right place, making for a listening experience that is ultimately musical storytelling.” The background of the album is built on the composer’s real experience with the Syrian refugee crisis, musical activism, and the eventual nervous breakdown – all of which is left unspoken, yet still heard…

"Another track that had to be put on hold for a year because of covid-19. Whilst fine tuning the album I had to leave France in a hurry before the border closed, to get back to my home in Rostock, Germany. We then asked our InFiné label mate (Thomas) Toh Imago if he could build us some beats. His work improved the track and gave it a whole new polish. I’m so lucky that so many people helped me to get this album finished during the pandemic."
— Johann Pätzold

he record is available as a digital, 12″ black vinyl, and a striking all-red compact disc. A quick head nod to a beautiful and memorable album cover by Alice Sfintesco​. This is a winner for InFiné!

Chronos

Nothing Lost Yet

TRACK PREMIERE : Secret Of Elements - Nothing Lost Yet

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0bf5EW1aMSEpvysqe16iUB?si=CD_igLkpTemBuLVyVEKSLw

Epiloog

Snow Walk

Fund/preorder here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/alex-kozobolis-weightless#/

Weightless is an EP of intricate original piano compositions by UK artist Alex Kozobolis. With a series of solo releases over the past few years and collaborations with artists such as Lee Chapman, Harry Edwards, and Anna Rose Carter, Weightless represents Alex's unique approach to composition and melody. 

His touch on the piano is light and fluid; moving between dense sustained runs, which evaporate as soon as they are heard, to spaciously plotted notes. Weightless is the sound of weight itself lifting, of the earthly effect of gravity removed and allowing the listener to be suspended within mid-air, uninterrupted by pressures and restrains of the physical world. Coursing with energy, and running to take flight.

Each of the four tracks have been remixed by Siavash Amini, Tom Adams, Trnspt and Hedia, with very different, but cohesive results, expanding the tone of the EP into new areas.  

Weightless will be available on limited clear vinyl, digipack CD and digital editions.

Tracklist 

Side A
1. Unravel
2. Closure
3. And Find Yourself
4. Weightless

Side B
1. Weightless (Tom Adams Remix)
2. And Find Yourself (Siavash Amini Remix)
3. Closure (Hedia Remix)
4. Unravel (Transept Remix)

Closure by Alex Kozobolis

Taken from my latest album "(For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly", ‘Elegy (ii)’ features the elegantly dexterous vocals of Joanna Swan (Ilya) and the incisive strings of Christoph Berg (Field Rotation).
The album, as described by Hidden Shoal:
The 10 tracks that comprise "(For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly" have an emotional potency and compositional dexterity that surpasses the acclaimed body of work that precedes them, drawing you into their evocative world and demanding engagement. The album includes contributions from Christoph Berg (Field Rotation), composer Stefano Guzzetti, James Banbury (The Auteurs), Joanna Swan (Ilya) and writer Paul Morley. Mixed by Stefano Guzzetti and Paul Humphreys (OMD), and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri (The Sight Below), the album’s depth of sound is awe-inspiring.
For more releases by Antonymes: https://antonymes.bandcamp.com/
This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Antonymes on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2cAJxyL

Elegy (ii)

8dio Instruments Used:
-8W for flute, synths, orchestral design, and percussion
-1969 Legacy Piano
-a touch of Barbary

Is it any wonder that when we shot out a spacecraft to reach potential extraterrestrials that we put a disc of music to convey what it is to be human? With classical, rock, pop, and blues accompanying nature sounds and different dialects of earth people, it is only fitting that if an alien from out of this world would intercept our message that they could only get a more accurate picture of the human experience by hearing music that we have created.
Music has a way to welcome a listener to someone else's heart and mind.  Just like an astronaut exploring unknown frontiers, music can only allow us to observe and admire the experience. “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?” - 1 Corinthians 2:11

And the more I understand about music, the more I appreciate the math hidden in our natural world and universe. 
Our duty as composers is to understand the patterns in sound so we can convey a story or play that hypnotic beat.  Speak to a mathematician and they would tell you that they thrive in seeing patterns in numbers.  According to some Physicists, math makes up the universe.  So it is logical to assume that as we come up with a technique to create music that the most pleasing music to our ears best follow mathematical formulas found in the environment that we live in.
The Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci numbers found in nature have been inspirational to humanity in proportion to their  music and in the creation of the instruments that make the music. 
Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – c. 495 BC), best remembered for the Pathagoras’ Theorem, discovered harmonic musical intervals by seeing its pattern through whole number ratios. He believed that the universe itself makes music, and oddly enough NASA may agree. 

