I’ve received such incredible support for All You Know since its release.  So many wonderful people have been kind enough to tell me how the gentle melodies and relaxed attitude have affected them, and  I couldn’t be more grateful.

So now, I am releasing “All You Know – the 8-Bit Remix” for an audience who is hip to today’s sounds in 1980s video game music.  Here is just a sampling of what you’ll hear:

Mario himself will jump for joy at the NEW sound of “Into My Own”

And YOU won’t have to worry about giant monkeys, flaming barrels or (eek!) Ghosts when you’re listening to the pixelated goodness of “For The Rest Of My Life”

Be sure to pre-order YOUR copy by sending check or money order to: 123 April Fools Lane, DigDug, USA (Sorry, tokens not accepted.)

Photo Credit: Howard Nelson/pilgrimstorome.org

When I finished score for “Finding Home” (more on that later!) I naively thought I would be able to record a variety of other projects with all that extra time I would have.

Well, it turns out that raising Isla, taking American Sign Language lessons, and a (thankfully) busy day job pretty much have dibs on any remaining free time. I’m not complaining, of course, but it does mean that I need to work smarter on other music projects.

For example, the piece I’m posting today is only 1:48m in length, but I carefully worked on the piano part to get the delay effect just right, I agonized over whether I really like the contrabass at the :15 mark (still not sure.)  Long story short, it took a week to do this “quick little piece.” Admittedly, I did it for fun, in between my other activities, but I still need to work on streamlining my process.

OK, enough of that!  I call this one “Palimpsest,” which refers to a surface, such as a manuscript page, or even a wall that has been scraped off and used again. Yep, that’s what I named it.

Other than the occasional home concert for Wifey and Isla, It’s been a while since I played in front of a real live, polite Midwestern audience. Well, I’m excited to announce that I will be performing my original piano compositions in St. Paul, MN on Friday, March 30 along with pianists, David Nevue and Steven C Anderson. The concert starts at 7:30 pm.

David is the talented composer and founder of Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, an online radio station I am proud to be a part of. If you enjoy solo piano, do yourself a favor and check it out!

The concert will be on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Seating is limited, so please RSVP to steven@stevencmusic.com to reserve your seats and get directions to the home. The suggested donation is $10/person at the door.

I’m really looking forward to this, and I would love to see you there! For more information, visit the Events page at the Whisperings website, or drop me a line.

Unfortunately, Indie & Bear will not be in attendance.

I occasionally like to sit down at our upright piano and just start recording. If I ignore the recorder, I can usually relax and just play whatever comes to mind. Sometimes (but not always,) I even feel like it’s worth posting here. Here is a little thing I recorded this morning. Nothing fancy, just me at the piano while Bear naps next to me.

I really should be Christmas shopping.

Isla & Bear

Bear Hugs

As a result, most of my posts involve original music I’ve created for various clients, or just for fun.  This piece is one of the latter.  I’ve been switching over my recording software from Digital Performer to Apple’s Logic Pro, so I put together this simple piece of music entitled “Clockmaker” as a way of trying out the software.  My goal was to complete it in four hours, but it ended up taking twice as long. Oh well.

I’d love to hear what you think.

Kelle Hampton is an incredibly talented writer and photographer and I highly recommend you check out her website as soon and as often as possible.

I’m doing a CD giveaway there, so you can read her blog post for more information.

Good Luck!

You thought I was kidding about the Family Room?

I’ve written about this before, but excellent blogs including Final Girl and Kindertrauma have helped to bring back some great memories…memories of watching TV; kinda sad now that I think about it.

I also remember seeing the commercial for 1979′s Phantasm.  I didn’t see the film until years later, but just watching the trailer freaked me out. (What’s that flying silver ball with the spikes? Who’s the creepy old tall dude?? Holy crap, that kid is supposed to be safe in bed, but these jawa-looking things start attacking him!!) OK, it looks kinda tame now, but hey, I was 8!

(Man, film trailers back then mentioned the film title A LOT)

Since it’s almost Halloween, I put together a piece of music reminiscent of the scary film music at the time.  Specifically, I was thinking of the minimal scores John Carpenter wrote for most of his own movies. A lot of the films were done on a tight budget, so the themes often used synthesizers rather than full orchestras. I don’t currently have a full orchestra hanging around my studio, so please enjoy the synthy goodness!

I’m proud to announce that I have been chosen to be an artist featured on Whisperings Solo Piano Radio.  What am I talking about?  Well, Whisperings Solo Piano Radio was founded in 2003 by a very talented pianist and composer named David Nevue.  Realizing that while many people love to listen to solo piano music, there was no real opportunity to hear it on the radio.  So, David went and started his own radio station…on the Internet!

Several of the tracks from my CD, All You Know can be heard there, as well as solo piano music from many other talented artists.  I guarantee you’re going to hear something you like, and when you do, send an email to let the artist know. We love that kind of thing.

So, if you enjoy solo piano music (and trust me, you do) I invite you to stop whatever you’re doing as long as it doesn’t involve heavy machinery and/or child care and go to www.solopianoradio.com to learn more. Thanks for listening!

This is a silent 8mm film called “Indiana Corey,” and it is just over 4 minutes long.  As you may guess, it is an homage to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”  As a result, it was pretty obvious to me that the score needed to have a fun, swashbuckling feel to mirror the action on the screen.  I like the way it turned out and I hope you enjoy it too.  Be sure to stick around for the music over the end credits, because I seriously slapped that together in about 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Lately, I’ve been reading up on the history of electronic music.  More specifically, I’ve been learning a lot more about synthesizers and rhythm machines of the 1970s & 1980s.  Since I grew up playing a LOT of classical piano, I largely ignored these synths and drum machines the first time around. Admittedly, some of the music from the era sounds a bit dated, but at the time it was something very new.  (I would be a bad li’l blogger if I didn’t give a tip of the hat to the amazing synth-oriented blog at Matrixsynth. They have really helped me get all learned up goodly.)

I now have a greater appreciation of the experimentation going on at the time.  As a result, I’m playing around with a lot of the sounds and will be posting some new stuff soon.  

I can only hope it won’t all sound like this:

I’m also trying to figure out a way to purchase THIS thing and sneak it into the house without waking the baby and/or ending the marriage.  I’m sure it’ll be fine.

photo courtesy of Matrixsynth