Daydream

Untethered ideas and notions

In my career, I have gone through periods where I am more active at night as well as the morning.  Like most musicians I tended to rehearse in the morning and perform at night, but my preference for creative work has varied at different times of my life.  When I was recording this album, I was getting up very early in the morning, around five-ish, and recording before breakfast between six and eight.  As you might expect, some mornings I was more alert than others, and there were mornings in which I bordered on semi-consciousness.  My music often tends toward dreamy anyway, and much of this album meets those standards rather lavishly.

Music in general, both serious and commercial, seems to have grown increasingly physical in my lifetime.  It may be just a consequence of marketing, but music which is not physical seems to have become limited to very specific functions – ambient, meditative, or just relaxing.  But classical music has always explored both the physical and non-physical with equal enthusiasm, and my music follows suit.

Music becomes physical when tethered to a strong beat, and most music these days has that in spades.  I made a decision to go “off the rails” rhythmically a long time ago, and have been exploring the untethered and more subtle emotive notions and glances ever since.  Music that is ungrounded tends to feel as if it is floating, and floating easily transitions to  dreamy.  So does not having enough coffee, and the two complement each other in this effort.

Though many dreams turn dark these days, I try to keep this album more on the pleasant side.  There is a not-so-subtle allusion to a witch-less Wizard of Oz, and I make an effort to keep the music over the rainbow and under the radar.  I have a soft spot for fantasy and enjoy the escape.  But escapism is just that.  It is a wonderful and imaginative place to visit just so long as you don’t end up staying there.