While I once thought my first album, Seas of Sorrow, would be my sole musical endeavour, life has a way of steering us toward unexpected paths. Creativity, much like emotion, cannot always be contained.
Presented here for your enjoyment are seven new songs - each a reflection of memory, imagination, and the profound interplay between the past and the future. These pieces explore themes of love and loss, humanity and technology, and the delicate threads that connect us all.
When I was a teenager, I experienced a loss that shaped my life in ways I could never have anticipated. My 14 year old girlfriend passed away after a car accident, a devastating event that left scars I still carry today.
Her memory has been a constant presence, a part of me that I cannot let go. This also means that my wife has had to share our life with that shadow for the past 40 years. It’s a burden I wish I could have spared her, and yet, through it all, she has stayed by my side.
I wrote Living With Her Ghost for my wife, as an acknowledgement of her strength, her love, and her patience. The song includes the kalimba, her favourite instrument, as a small gesture of the gratitude and admiration I hold for her.
Two Shadows, One Heart is another tribute to my wife’s extraordinary strength, patience, and love-a love that has endured through shadows both past and present. This song reflects our journey together, a bond tested by time and memory, yet unbroken.
The kalimba, her favourite instrument, weaves a delicate and steadfast thread throughout the piece. This time, it is joined by the saxophone, my favourite instrument. The two voices intertwine, echoing the way our lives have become inseparably linked. Each instrument complements the other, creating harmony out of contrast - much like we do as partners. Together, they tell the story of two shadows navigating the complexities of one shared heart.
Inspired by the vibrant rhythms of the Caribbean - a place my wife and I hold close to our hearts - this song carries a warmth and depth that speaks to both joy and sorrow.
Breathless Echoes is a deeply personal piece, born from the profound losses that have shaped my life. It reflects the pain of moments when the world seemed to stop, when life itself felt fragile and fleeting. This song is dedicated to my girlfriend, who passed away in my arms as a teenager, and to our little girl, whose sudden departure in 2022 left a silence that echoes through every corner of my being.
The song's soundscape is intentionally minimalistic, relying on soft, sustained synthesizer pads to create an atmosphere that feels both vast and intimate. It draws inspiration from the haunting tones of Gary Numan’s music, blending dark ambient synth-pop with a sense of deep emotional resonance. Without percussion, the rhythm flows gently, like a heartbeat fading into the distance, while the reverb stretches each note into eternity.
Breathless Echoes captures the intersection of memory and loss, where the past lingers like a whisper on the wind, and the present feels like a fragile tether to what remains. It’s a tribute to love, to grief, and to the echoes of those who stay with us, even when they’ve gone.
Perhaps because of the events I experienced as a teenager, I’ve always found a profound sense of solace in Gary Numan’s music. His work has a unique ability to capture both the darkness and the beauty in life, providing a space where I could process my own grief and emotions. Recently, I decided to revisit his entire catalogue, immersing myself in the journey of his music once more. This experience has sparked something within me, inspiring me to create several new pieces of my own.
In Stillness, They Fade is deeply personal - a tribute to two of the most significant losses in my life. It honours my girlfriend, who passed away 43 years ago at the age of 14, and our little girl, who left us suddenly in 2022, forever aged 11 years. Both left an indelible mark on my heart, and this piece serves as a way to keep their memories alive, expressed through music.
The song is performed entirely on a grand piano, its solitary tones chosen to reflect the raw and intimate emotions behind the piece. I drew inspiration from several sources that resonate deeply with me: the piano version of Down In The Park from Numan’s Telekon album, his hauntingly beautiful piano-only piece Photograph, and Piano in an Empty Room from the iconic Blade Runner soundtrack. These works, with their stripped-down simplicity and emotional depth, guided me in creating something similarly profound-just the soulful, unadorned sound of a grand piano, echoing with loss, love, and remembrance.
My original vision was simple, yet deeply intimate-I saw myself seated at a black grand piano in a vast, darkened room, illuminated only by a single spotlight or perhaps the soft flicker of a candle resting on the piano. Though I wasn’t able to bring this vision to life personally, Artem Furman captured its essence with remarkable sensitivity. While the pianist in the video is not me, as I had originally hoped, the imagery remains strikingly faithful to the spirit of what I imagined. The graceful ballerinas in their white tutus and the delicate white roses adorning the coffin serve as quiet emblems of beauty and grace, reinforcing the themes of love, loss, and remembrance that echo throughout the piece.