The new EP is out, which means it’s time to tell everyone how and why it was created. The best place to start is the beginning, or in this case, the title. Strangely enough, it was only devised right before the release.
From Linear to Cyclical
I wanted to find a way to connect my new EP with the previous one, which I called Linear for its basic linear composition structure. It was a promise to make something more complex in the future.
There is an entire cycle of articles about my debut EP Linear right here.
New EP — Cyclical
This time the title does not allude to the structure. I tried to reflect the mood of the four natural seasons, the natural cycle, through the grand piano and electronic atmospheres.
Not trying to jump as high as Vivaldi or Tchaikovski, obviously. Nature is my primary source of inspiration, and I’m just over-enthused with the opportunity to convert natural impressions into music and hope somebody else would become just as excited once they hear it.
The working title of the EP was Dashes, Dots, Waves. This is due to the jumpy rhythms and fluid pads of the first piece on the album:
Icicles Melting
Icicles Melting reflects what I like most about winter: the moment when it’s clear it’s coming to an end.
Together with nature, I usually enter a winter hibernation: I wouldn’t go anywhere or do anything new – just maybe finish old projects. That’s why the feeling of breaking and melting ice is so precious to me – there is finally some movement within, though invisible. It’s still winter, but the winds are changing.
The piece’s working title was Punctures because of a special technique of midi-monitoring I discovered to make writing complex parts on my overloaded laptop possible. This method results in a very sharp and playful sound, thus Punctures.
I’m planning to film a short tutorial about using this technique and publish it on my YouTube channel. I haven’t really seen anyone else doing this, though most likely I am not the first to figure it out.
Another noteworthy detail! In this track, I am my own percussion: shuffling my feet and smashing the table to bring some more rhythm to the piece.
Summer Hail: the other side of summer
Summer Hail is the second attempt at subverting widespread ideas about summer music and summer itself.
Hails are truly mostly summer events: they come to end long exhausting heat waves, forcing everybody to run back home, turn off the lights, and sit in silence. I tried to achieve a similar effect in my music (I even ran into the pouring rain to record a tiny rainy slice you can clearly hear at the end of the piece).
The piece merged organically with a sped-up movement of the queue behind the anti-virus screens in Efteling Theme Park.
Working title: Felt Less, after a piece by Nils Frahm, which was a massive inspiration.
What Next?
The EP was released on September 18, packed with all 4 seasonal tracks.
The release strategy was weird. I released 2 out of 4 tracks as singles to get them onto blogs and playlists (didn’t really work out) and to get a kick of inspiration from your reactions (worked out really well).
I’m planning to do a livestream reading your comments on my music, connect with the listeners, and then write another article on that. So please do tell me what you think of my new and old music, and share it with the world, it’s very energizing.