Falling Awake

The project was first envisioned in 1976- so long ago that it would have been released on vinyl.

As a classically trained pianist working in experimental and electronic music I wanted to return to the piano and record what I was hearing harmonically. And, while influenced then (as now) by the tonally based minimalism of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and others, I was more drawn to write music on the boundaries between tonality and atonality.

Given that, I’m surprised by the the sonority of these 16 pieces, which seems to be a far distant cousin of the terrain I was exploring back then. I have made these selections from recordings of over 100 sessions at the keyboard, sessions in which nothing was pre-planned. I had intended to include some multi-tracked piano compositions that I’d long been laboring over, but the cellist Anne Bourne happened to be visiting and suggested, “You’ve got two different albums here.” This gave me permission to let go of composing for this disc- and “play the moment.”