After the Storm (2020) – Albums
Tracklist:
01 – First Step
02 – Holding On, Letting Go
03 – Whale
04 – Sparkle
05 – After the Storm
After the Storm is an EP featuring five compositions for electric guitar in ambient style.
The EP opens up with “First Step”, a composition dedicated to a child, celebrating a miracle of the new life and beginning of a journey. This piece was written separately from the other four and stands on its own.
The next four compositions form somewhat of a cycle, all were composed in the summer of 2017 in a short period of less than a month during a particularly difficult phase of my life, dealing with a loss, so each has a very personal meaning for me.
Originally these were entitled “Ambient Sketches”, because they were basically improvisations, each written and recorded in a few hours. Normally I take time to finish my music but here I’ve decided to abandon perfectionism and focus on capturing the fleeting moment and expressing what I felt and what I was thinking about as I was improvising. I was inspired to take on this approach reflecting on Japanese aesthetics “wabi-sabi” which centers around acceptance of transience and imperfection.
“Holding On, Letting Go” is a piece about dealing with a loss, when one is not willing to leave but ultimately not being able to hold on.
“Whale” is inspired by images of cetacean stranding and the thoughts they provoked.
“Sparkle” is about the one brightest star that shows you the path, it’s about longing for unreachable.
“After the Storm” is about the moment of tranquility and silence that comes after pain and suffering, calm and peaceful like the ocean after the storm.
After recording these compositions I did not change or add anything, leaving them to be what they were at the moment of creating, beautiful in their raw imperfection, transient flashbacks, memories from the past.