So, last time I blogged about my new album and wasn’t sure what it would be called… well I’ve decided to re-use the title from an album I was going to release a few years ago (but didn’t, for various quality reasons) and so my new album is going to be called Interludes and Epiphanies.
The previous album of that name was due to be released about the same time as In Dreams was however the quality of the orchestral samples I used wasn’t good enough, in my opinion, to let the music see the light of day – some of the solo piano tracks made it onto Pianoforte and a couple of others have made their way onto SoundCloud but because I’m usually looking forward and seldom looking back I have never revisited them (and probably never will).
It’s not just laziness that prompted me to use a previous name – it also fits really well with the style of the music on the new album!
So there you go! There a provisional track listing too, if you’re interested… all in all about 55 minutes of music.
On The Piano Cloud (a piano duet with myself!)
Unrest
Goodnight Kiss
Adversity
Awakening
Progression
Snowfall
The Daily Grind
Chromatic Sadness
Meanderings in F Minor
Turmoil
In Limbo
Highs And Lows
Bliss
Celebration
Many of those can be heard right now over on my SoundCloud page if you’re interested.
Apologies for the looooong delay between blog posts… I’m useless and I hang my head in shame.
However, here’s some good news…
There will be a Purple Rhapsody album coming soon but not the one I was talking about most recently – I’ve decided to compile a solo piano album first; a sequel to Pianoforte. It’s tentatively titled… wait for it… Pianoforte 2 (or maybe Piano42?). All suggestions for titles gratefully received (perhaps I should run a competition – give the winner a free copy of the album when it’s released? What do you think?)
Anyway, I would promise not to be so tardy with my next update… but who am I kidding?
Well, it’s been a looong time since I last posted an update so what have I been up to?
A large amount of time has been spent working on my day job for about 12 hours a day and thankfully that busy time has passed! Another large amount of time has been spent with my son in hospital (don’t worry – all is okay now).
Apart from that, however, there has been a bit of music going on… one of the biggest things was a meet-up of pianists from The Piano Cloud – a group on Soundcloud with a Facebook page for discussions (http://www.facebook.com/groups/486549744693031/). There’s a video online with the highlights of the day – lots of talented pianists ended up creating marvellous concoctions of pure genius followed by periods of complete cacophony so the video picks the best bits. Check it out, there are some amazing pianists there!
The Piano Cloud Meetup–8th Sept 2012
I also collaborated with Rik Frieling to re-record Lament for the Whales and have recorded a couple of other short pieces – all of which can be found on my SoundCloud page (http://soundcloud.com/purplerhapsody/tracks) and some of which are ideas for my next album – still not with a working title.
Just a short post (well, it’ll probably turn into a long waffling ramble – but hey that’s normal for me!) about a new track of mine that is now available.
It’s called Adversity and is inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic athletes that have to overcome many obstacles to get the chance to represent their country. It’s a long hard road, with no guarantees – and after committing years to training an injury at the wrong moment, or having an off day during the trials can mean that it’s all in vain.
The track itself is a solo piano piece recorded live while shooting the video – there is some post production to clean up the sound a little bit but that’s all!
Purple Rhapsody–Adversity
This is a proper formal release and is available from iTunes, Amazon (UK, US coming soon, and other countries) and wherever else digital downloads are sold!
As promised earlier in the month today is the day that I start giving away one track every week for the next 3 months.
This week’s track is Carpathia – originally inspired by the story of the ship that rescued most of the survivors of the Titanic disaster. Morbidly appropriate that this is the first track as today is exactly 100 years since the Titanic struck that fateful iceberg.
This is from my first album, Transient Emotions, and is a bit lacking in mixing and mastering expertise (as I was quite inexperienced back then) – but the music is from the same spring of inspiration so I hope you’ll enjoy it!
To celebrate the fact that Infinity Plus One is my 8th official album of released music (7 Purple Rhapsody and 1 Divine Nature) I’ve decided that for the next 3 months I’ll be giving away some free music!
(So why is it because it’s my 8th album that I’m doing this…? Well why not? I just think I’ve now got a respectable catalogue of music from which to choose…)
This means that if I give away one track each week you’ll get 13 tracks available to download gratis – and that’s what I’m going to do! I’ve come up with a shortlist of about 25 tracks – it’s really hard to decide which ones to give away so I’ll be deciding over the next couple of weeks which of those 25 will make the final list; however I know right now that the first track will be Carpathia from Transient Emotions (my very first album!) and to commemorate the fact that the RMS Carpathia was the ship that rescued over 700 passengers from the icy waters after the RMS Titanic sank I’ll be making it available on the 14th of April – the day that the Titanic hit that fateful iceberg 100 years ago causing it to sink early in the morning of the 15th.
