new mini-album, Delusions End, out now

Links to stream/download Delusions End

Click here for a Spotify playlist of pieces that influenced the album.

I wrote Delusions End over the course of about 2 weeks in autumn 2020. At the time a couple of my most valued friendships were falling apart and there was a sense that the world seemed on the brink of breakdown. At the time I really wanted to write something optimistic — I really wanted to feel optimistic — but it was never convincing. My writers block only ended when I abandoned optimism, at which point the album appeared almost by itself. In December I realised the titles I had chosen for each track were wrong, too positive, so I rewrote them. Shortly afterwards I decided not to release it at all but was later persuaded to change my mind.

Several months later I still don’t really know how to talk about it. Many of the typical clichés of felted piano albums are there but upended, turned on their head. At times it’s fragmentary, dissonant, sometimes messy. Motifs are established then abandoned without warning, chord progressions are disrupted, dissonances abruptly penetrate. My record label memorably described it to me as “almost sinister” and they’re not wrong. Even when it’s calm there’s a sense that the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. Weirdly, I kinda like it.

Thanks to Anna Salzmann for artwork, Wil Bolton for mastering and 1631 Recordings for releasing.