Building off the momentum from his first project, Textbook Maneuver (“A spaced-out odyssey of an album, leaning heavily into the ambient & left-field side of electronic music.” Magnetic Magazine /  “Textbook Maneuver creates music that takes listeners on an atmospheric journey.” Illustrate Magazine /  “No words required here. It’s all emotive sound, frequencies, and there’s plenty of it to entertain, energize, and even hypnotize.” Good Music Radar),. Life Science Records is proud to announce composer Michael Keane’s latest project Distance Major.  The self-titled debut is set to release exclusively on Bandcamp, Sept 6, 2025 and will release worldwide in October 2025

Michael Keane is the Bronx-born, New Jersey-based composer behind the Textbook Maneuver  and Distance Major aliases. A classically trained pianist with a punk DIY heart, Keane blends cerebral sound design with cinematic storytelling, drawing from a wide palette of influences that stretch from Genesis (Duke era), Rush, and Gary Numan to The Postal Service, U.N.K.L.E., and Phantogram. Under the Distance Major moniker, his releases balance the intellectually introspective feel of the best instrumental indie rock with the emotional resonance of ambient and prog-influenced electronica, offering soundscapes fit for film, television, and interactive media. His music thrives on improvisation and sonic experimentation, refusing easy classification while remaining deeply accessible. 

Distance Major shared: “The tracks on the debut LP were composed between November 2024 and August 2025.  I was trying to incorporate many aspects of synthesizer rock along with chill modern jazz.  I am trying to capture strong emotions and melodic flow even in the absence of lyrics.” Get on board now with this talented emerging new artist!

Buy on Bandcamp

Old Shirt

NYC 1970s Cinema

Bumper

Finish to Start Again

submission for OST Composing Jam #8 hosted by lonerabbit for Itch.IO September 2025

Vaguely this game is kind of a black and white or sepia tone visual novel of a 1940's style neo noir where a wife has sabotaged her husband's yacht to blow up but her guilty conscience keeps having her coming back to the pier like some Lady MacBeth type reaction she doesn't hide it very well but nobody has reason to suspect her except her husband through adventures on the sea survives and at the finale they finally arrest her.

Age & Treachery - Knots Of Deceit

Age & Treachery - Squall's Serenade

Age & Treachery - Footprints In The Fog

Age & Treachery - Back From The Brine

My friend Christa wrote the piano part to this and I improvised the viola part on top of it.

Original Music for Viola and Piano

submission for OST Fragments Jam #3 hosted by resident // cryptid for Itch.IO September 2025

Seventeen year-old Eärendil ​(in Sun-Year 520-521) is about ready to do the initial shakedowns of Vingilótë ​to make sure it doesn't fall apart in the middle of the harbor (that would be embarrassing...) but is having second thoughts about this whole savior of the Free Peoples idea. Círdan ​says 'if you want to dip out and run away that's your absolute right. We won't be best pleased but you are a free individual." (Knowing sagely that he will almost certainly change his mind). The young fellow goes out and has a daydream among the surrounding fields slaying bumblebees /various insects. Essentially the same premise as the 1933 poem except in this rationale both it and Eärendillinwë​​ are now about Eärendil ​, just at different stages of life.

main website:
https://exedexes1.com/

itch.io project page
https://exedexes1.itch.io/errantry-just-doesnt-last

Silmarillion Stuff list on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/doug-stoothoff/sets/silmarillion-stuff

Errantry Just Doesn't Last

A therapeutic journey into a mix of jazz, classical, and a blend of types of electronica.  And a wry, gradual observation that promotion tends to only go as far as you push it.  At least I make my fellow musicians laugh a little.

New tracks tagged #improvisational