Name: Looking Ahead by Simon Reich
Duration: 6 min 54 s
Description: 2020 was a very tough year for all of us around the world. Covid 19 has affected nearly everyone on the planet. With this in mind, I sat at the piano and improvised this emotional piece of music. It almost felt like the music was an extension of my feelings.

Mix of happiness with concern. That's what I felt... Very good job!

This year, piano and coffee turns five, and to celebrate, we are releasing our first compilation: Realismo Mágico — a conceptual project featuring unconventional works by new and old friends we have made along the way.

Inspired by magical realism, an artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy, this special release presents unheard material by twelve exceptional musicians — from experimental sound artist Martyna Basta to award-winning film composer Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, and from poly-instrumental duo Brueder Selke to prolific pianist and producer John Hayes.

Each artist has contributed with a new track that invites the listeners to submerge into their very own musical universes, which, at the same time, have been re-shaped by their interpretation of magical realism. We start off on our journey with the delicate nostalgia of Tim Linghaus, passing through Jakob Lindhagen and Vargkvint’s modern take on the story of a Norse mythological creature, followed by the harmonic ambiguity in Simeon Walker’s pleasingly strong dialogue between felted piano and drums. Later on, John Hayes shares with us a chaotic composition born out of samples from an old clock in his parents’ garage and saturated voices, which precedes Lucy Claire’s processed hydrophone recordings of seaweeds and starfishes in Australian waters. Ondes Martenot, pump organ, zither, analogue synthesizers, vocal processing, musical saw, and bowed gongs are some of the unusual elements to be found on this eclectic yet coherently unified record.

Realismo Mágico has been conceptually crafted and musically curated by Peruvian composer Sergio Díaz De Rojas, and beautifully depicted by illustrator Jordan Amy Lee and graphic designer Celia Fernández González.

Gustav Davidsson - Above The Rain

This Too Could Change

Shrooms (Instrumental)

All tracks written by Jón Ólafsson and Árni Grétar
Mixed by Árni Grétar and Jón Ólafsson

Jón Ólafsson: Piano
Árni Grétar: Synthesizer, effects, field recordings

Mastered by Finnur Hákonarson 
Artwork & photography by Sig Vicious 


Jón Ólafsson & Futuregrapher - Nærvera

Performed by Chris Green-Armytage
Composed and produced by Jim Perkins
Artwork by Jim Perkins

Drifting Upward

Waltz for Shanti

The expanded double CD re-issue of The Licence To Interpret Dreams will be released late August / early September 2018. The original multitracks have been refreshed to give a new life to the album. Alongside this there is an additional CD, which features remixes by Marconi Union, Hummingbird, The Humble Bee, Tape Loop Orchestra, Peter Jørgensen, Ben Chatwin, Ian Hawgood, Aaron Martin, Olan Mill, Bill Seaman, Field Rotation, Antonymes and Clem Leek. The remixes are very special and the whole thing has been lovingly remastered by James Plotkin.

This very limited album comes out on the wonderful Fluid Audio imprint and will include a 24 page perfect bound book housed in a heavyweight card sleeve.

Here's a sneak preview, the Antonymes remix which takes elements from several tracks on the original album.

Lost In Waves Of Light

Moving

Continuum

Stream/Buy

Continuum (Piano Day 2019)

In 2019 the Luke Howard Trio was commissioned by Back To Back Theatre to compose music for The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes, a play exploring the intersection of disability activism and artificial intelligence.

OK, I Will

2020 was a very tough year for all of us around the world. Covid 19 has affected nearly everyone on the planet. With this in mind, I sat at the piano and improvised this emotional piece of music. It almost felt like the music was an extension of my feelings.

Looking Ahead

I started off learning piano at around 6 years old, but only realised my ear for music when I could pick out melodies I heard on the radio & from then on I started writing my own music & playing long into the night, to the point where my parents told me to stop so they could go to sleep!
In my teenage years I joined bands & learnt basically on the fly how to work as a group. Once I realised that keyboards were not as portable & able to be played on beaches / around campfires, I taught myself guitar. By adding drums, harmonica & bass to my arsenal, the stage was set for a fully working band to record in my garage. Since setting up my home studio, I love recording a tune each week & especially love collaborating with all the extremely talented musicians on soundcloud. I'm a full time musician, with many different hats in the music community. Including songwriter, composer, live musician & blog writer.

If you are interested in my electronic page, then visit https://soundcloud.com/electro-pup

Check out my blog at http://simon353.wordpress.com/

Looking Ahead

Simon Reich

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