I’m going to give a better glance into the history of my debut EP through the working and public titles.
There is a part one, which you can read here.
Next up, Push and Pull — the piece most loaded with non-musical ideas. You could say that the album actually started with this one: before I managed to draft the first version of it, I’ve been trying all kinds of genres chaotically and wasn’t getting anywhere.
Working title — Frahm
Finally, a half-forgotten music school and piano lessons resurfaced and brought me to the realm of my favorite Nils Frahm. His music made me realize the unimportance of complexity and rigid structures.
It turned out that music can both enchant you and give you some headspace; that you can express complex ideas with basic melodies.
My significant other came up with a perfect name for this kind of art: reflective minimalism. I want to capture this reflexiveness and to wrap it in my music whatever style I might be trying out.
Frahm’s Frahmness
Push and Pull is frahm-ish in many ways, starting with a tonal ambiguity: it’s a dish of two harmonic centers with a spice of different minor modes.
Another frahm-ish detail is the proportion of electric and acoustic sounds. It’s an old trick that never fails to impress me in other people’s music. Naturally, I wanted to try it out.
Before releasing anything, I show all of my pieces to one piano virtuoso, and when I let him listen to the final version of Push and Pull, he was sure I subconsciously borrowed something from Nils Frahm. Together we scoured through his discography and reached the conclusion that my virtuoso just remembered the early draft of Push and Pull instead.
If that’s not flattering, I don’t know what is.
The poetry of Push and Pull
The title of Push and Pull is proudly stolen from Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the relation of the Moon and the Ocean is described this way.
The description really stuck with me, and I carried it through many years, so finally getting to use it somewhere gave me a huge inspiration kick.
The melodies are like waves – reaching out to you, retreating, reaching out again. There are no sudden jumps, everything is smooth, gentle, repeating and flexible.
The shining pad starting in the middle of the piece serves as a reflection of the Moon on oceanic waves: the light only reaches the surface but captures all attention.
Finally, the electric sound in the end. It doesn’t abide by the rules of the waves. It’s sharp, jumpy, standing out on the oceanic background. This is the chaotic life energy from which all life emerged once; it’s an invisible unknown, which we try to transform into something familiar to be able to grasp.
The attempt to reflect something so fundamental in my music is extremely ambitious, but I glad I tried.
Push and Pull was also the first piece I managed to translate into a solo piano version to feel like a proper musician.
Don’t forget to read the last chapter of Linear EP release notes!