Welcome to the blog. This is more of a fun relaxed place where I can post music as we go along, including sketches, doodles and works in progress. Updated regularly. Feel free to leave me a comment, or visit me on youtube.
Brave Fantasia Resonance OST
The title is a bit of a joke – selecting all the words to do with fantasy rpg, possibly not originally English language… Including a word that had something to do with music felt like it would be good… Honestly I only remembered afterwards that Dissidia mobile game is being redone as “Final Fantasy Resonance”, but I’m happy with that reference.
Basically it’s yet Another “imaginary game soundtrack” because, look, that’s just a really nice format I enjoy for writing a set of pieces! BUT, features this time chiefly include finally getting some of the “realistic” rather than “retro” sounds out, going for expressive small ensembles up to full orchestra.
10 tracks in a variety of styles, with some recurring themes etc etc.
This is is available as an asset pack on itch, or you can just listen/watch on youtube.
..Yes I’m aware it’s been a while — I wasn’t aware quite how long — since I posted here, oops.
Final Fantasy Christmas carols!
Mostly piano, but a surprise in the last one ~ Favourite Final Fantasy tunes combine very nicely with Christmas carols it turns out.
PIANOWRIMO 2025 begins
Day 1!
Slightly madly, this is the… 241st(!?!) pianowrimo piece I’ve made so far. Keep up with this year on the YouTube playlist!
Time and Season (2HAC “Life” song)
This year, some of the things I want to be working on are:
- singing
- songwriting (including lyrics, oof)
- chin-ups (I’m up to 5-6 in a row now, from 0 last summer)
As for the other two, earlier this month I took part in another 2-hour album challenge, on the theme of “LIFE” ….
I very often use and collage old poems and texts for my songs — this one (and I did work on the words outside of the 2 hours) ended up getting a bit more original work and not entirely quotation, which is nice, maybe. LIFE was a broad theme, obviously, but a couple of poems I had sitting around for years immediately sprung to mind, so you’ll hear a bit of Ada Cambridge and RL Stevenson in there, though not the whole of either of their theses, especially Cambridge’s. Plus something from the Psalms and — here are the final lyrics:
the moon marks the seasons
the sun knows when to set
the foxes roam the quiet streets from dusk
(and so and so and so)
get up, get dressed for work
observe the wonder of the bones of the human hand
we are mortal, infinitesimal, divine
a little lower than the angelsour island is alive with marvels
the birds sing in the branches
grown about with fragrant bushes
a winding valley where a clear stream flows
and green grass grows
and the sheep bells and the linnets chime and singhow calm the starry city but beneath
the million-fibred heart of humanity
is twisted with every grief
our comrades homeless, beaten, maimed
how can I sleep in peace
and this is life – pointless to ask
and these things happenthe moon marks the seasons…
at the best of times, in the midst of life
slips between us like a shadow
between your lips and my kiss, the motion and the act
between the past and the future
those two black infinities
where our brief life flashes a moment and goes outthe moon marks the seasons…
and wasn’t this after all the meaning of incarnation
a full life, thirty-three
work and laughter, family
headaches and haircuts, itches, homesickness
drinking with friends, meetings and partings and prayers
when I think –
walking to the site of execution
when I consider
the bones of your hands irretrievably smashed
I cannot fathom:
these things happenedsunrise on the shore
tend the fire, warm your hands
the one who lived and died and lives again
cooking breakfast for his friends
Tell O Shepherds at the Sing Clifton Christmas Concert
Concert day yesterday! I wrote the music for Tell O Shepherds a few years back, inspired by carol singing basically. I wanted something that just felt like one of the traditional carols, four-part, with a nice sop descant in the last verse. There’s a little bit of a nod to ‘Infant Holy Infant Lowly’ with the rising sequence, and think the words might even be related/from the same source originally.
You can get the sheet music for Tell O Shepherds here.
PIANOWRIMO 2023: Day 8 already
Unbelievably, already a week in ….
You can follow along the whole playlist for this year here.
And here’s today’s, which is, well, Nyman/Einaudi-adjacent (that’s all I’ll claim, since it was composed nice and speedily!) I’m surprised I haven’t used ‘Restless’ as a title for a piece before; I guess I’ve used it now.
PIANOWRIMO 2023
Day 1:
A cute one, like for those dog videos with cute piano music:)
Follow along on youtube, bandcamp and sheet music will follow after the end of the month.
Getting ready for Pianowrimo 2023
November is nearly upon us which means it’s time for PIANOWRIMO, for, incredibly, the seventh year.
Check out the project page for links to all the previous years, and here’s a video I made showing the development of one of last year’s piano pieces into a track from the FORTUNATA album:
2HAC: Thirteen
A piano and viola piece I wrote for the 2 Hour Album Challenge. The theme was “Thirteen”, which I took very unoriginally as 13/8, and ended up approaching it quite like a pianowrimo piece, and then (after the 2 hours!) wrote it up.
Whole album: here.