Buy / Stream the whole EP here: https://tinyleaves.bandcamp.com/album/view-from-here

Following on from The Sweetness of the Morning, which was released on Piano Day 2021, Tiny Leaves announces the launch of his new E.P. View From Here, written and recorded at his home studio over the past year. 

Tiny Leaves says “this collection of songs explores a shifting of perspective, and moving ourselves to a place of gratitude for the wonder of the natural world and its constant renewal.”

Animae is from the same EP.

Xylophone, Electric Organ & Kalimba - Joel Pike
Alto-sax - Andy Lowe
Violin - Faith Brackenbury

Mastered by Noel Summerville at 3345.
Written and produced by Joel Pike - all rights reserved.

View From Here

Animae

Animae by Tiny Leaves

This is the intro track from my debut album 'A Good Land, An Excellent Land' released last year. The piece was written as a graphic score for harmonics on Cello, Violin & Double-bass, accompanied by bowed guitar & electric bass. It was ironically the last track recorded on the album & a really special moment when all the parts were first heard together, extending beyond my expectation for the opener. If you buy the CD you also get the seamless design by which this runs directly into track two & the last track runs back into this when on looped playback. It could well be my favourite moment of the albums conception. Cover photo is by Oscar May at Union Chapel.
To buy the album go here :- http://tinyleaves.bandcamp.com/


Beginning

With the Hollow at My Feet is the debut single from Tiny Leaves forth-coming Mynd album. The music combines field recordings with minimal instrumental sounds to create a portrait of a particular valley in Shropshire's Long Mynd.

With The Hollow At My Feet

This is the title track from last years debut album, A Good Land, An Excellent Land. It was featured by Lauren Laverne on her BBC6Music show with special attention as their 'Headphones moment'. The track is made up of four sections depicting the emotions from tension, hope and desire to realisation, elation & arrival, associated with the journey from one place/stage in life to the desired destination.

A Good Land, An Excellent Land

Here is an exclusive preview of the B-side Paean from my next release REED which is available on limited 7" Vinyl for pre-order here (released mid-November): http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/tinyleavesreed
The digital version is available from 01/10/14. 
Reed cover image by Heather Polley.

Paean Preview

This is a sneak preview of a tune for a paired-single release coming later this year. Above/Below comes from several visits to a pool in the Shropshire hills ANOB, where I've been recording sounds from above and beneath the water for the past year. I took these recordings back to the studio and created music inspired by the sounds as a celebration of the incredible life that exists in these places. I'm looking forward to sharing that whole mastered version later this year with its partner track!

Above/Below Preview

A suite for effected guitar was a one-take recording which captured a very recent session composing guitar and reed organ pieces in the between spaces of finishing my next album. This track is independent of the forth coming 2nd LP.

anthem - a suite for affected guitar

This is the audio from our live improvisation filmed 17th March 2016: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXXAz_6pxfQ&feature=youtu.be . The audio has been taken from the video and improved for listening. Faith Brackenbury plays Violin and Joel Pike plays Guitar and Piano. It is completely improvised and live in one take with no rehearsal beforehand. It's also called "If We Play -variation" as it shares the same key and a small theme from that track appears somewhere in the improv. If We Play is a track from the forth coming 3rd album from Tiny Leaves. Thank you for listening!

If We Play - variation  [live improv]

This track begun and ended in one evening in the studio on May 2nd, it may well develop into something bigger and better recorded with accompaniment as it's just a sketch. I posted it up here at this stage to capture an honest moment in the writing process and a refreshing aside to the wonderfully intense work I/we are doing on my third album. The title, image and repetition in the piece explores the idea of thinking about someone who means or did mean a great deal to you as the resurgence of emotions or memories ebb and flow which also is why the cover image isn't quite at clarity. The track features guitar and reed pedal organ, played live in one take. 
Thank you for listening xx

Thoughts Of You

This track was inspired by a rare christmas carol whose wave-like melody made such an impression on me ("A Spotless Rose" by Tavener) and gave flight to the core melody played on violin.  The track has an energy which builds and returns to a favourite guitar-scape sound,which becomes the 'found' person or place in the track, with the violin melody playing the 'longing for' sound, which recurs in the background at the end.
Joel Pike - Piano, Guitar, Glockenspiel
Faith Brackenbury - Violin, Viola

Found Song

This track was created as a homage to Piano Day 2017 and was recorded on the day storm Doris hit the UK. I wanted to write a track that felt affirming in the midst of a turbulent beginning to the year. The track was recorded during the later hours of the day when the storm was receding but a drop or two of rain can still be heard. It's available to download across digital platforms from 24.03.17 xx

