Sheet music (PDF) and digital downloads of these tracks available at www.michaelmalis.bandcamp.com

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I wrote these pieces in 2014, which in retrospect feels like a different lifetime. I've almost released this collection several times, but inevitably some other, more pressing project has gotten in the way, and as a result this music has languished for six years.

I'm choosing to release this music now because I feel that making art is more important now than ever. We live in strange times, where mandated social distancing is our only hope at defeating a pandemic which could cause irreparable harm. In this moment that we can't be together physically, life can feel creatively stifling. We have to do what we can to continue to cultivate our sense of community.

Any music for solo piano has an undertone of isolation. Both pianists and composers are, by nature, accustomed to social distancing. There is a sense of distance embodied in this music -- distance in time since it was recorded, distance in space between myself and the microphones that were far at the back of the cathedral we recorded in, and distance between you and I as I release this music out into the ether. That distance does create isolation, certainly. But there is a beauty in that distance, too.

With all that in mind, I hope you can use this music in times of isolation to cultivate peace and beauty.

Three Pieces for Piano

What Story Down There Awaits Its End?

72114

31114

Marginalia: notes in the margins. These recordings were made at home, without any explicit intention of ever being heard by anyone else. They're private recordings, written on the margins of my musical practice; annotations to myself, footnotes in the shadows of an aesthetic, made public out of a necessity to shed light on some small part of myself that mostly lives in the dark.

Michael Malis - Fender Rhodes electric piano, electronics

ONE recorded on 5/31/2016
THREE recorded on 6/16/2016

both recorded in the basement of my former house in Woodbridge, Detroit.

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Michael Malis
Artwork by Carmen Malis King

Marginalia: Rhodes Solos 2016

THREE

DUALISMS
http://www.michaelmalis.bandcamp.com/album/dualisms
A multimedia release 
recordings, zine, posters, videos, and sheet music available on Bandcamp

dualism (n.): the division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects, or the state of being so divided.

Two contradictory things can be true at the same time. This, in and of itself, is a spiritual disposition. The idea that truth can contain contradiction belies rational thought, which demands that truth be narrowly defined and rigid. It undermines the westernized thought process, which tends to favor straight, hierarchal lines pointing up a mountain of truth over circular, diffuse wisdoms which scatter in the waters of consciousness.

In their own ways, the pieces presented in this collection each reach toward some aspect duality. Most obviously, each piece is a duet. I wanted to write a set of pieces that were intimate and tailored to the scale of my living room. The accompanying videos, masterfully shot by Matt Lima, capture that intimacy. But more subtly, each piece takes some duality as its premise, inspiration, or chief motivating factor. Each piece casts a shadow, containing both light and dark energy.

The pieces contained in this collection are bound together not by aesthetics as much as a common wisdom: each piece is a deep dive into emotionality. They seek out fullness and spaciousness; dancing and stillness; growth and stagnation; building and breaking.

This music is designed to invoke angels, ghosts, protectors, and amulets — from worlds past and worlds never known. Zara Teicher’s insightful and arresting artwork makes some of these saints explicit — from the portraits of Mary Oliver and Marvin Gaye to the imagery of owls and playing cards, all of which were very much in my mind when composing and performing these pieces. Her work exquisitely captures the myth-world built by this music, and spins it out into a symbolic language. This zine is more than a companion to the music; it is itself a manifesto of symbology.

My hope this collection of music, video, artwork, and words inspires you to go to the deepest place inside of yourself. That part of yourself that you lock away for fear of being seen by others. That part of yourself that you love fiercely. This work grasps at the sacred, and we all have that sacred spark inside each of us. We shake with joy. 
credits
releases June 21, 2020

Five Card Draw
Composed by Michael Malis
Michael Malis - piano
Thom Monks - percussion


Two Devotions - in memoriam Mary Oliver
Composed by Michael Malis
Michael Malis - piano
Kaleigh Wilder - baritone saxophone


We've Got To Find a Way
composed by Michael Malis
after "What's Going On" by Al Cleveland, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, and Marvin Gaye
Denzel Donald, voice
Michael Malis, electric piano


All audio recorded by Matthew Lima on October 18, 2019
All videos recorded by Matthew Lima on October 18, 2019
All audio mixed and mastered by Matthew Lima
All videos edited by Matthew Lima