I wrote this piece as an answer to the internal questions we’ve all asked at one point or another, “Am I okay? Will I be okay?” It’s about the nature and feeling of those questions.

The Questions Your Heart Asks is track 7 on the upcoming album Encounters of the Beautiful Kind, which released on June 1, 2018. To learn more about the album, visit www.rachellafond.com/encounters-of-the-beautiful-kind/ or rachellafond.bandcamp.com

The Questions Your Heart Asks is only available prior to album release here on SoundCloud as part of Soundcloud First. #SCFirst
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Early praise for Encounters of the Beautiful Kind:

"As we worked with Rachel, we found her music and performance beautiful and very moving. Her latest work will bear this out!"
~Kristin Amarie and David Lanz

"Encounters of the Beautiful Kind is one of the most fluent and intelligent albums to be released in the solo piano genre for ages."
~Steve Sheppard, One World Music

"With her second solo piano release, Encounters of the Beautiful Kind, Rachel LaFond removes any doubt that hers is a powerful new voice in contemporary music."
~Kathy Parsons, Mainly Piano

"Rachel's expressive and bold approach to the keyboard wins her high marks from me again."
~Dick Metcalf, Contemporary Fusion Reviews

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Come along on a powerful musical journey inspired by the ups and downs of being a stranger in a new country.

The music explores universal human experiences: feelings of loneliness, worries about not being good enough, and the evolution we undergo as existing friendships change or fade while new connections spring to life.

This journey culminates in the realization that as we bear each other up and connect with one another, we make the world a more beautiful place for all of us.
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Mastering by Mike Bloemendal
Art Design by Rachel LaFond

Encounters of the Beautiful Kind

The Questions Your Heart Asks

A colorful life makes for colorful music.

Rachel LaFond is a composer and pianist living in Austin, Texas, with roots in Seattle and New Zealand. You can find Rachel hanging from the heights on a trapeze bar, deep in creative thought in her home recording studio, and even swing dancing on a historic Austin dancefloor. Or you may have to look a bit further afield for her, traveling the world in search of the best scuba diving spots, trekking into the wilderness for a taste of untouched beauty, and turning up new friends everywhere. But she will always return home to her piano to work her magic, transforming it all into music.

Rachel combines a technically proficient approach to composition with an intuitive ability to draw in the listener and convey profound emotion. Her creative range reflects her enthusiasm for new experience: achingly introspective, whimsical and spooky, gut-wrenchingly powerful, her solo piano catalog covers it all and more. She’s even branched out from solo piano into epic symphonic electronica piano (Lost in the Azure), and angelic a cappella vocals. With a strong musical foundation and a zest for adventure, Rachel is forging a unique path as a composer, recording artist, and all-around creative human.

One of Rachel’s most ambitious ideas came to fruition in 2019-2020 with The 52. She released new music every week for a year, designing distinctive artwork for each track. Her career as a recording artist began in 2017 with the release of Wandering Soul - musical snapshots from a year spent backpacking around the world. She composed Encounters of the Beautiful Kind about the challenges and delights of living as an expat in New Zealand, and her Halloween album, Well Past Midnight, came about as a playful response to literally everyone telling her to write “holiday music”. 

Rachel has experienced many sides of the piano: she's the daughter of a piano teacher, a former piano teacher herself, studied piano performance as a teenager in Vienna, and earned a music degree at the University of Washington. She grew up adoring David Lanz songbooks and discovered Ludovico Einaudi's music in her twenties, which inspired a deep love for passionate, contemporary piano music.

In addition to writing and releasing music, Rachel relishes touring and live performance. Audiences rave about her captivating stage presence and deeply intimate emotional style at the piano. Past performances have ranged from playing on the main stage of a cruise ship (Audiosyncracy at Sea 2019) to inviting the public into her home for a more intimate concert - the best “seat” in the house is lying underneath her Yamaha C7!

Rachel’s always working on new projects, and she loves collaborating with other musicians and artists. Keep an eye out for what’s coming next, because this musical firecracker is far from done!

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