You'll Be Okay

OFFICIAL VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWMbeySRIXg

This is the fourth and final track from my new album Notes On Belonging coming out on 27th October 2017! This track is the place where I find space and meaning in the form of repetition of three notes. It explores the notion of belonging to a place, physically and spiritually, and a sense of journeying to a place called home. It's both tinged with joy and a sense of longing, of nearly being there but not quite yet. The track explores a sort of counterpoint, where instruments go in and out of phase to emphasise this nearness of things. They delicately tow the line of independent improvisation to colliding in pattern, most noticeable at the end of the track. I wanted to explore themes of indiviuality and freedom in the piece with the hope that inevitably we'd join forces at times.  Buy the CD version of this album here: http://tinyleaves.bandcamp.com/album/notes-on-belonging-2
Joel Pike - Piano, Guitar, Glockenspiel
Faith Brackenbury - Violin

Notes On Belonging

Cynefin

This track is being released as a homage to Nils Frahm (and friends) PianoDay 2018 (available on other digital platforms here radi.al/Unless ):

“Unless someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better,
it’s not.” The Lorax, Dr Seuss

This piece was inspired by our beautiful yet fragile planet and the wisdom of the Lorax. “Unless” speaks of the realisation and the moment of turning.

Credits:

Written, produced and engineered by Joel Pike - Tiny Leaves
Mastered by Stavros Kokkinos 

Piano, Guitar and Xylophone - Joel Pike

Artwork - “Craning Crane” by TB Ward
http://www.tbward.com

Unless

First track of my debut release 'InTheseNarrowSpaces' available FREE on my bandcamp :-
http://tinyleaves.bandcamp.com/

1 Movement I

The bookend to 'Get Yourself Up On A High Mountain' EP it was unintentionally recorded/captured during an afternoon waiting for somebody to arrive. 

An End

A sample of some reverse piano experimentation whilst writing another track. I decided to record this as a one off, not to be re-written or released, I quite liked the atmosphere that builded in its looping & delay.

Reverse Piano

A studio sketch of some sequential looping and delays on the Tele.. This track was written with the desire to give space for the listener to dream during the business of the day. 

a moment to dream

The music here is about the heights and depths involved in laying bare one's soul before the Creator.

Song of Ascent

Official Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmYA8oHH7fo&feature=youtu.be

Credits.
Artwork: 'The Daffodil' by TB Ward 2018 |The fullness of things was written and produced by Joel Pike. Electric organ, xylophone, piano and zither - Joel Pike | Violin and viola - Faith Brackenbury | Recorded at The Shedio, Shropshire | Mastered by Stavros Kokkinos.

Story. 
My father-in-law called me up this past winter to say he'd seen an unwanted electric organ balanced on top of a car in mechanic's garage. We wrestled it into the back of a van and brought it home where it began to do some pretty strange things. When I first turned it on, it poured out smoke and then it played a tune after being turned off and unplugged! My good friend and sound engineer James Welch was up in Shropshire doing some live recording around this time and popped over to have a play on the said Yamaha Electone Organ. After experimenting with different settings, James found the arpeggiator, which I loved the sound of. I got to work, recording the gorgeous analogue sounds of the electric organ a few days later and began working on the accompaniment. The track started to really flow and at this point I called on Faith Brackenbury to record string parts for the track, I’d written. During this time, I was also producing and recording an album for TB Ward called ‘Lamblion’ (out later this year). Around this time, he showed me his wire paintings, one of which featured on the cover of my latest single Unless. As we were working together, I wanted to show the creative processes that Tim used to create his art work on location at his rural studio. It felt that we were both creating work in response to the sudden onset of spring and filmed him in his studio creating the piece called ‘The Daffodil’, which now features as the cover of this release. I felt there was a accidental synergy between the footage of TB Ward's creative process and the audio.  The video tells, in part, the story of the inspiration for the music - the fullness and abundance of spring that suddenly arrives, like that moment the idea for a new piece bursts forth out of nowhere.

The fullness of things

The title track from my debut self-released in 2012. The track is a biographical piece about the small pockets of time and space in which we (wife & I) had to pursue our creative dreams.  Also with the small moments of hope, progression and fulfilment in this, often writing or composing in the corner of a bedroom in the small hours. Now we have children this has become even smaller and yet we find we do more writing than ever before.  

In These Narrow Spaces

In These Narrow Spaces (Part I & II)

Perhaps the first track written as Tiny Leaves a while back. I rediscovered it and felt it deserved a small edit before putting it out there on a 3 track release. The recording is nice and amateur, with charming laptop fan noises, pedal clunks, and pacing between instruments, all as much a part of it as the music itself. 