The theme of my piece is that humans are destined to look beyond themselves.  Despite current affairs and how bleak a situation may seem, it is in the spirit of humanity that keeps us from constantly looking down and strive by looking up into the stars.  It is the imagery of space that I used to describe our journeys here.  I even added a sound from Saturn’s radio emissions for one of the musical breakdowns. And in case you're not already familiar with this concept, NASA records sounds from our galaxy through devices designed to transfer electromagnetic vibrations to audible frequencies for our ears. 

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend." - Luwig van Beethoven

But even more fascinating than life itself, is the mystery of love, and thus why I dedicated this piece to my wife. Call me a hopeless romantic if you want, but it is love that makes this continual study worthwhile.  And if Math makes up the universe, then it is only fair to say that music shall transcend the stars… figuratively and literally. 
Stay inspired, romanticize the opportunity, and love one another.
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?" -Psalm 8: 3-4

8Dio 2016 Stand Out Contest Submission: “Mayya Malyshka" by Justin Eberhart

A midnight solo piano take recorded with microphones deep inside the piano to capture extreme musical details but also mechanical noises and pedal creaks. Released to celebrate Piano Day 2017.

© 2017 Gianluca Piacenza
℗ 2017 Gianluca Piacenza

Official Web Site: http://www.gianlucapiacenza.it

Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_gianluca

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7qEuC0mCSgDPFzQQPp8RcS

Moonlight Walk

Stream/Buy

Moonlight Walk (Piano Day 2017)

A couple of things I recorded last night at home, warts and all.

Forgotten Postcards

Another sneak preview from Christoph Berg's upcoming album 'Paraphrases'...

Christoph Berg - A Small Path Crossing

"Both Sides Suffer Heavy Losses, But We Faced An Unavoidable Conclusion" is a specially curated selection of our favourite Greek ambient, postrock, postmetal, experimental, shoegaze artists. 
Please listen, share and enjoy. The future for Greek music is bright. 
*Hope, Answers, Fight, Dreamers ... More Hope For Greece*
credits
released 04 November 2012 

Hior Chronik - Starving but happy

Written and recorded over a period of more than two years, “Paraphrases” is a collection of chamber music compositions performed, recorded and layered through numerous recording sessions in a small room in northern Germany near the Baltic Sea.

Christoph Berg scores the history of eight narrow worlds, carved only from wood – violin, piano and double bass. The initial composition “Quiet times at the library” defines the tone, but the album also sees many shades; the solo piece “Poems written by an old (prepared) piano”, the crow haunted field recordings of “Interlude” and reverent remixes provided by Yasuhiko Fukuzono (aus) and P Jørgensen specially for the CD edition.

The direct intimacy of the material is a stark counterpoint to the sweeping cinematic grandeur and electronic sound manipulation of previous releases as Field Rotation, and is also the logical progression from 2011 releases ‘Acoustic Tales’ and ‘And Tomorrow I Will Sleep”; the former a tribute to literature, and the latter a paean to hibernation after exhaustion. Completed in the brief escapes allowed by gaps in graduate study, “Paraphrases” is a recontextualisation of the experience of exhaustion, written in other words.

Mastered with precise weight by Ian Hawgood, the 250 run limited edition 180gm vinyl is packaged inside heavy gatefold four panel sleeves, wrapped within an A1 double-sided poster. The package also includes a double sided 12 x 12 hand numbered print along with a hand numbered embossed letter-pressed CD with fold-out booklet featuring striking photography by Aela Labbe. Extras as always will include scent, card and download code containing audio and PDFs. The album is a treasure of both talent and soul, and the extraordinary packaging from the label and considered art design by Ian Hazeldine reflects the classic nature of the material.

Release date: 30.11.12

Pre-orders this weekend through the Facture mailing list.

www.fac-ture.co.uk

Christoph Berg - Buildings At Night

Striving for beauty in reticence.
Contrasting with sounds in ostinati keys, heavy furniture music, and dead contemporary.  With each note, I walk a tightrope. 

A little bit of what I've done:
-Composed demos for the music sampling company, 8Dio.

-Wrote and performed keys for soul/R&B band White Lucy

-LP release of the modern classical, "Speirō"

-Composed for grandma

8Dio 2016 Stand Out Contest Submission: “Mayya Malyshka" by Justin Eberhart

Justin D. Eberhart