nocturnal jazz-ambient · electric piano
In the lineage of Erik Satie · Claude Debussy · Ludovico's quiet school · Federico Mompou · Harold Budd
Put it on and forget it's there. That's the idea.
“Saxophone Impressions” began with one image of the city at night I couldn't put down — a small thing I kept circling.
The electric piano does the thinking here; I only choose what to keep.
That is all it wants to be.
Anyway. Enjoy, or don't.
No secret to how this gets made: one electric piano, two microphones, a room, and a lot of erasing.
Most of a session ends up deleted. What survives is the piece.
In the lineage of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Ludovico's quiet school, if I'm honest.
There are worse things to build a body of work on than the city at night.
The electric piano found the shape before I did; I stayed out of the way.
Made small, on purpose.
Ambient work asks you to be patient in a world that isn't. That's a strange way to spend your twenties, thirties, whatever this is.
There's no roar of a crowd in nocturnal jazz-ambient; there's a person, somewhere, listening alone at midnight. I try to make it for them.
It's a quiet life. Mostly I'm grateful for it.
The urban night — neon on wet pavement, a Wurlitzer, the last metro home.
Officially: nocturnal jazz-ambient on electric piano. Unofficially: I found a corner of neon and never left.
There are a few records — “Saxophone Impressions” — which is more than I expected and fewer than my mother hoped.
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London — the theatre never entirely wore off.
Suggestion over statement.
