About the Album
All 16 tracks on this album revolve around light, the physics of light, how it behaves, its qualities, properties... During the composition process, the more I dove into the science, the physics, my fascination grew. There is such beauty in the way light behaves! Not only that but I also found it so similar to the way sound behaves; something I am much more familiar with. The music I set out to compose drew inspiration from the different types of light, the various gradients of shadows, the color spectrum, the concept of chiaroscuro and other properties of light such as radiance, reflection and resistance. I went about creating the music in this album in a way that would remain truthful and respectful to the science. That being said, I am not a scientist nor a physicist so the result is more of a reflection of my own life experiences as seen through the physics of light.
Similar to all my previous projects, I composed and performed all the music in the album but something new about this one is that I recorded the music myself, in my living room, on my piano, a Boston GP 163. I have always loved the velvety sound and expressive touch of this piano and found I missed it when recording in studios. I have been wanting to record on it for quite some time and this quarantine seemed like the perfect time to do so. Additionally, this quarantine gave me the final push I needed to go and record myself. I had been intimidated or had second thoughts in doing these things but since studios were closed and bringing an engineer home wasn’t an option, I took the plunge. As it turns out, I found myself really enjoying the process of finding the best mic placements, sculpting the sound I envisioned and polishing my recording skills. Now, you’d think that recording an album at home during a quarantine was an easy task but let me tell you, with my wife, our three young kids and a puppy also quarantined, finding that quiet time to record was not easy. Grateful to Christi, my wife, for taking the kiddos to the beach for a couple days. The puppy however did stay home with me as I recorded. This was wild card I didn’t know how it was going to play out but somehow it worked out.
Another aspect of this album I wanted to share with you is how the artwork came about. During my research and studies of the physics of light, I kept gathering information and I had this idea of having a sort of collage of all this numbers, formulas and graphics as the artwork. I really wanted it to look like a Da Vinci sketch. To begin with, I created something myself. My original drawing conveyed what I wanted but it looked like a chicken scratch. I knew something needed to improve. In the meantime, it took care of the accuracy of the content as it was important for me that all the science was accurate. I was lucky to find that a former composition student of mine, Satomi Ohnishi, happened to also be a physicist. She was kind enough to check everything for accuracy; something for which I was quite grateful. After the content was set, in order to make my chicken scratches look better, I commissioned Leo Moroh, an Italian artist residing in Paris to create a drawing out of all the formulas and all the graphics. I found him after spending hours upon hours researching pencil drawings on Instagram. I was very happy I did as his drawing exceeded my expectations. I found it to be the perfect cover to my album.
I wanted to take a moment and mention a few other people involved in the project, all of them individuals I am immensely grateful for their contribution. Mike Farnell, my piano tuner, who in addition to being a brilliant technician and taking good care of my piano, is always full of wonderful stories. Dave Glasser, my mastering engineer who’s a joy to work with. Dave’s a wonderful combination of great ear, impressive audio skills and easy-going personality. Silvana Izquierdo, my graphic designer. Silvana has helped me with the designs for all my releases and not only is she professional and highly creative but she’s incredibly patient with my fastidiousness. Finally, my 8-yr old son Lucas, to whom I dedicate this album, my young scientist, a kid with an inquisitive mind, filled with so much curiosity that some of it just rubbed off on me, opening up the streak of curiosity that led me to the creation of this album.
I have been living in this world of light for quite some time and I can’t wait to share this world with you. Thank you for listening!
V.A.
