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The Making of.. "Sound Paintings"
This is my most personal music. As I sit down at the piano I have no preconceived notions as to what exactly I am going to play. I let the feeling of the moment guide my hands over the keyboard. It's as if I'm along for the ride.
Over time I have learned to surrender more fully to this "quantum consciousness*" approach to playing..."Sound Paintings" is the first in a series of albums featuring this unique style of instantaneous composition. *(also know as "stream of consciousness")
When I first started playing the piano this way, the result was less than soothing! It was more like a moment of piano bliss followed by a moment of confusion then bliss again. The moments of bliss are what kept me going. I knew I was on to something because I kept surprising myself with musical moments that seemed as if someone other than myself was actually playing...Which of course means I/ego was the one stumbling and confused trying to pigeonhole the musical bliss.
The major breakthrough occurred when I came to understand that instead of left-brain "organization," I needed left-brain "foundation" or what I came to refer to as "flow." This is one of the major secrets of this style of music.
"Flow" is the glue which connects the moments of bliss into one continuous musical form. I learned to achieve greater flow as I allowed myself to simply "let go." Big surprise! The same process of "surrendering to the moment" was also the recipe for greater "flow." Should I say I'm just learning how to get out of my own way?
"Sound Paintings" is a collection of live studio recordings of solo piano. All quantum consciousness compositions, created in the very moment they were being recorded. I chose to include a variety of styles rather than present an album with one particular mood. Flight of the Eagle is a quantum consciousness composition with the addition of the Yamaha WX5 wind synthesizer and keyboard strings. I thought it would help to round-out the solo piano offerings.
My greatest joy is performing quantum consciousness piano in front of an audience. It's like an adventure we take together. Our live concerts have now evolved into "multi-timberal" musical events we call "The Martian Experience." We literally bring the recording studio to the concert venue! With a high resolution sound system, my fellow performers and I perform and combine the best of quantum consciousness piano plus the sounds and ambiance of the music of Mars. Hope to see you at our next concert.
Of Technical Interest...
I'm playing a K. Kawai RX6 grand piano in Sound Painter Recording Studio's 1200 square foot acoustic recording room. This room has a 16 foot high ceiling and oak floor and a 12 foot high picture window that overlooks the Elkhorn Mountain range in beautiful southwestern Montana.
All raw tracks were recorded at 96 kHz 24 bit as a 2-mic (Sure KSM32's) stereo direct digital recording. All of the tracks in "Sound Paintings" were unedited live performances except for "intro" fade-ins and "end" fade outs.
If you have any other questions about the making of "Sound Paintings" please feel free to email me at: bobbaran@gatheringwave.com
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