Planet Spin

Echo Flute was written for the Empyrean Ensemble with Tod Brody on flute. This recording is from the premiere at UC Davis on February 12, 2023.

Echo Flute is an instruction: echo the flute! That simple directive encapsulates the ensemble’s role, realized in various styles, textures, and moods. There is no meter, no beat, and no conductor. Each musician plays in free rhythm, subtly adjusting their timing to stay just behind, and sometimes ahead of, the solo flute. The idea of staying loosely tethered to a leader was influenced by the unmetered textures of pathetan in traditional Javanese gamelan. The beautiful resonance of the UC Davis Pitzer Center concert hall was the inspiration for the initial concept of quiet echoes.

Echo Flute is composed for solo flute with open instrumentation. Musicians make decisions regarding register, timbre, and timing. Echo Flute was composed on request from the Empyrean Ensemble. Thanks to Sam Nichols and the musicians for making this project possible.

Echo Flute

Fantasy for Piano, F-sharp minor
Like in the case of my previous ballade, the main theme is one of my oldest one, written on a guitar almost two decades ago, in a secluded house, when I took guitar lessons with my friends under a guise of a senior, eccentric professor who was probably semi-drunk every single lesson.
It came almost seamlessly and it never left my mind, and finally it found a satisfactory growth and expression in a piano composition.
Paul Anthony Romero made spontaneously numerous improvisations on it (He received it with a bunch of other musical themes), and a lot of those variations ended here as a homage to him, as this work is dedicated to him.
Initially the theme was planned as an initial statement in a nocturne I was writing, preceding the main theme, but after Paul's suggestion I separated the two distinct themes and decided it was best to let them grow separately.
The fact that I developed one of my oldest melodies with a superb composer and pianist, and a musical inspiration since high-school, makes me beyond blessed and happy.
The watercolour artwork, like in all other released compositions, is done by Vanja Kalemba.

Fantasy for Piano, F-sharp Minor

Enregistrée à Saint-Lô (Normandie-France) le 17/08/2023
New Release le 30/10/2023
New release le 20/03/2024

Water Flows (Creation)

The main theme is another one from my distant teenage years, written on a small keyboard as a flute tune. 
My friend like it, so we fooled around with it and even recorded a song called ''Field of Dew'', as a satine of folkish/radio friendly love songs popular in Dalmatia, that alone probably influenced me to use the theme for a romance-like composition.
Sentiment and content wise, it is very personal, filled with melodies reminiscing all of turmoil one can experience in love, from happy moments like the first glance in the shared with one another in a crowd during a Metallica cover band concert, strolling through the sun bathed forest of Gorski Kotar, and many more, both happy and unhappy. 
This piece is dedicated to Vanja Kalemba, the mother of my son and also the author of many paintings I use as a art cover of my compositions.

Romance For Piano, B-flat Lydian

I'm fairly proud of the two main theme of this piece, they have grace and a simplicity that makes it very malleable and expressive. That is, I hope, well displayed through modulation I employed (G-B-D) and frequent switching from major to minor. 
I particularly liked the final bit of the exposition where I reversed the main theme, played it descending instead of ascending, which added a layer of macabre/discord displayed and emphasized through chromaticism and dissonance.
There is still a middle part mising that I may add in the coming days, (although that would transform the form of the piece, so an impromptu might not be the correct title, but we'll see).

Impromptu For Piano, G Major

Drift

This track features vibraphone and singing bowls, along with other instruments in my "Etherium" studio.  It is a contender for inclusion in the upcoming album represented by the icon attached (initial release planned for "herbleff.bandcamp.com").

Ethereality #11/09 - 1852 (Pure Etherium)

For flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello. Performed by the Empyrean Ensemble on May 20, 2018.

This piece is about "aural gazing", a short listen to a sonic object that twists and turns and rearranges itself. The music is self-propelled but without any intended direction. It's wandering music for lost souls.

All in a Gaze

String Trio: Violin, Viola, Bass
Luminous Harmony (2019) is a world of soft sounds and suspended chords. I wanted to create a musical world that forever stays soft and slow but always changes size, shape, and color.

I wrote this piece for my wife Emily. It was played during our wedding ceremony by three good friends, Chris Castro, Kurt Rohde, and Elliot Cless.

Luminous Harmony

Piet's Keys is a solo piano work inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian. Mondrian's paintings, with their intensely unadorned spaces, helped me capture a musical austerity I've long searched for. In the piece, I articulate only slow movements and simple musical shapes, peering into similarly unadorned sound spaces that slowly breathe and settle. I use a minimal palette of harmonies, à la Mondrian's limited color and shape palette. The occasional wobbling of notes, a kind of glacial tremolando, most often in thirds in the right hand, is a subtle nod to boogie-woogie, Mondrian's favorite music.

During this pandemic I found some relief in writing and playing this piece at home, peering through these quiet windows of sound for a simpler world. I hope this informal recording of me playing on my out of tune piano reflects some of that spirit.

Piet's Keys

[NOTICE: I am now ALSO posting new albums to "herbleff.bandcamp.com"--available there for free adless casual listening and also downloadable.]
 Retired Psych prof w/ specialties in creativity, psych of art, and environmental/utopian psych; strong interest in percussion improvisation most of my life.  Now making electro-acoustic music almost full-time.  [Note on instrumentation and recording:  I have three sonically connected music studios:   (1) a basement area with acoustic and electronic drums,  marimba, synthesizers,  chimes + sundry odd percussion, and several gongs; (2) a room filled with a wide range of musical bowls (singing and otherwise), hanging chimes and gongs,  large metal drum,  tuned pipes, electronic percussion, and vibraphone + crotales set; (3) an electronic "finishing studio" with all sorts of synthesizers, my master mixer, effects devices,  a cd recorder, and two music computers.  I use several portable digital recorders (with both internal and external mics) for all acoustic recording and to sonically interconnect the three studios.  All of my recordings are built from "live" sessions with effects mostly integrated into the playing process.  I generally record a dozen or more finished cd tracks per week and periodically select some of my favorites for internet uploading.   My main goal in this is to enjoy life, grow musically, and share what I create with anyone who cares to listen.  [Update note, summer 2023:  I have recently added a pair of digital pianos that are promising to transform my  musical life.  Stay tuned, both here and on my Bandcamp site.].

Ethereality #11/09 - 1852 (Pure Etherium)

Herb L

Related tracks