Untitled #1

Tiny Leaves - Notes on Belonging was released in 2017 and has now been reworked by a host of artists. The album, an exploration of landscapes was inspired by the Welsh term 'Cynefin'. When translated it means the environment in which you live, to which you are naturally acclimatised.
The beautiful vocals and talents of Julianna Barwick rework 'Cynefin'. An uplifting melancholia results alongside crafted sounds that envelop and delve deep into the soul, setting the tone as the first single of the highly anticipated Notes on Belonging rework album.
Other artists on the forthcoming rework album include Haiku Salut, Oscuro, Billion One and Ink Project

Cynefin - Julianna Barwick rework

We made a video for this track here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Uoe8tfsbI
While working on my new album, I began to try to write a track which encapsulated in its sound the feeling of something new and being full of hope with #pianoday approaching. Around the same time I discovered this beautiful old word in a twitter feed from Susie Dent, and it was perfect for the emotion in this track being created. 'Respair' means fresh hope and a recovery from despair.  The Piano is very much celebrated in this piece by it's background role as a continuous, percussive-like sound, providing a platform for the other instruments to dance upon. I also wanted to use the Piano to somehow gently lead the piece through its chord changes, establishing the mood, as an ode to the way I like to work with piano in my music. 

Credits:
Artwork - Pure Romance by TB Ward (2017 oil on linen)
Piano, electric organ, xylophone - Joel Pike
Violin, Viola - Faith Brackenbury
Written, recorded and produced by Joel Pike.
Mastered by Stavros Kokkinos.

Respair

You can buy this as a A/B side single from my bandcamp here: https://tinyleaves.bandcamp.com/album/breathe
Thanks for listening xx
"Also featured on futuresequence's sequence 5, this is an outro from a track on my debut album "A Good Land, An Excellent Land". It is different from this so this take & thus has tiny first-take nuances that make it unique. It can be heard on the album as the outro on track 4 = Wait/Weight."

Breathe

An Improvised Piano piece for Christmas. Recorded on a simple mic, it peaks all over the place but as it was an improv, this is the only take! Delayed/looping Guitars are also from a sketch...Somebody told me this track was like a thick glass of red wine..?! The title is refers to the King.

Arrival

Some studies/sketches in Eb that were meant for to accompany a Piano piece but turned out they were slightly flat of Eb so I've used them to create a rather long soundscape. May I suggest that this is best heard in Headphones!

For the healing, a study in Eb.

I made a little video about how I made this piece and it's story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RfIRPWCpCQ&t=72s 
I begun to write this track for last year's Pianoday amongst other album tracks. I was inspired by prepared piano composers and used recordings of the strings of the piano being strummed with the keys taped down to allow them to resonate. I didn't complete it till later on in the year and felt it belonged on the album alongside other tracks that we're being written sequentially at the same time ( https://orcd.co/alone-not-alone-album ) so I'm thrilled to now see it come home and contribute to Piano Day 2020!

In the track delicate beginnings give way to an overwhelming sense of wistfulness, surrounded by the sirens of compassion.  A reflection on the challenges of departure and the need for independence and, in the end, solitude and the possibilities therein. The piano strings we're close mic'd and gently strummed for the intro and background soundscape. Later on they we're hit with the handle of a glockenspiel beater to make the stronger sound for the middle section. The piano melody is joined by bow'd xylophone and string glissando's and melodies to create an atmospheric track that speaks of the tensions of solitude and togetherness, inspired by a visit to Crozon in France and our country's own challenges of leaving the EU and the tensions therein.

The Near Isle

Dear fellow SoundClouder, if you haven't heard this yet, it is the third track from my EP " What We Dream Of " - released by Future Sequence last October. Its an epic fusing of a piano riff with many layers of swelling guitar-scapes. The track was featured on Austin Texas' FadeToYellow alongside GY!BE & is the EP's longest epic amongst four tracks and two remixes. MessageToBears & Zvuku remixed a track each to stunning effect, a video was shot for "In The End -part iv" and it can all be bought just for £4 at http://tinyleaves.bandcamp.com/  Please Enjoy! 

Lightly

As featured on Futuresequences "sequence 6" compilation, this is a track based around a small section of piano looped, accompanied by a bow'd glockenspiel & delayed guitar. It explores the story of Christ's ascension. Its free to download here: http://futuresequence.bandcamp.com/track/ascension

Ascension

Happy Piano Day 2021 people! A new quiet filled the air last spring as nature had the chance to become loud again through lockdown. Instead of the sound of traffic, I noticed the chorus of life in the garden: the abundance of bees, birdsong and new blooms. I wanted to respond to this in music, with sounds equally as hopeful, light and delicate as the unfolding of life in spring. I hope it brings some joy :-)

Piano, Glockenspiel & Violin Pizz - Joel Pike
Saxophone - Andy Lowe

Mastered by Noel Summerville at 3345.
Written and produced by Joel Pike - all rights reserved.

The Sweetness of the Morning

The Sweetness Of The Morning

Tiny Leaves is the music of Joel Nathaniel Pike. He has developed his sound as a solo artist alongside years of writing and performing in bands. He describes his music as being rooted in narrative, but is often surprised at the undefinable end result. His music has a delicate, cinematic quality that brings a quiet hope.

TINY LEAVES

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