Each week a different track will be uploaded and made available, and the previous week’s track will be taken down – the tracks will mainly be taken from my official releases but there may be a surprise or two in there as well… watch this space for details!
I hope you like the idea of music for nothing, and I also hope that you’ll take advantage of me and download everything you can (and on another note – on my Reverbnation page there are already a freely few downloadable tracks and similarly on my Soundcloud page too)!
Today, 29th February 2012, was a very special day (I say ‘was’ because as I write it’s almost 10pm) – and what was I doing for 90% of it? Yup, I was working! Working! WORKING!!!!
Oh how I’d love to give up work and be a full time musician but I’m guessing my time is probably passed – perhaps if I’d been born 20 years later I’d have had the benefit of all the wonderful tools that modern technology gives and in the creative and often misspent years of my youth I’d have had the courage to say ‘what the hell’ and go for broke.
Alas, I was not born twenty years later, and now at the ripe old age of <censored> I’m now releasing my 8th album of music.
God I sound like a grumpy old bugger, don’t I? But, to be brutally honest, I’m just glad that in the world we live in today I’ve got the luxury of being able to spend some of my time creating music and fulfilling my teenage dream of having an album of music available for people to listen to (and buy if they’re so inclined) – FOR THE 8TH TIME!
You know, I read a decent amount of Science Fiction and in any time travel story there are always the kind of discussions that start with ‘what if…?’ What if I went back and killed my Grandfather (although why on earth would you do that!)? What if I killed Hitler before the war? And so on, and on, ad nauseum. Well I sometimes do the same thing and wonder, would the music I create be any different if I’d been born later? Or if I’d not had a tempestuous and sanity-threatening first marriage would my music be as emotive? Perhaps it’s the wonderfully loving and supportive marriage I’m in now that is my inspiration! After all, who needs angst and stress (although I have got plenty of that!) to produce good music.
I guess after all this rambling what I’m actually saying is that on the day of release of Infinity Plus One I believe it to be the best album of music I’ve ever made. What makes my inspiration flow? I honestly can’t say, but whatever it is let’s hope it keeps coming because I plan to make my next album even better!
Anyway… read all about Infinity Plus One and listen to the whole albumon the Purple Rhapsody site, buy it from iTunes, Amazon, or CD Baby (other digital download retailers are available), or just ignore this long ramble!
Just a quick update to let you know that you can pre-order proper, old-fashioned, physical CDs of Infinity Plus One now from the Discography page. If you order this weekend you’ll have them by the official day of release!
Digital download will be available from the usual culprits on the 29th February.
Well I’ve been updating you every so often on the progress of Infinity… Plus One and now I have a release date for it. It will be released on Wednesday, 29th February 2012, a great date. Oh, and it’s lost it’s dots! The title has changed slightly to be Infinity Plus One with no ellipsis after ‘Infinity’. Not a major change, obviously!
The artwork has been finalised, it is similar to on my previous post but Sara, the photographer (and my lovely wife) decided she wanted to try again, and her second attempt was more fitting.
I’ve put another track from the album up on Soundcloud as well – it’s called Frictionless Echoes and you can either listen to it in the player below, or click this link.
Well, I think the mastering is now completed for Infinity… Plus One. It will all need a good listen again to make sure that it’s definitely done but I think it’s time now to let a select few hear it and get some feedback from outside my immediate family.
Assuming it’ll take about 4 weeks to get it to people and to receive feedback, I think a target release of the end of February seems like a good target (maybe even February 29th? It’s not often there’s a chance to release an album on that date!).
A provisional cover image has been put together too. I usually scour royalty-free image sites to find something suiting the image I have in my head, but this time I had no need. My wonderful wife, Sara, is an amateur photographer and so she took a photograph that matched what I wanted!
So, all in all this was a great weekend (and I even got to watch The Return Of The Jedi on BluRay, but that’s a story for a different blog)!.
Btw, I still haven’t decided what to do regarding the long track I mentioned in my last blog post… all thoughts welcome!
It’s called 
God I sound like a grumpy old bugger, don’t I? But, to be brutally honest, I’m just glad that in the world we live in today I’ve got the luxury of being able to spend some of my time creating music and fulfilling my teenage dream of having an album of music available for people to listen to (and buy if they’re so inclined) – FOR THE 8TH TIME!
