In the lineage of Erik Satie · Claude Debussy · Ludovico's quiet school · Federico Mompou · Harold Budd
Music made as sanctuary — turning a difficult beginning into quiet hope.
I write calming neoclassical on the piano. Mostly it's about resilience and a hard start — ordinary things, made a little more visible.
There are a handful of records — “Paradise Built by Hand”, “Ashes to Amber”, “House of Small Fires” — and they belong together.
Plays now and then, small rooms only, mostly around the UK — a hall, a back room, sometimes someone's front room. Nothing big. If you'd like to host one, get in touch.
Everything on “House of Small Fires” grows out of one thing: one image of a hard start I couldn't put down.
I wrote it at the piano, mostly late, mostly by deleting.
It isn't a message — it's company for a particular hour.
Hope it keeps you company.
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 calming neoclassical; 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.
Sanctuary is the whole subject, really — the piano just circles it.
I wrote it at the piano, mostly late, mostly by deleting.
Play it low. It was made low.
“Paradise Built by Hand” started the way these do — the idea of resilience, at an odd hour.
It is calming neoclassical, so nothing hurries — the piano is allowed to just sit in the room.
It isn't a message — it's company for a particular hour.
“Ashes to Amber” started the way these do — the sound of resilience when no one is listening, at an odd hour.
The piano found the shape before I did; I stayed out of the way.
Play it low. It was made low.
Hope it keeps you company.
No secret to how this gets made: one piano, two microphones, a room, and a lot of erasing.
Most of a session ends up deleted. What survives is the piece.
Reference points, since people ask: Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Ludovico's quiet school.