TRACK 01: Vulnerability

Vulnerability is a based on a single piano improvisation, which mimics earlier impromptu piano music that the composer, ZJK, had refined through accompanying prayer in religious services.  As such, this work seeks to bring a sense of vulnerability to the listener by carefully selecting intervallic relationships and using very particular arrangement techniques.  The climatic moment not being found within a loud or full sound but rather found in a moment in which all other instrumentation is stripped away from the piano leaving a sense of profound fragility as the listener experiences the tones of the piano decaying into the space.  It is in our moments of willful vulnerability that we become aware of the imbalances and problematic areas of our lives, hearts and minds, serving as a sort of diagnostic process that ultimately allows us to prepare to heal and find resolution in all that which has been left without a satisfying conclusion.  The finale of Vulnerability is a repeated low piano chord reinforced by an ever-strengthening bass note to provide a foundation, landing point, or at the very least, unequivocal resolution.   A well-engaged listener may experience a profound sense of sober-minded rejuvenation listening to this piece.   Even prior to release, Vulnerability has brought tears to several listeners who were able to listen to the composer’s initial sketches.  Furthermore, prior to release there was also a request to have access to the file to be able to deliver to others who are in need of healing.  The hope with this now public release is that it’s healing reputation would continue, and people may be invited into a willful vulnerability that ultimately leads to restoration and greater strength.

TRACK 02: Slowing the Second Hand

The second track on this hour-long album of meditation music was created with specific psychological and physiological ideas and phenomenon in mind.   It features a steady, perpetually moving piano part while several instruments are woven in and out.  An enhanced harp harmonic pluck takes center stage as a melodic force.   The longest track of the collection of six, at thirteen and a half minutes, it seeks to utilize certain subtle changes in modality to help bring a sense of peace by the end.  This is paired with an extremely extended gradual reduction in tempo which nearly forces any engaged listener relax by the tracks completion.  This idea was based upon a physical stimulus remedy for insomnia – tapping your hands at a steady rhythm on your body in a relaxed position and gradually and intentionally slowing the pace.  This paired with elements of music theory, along with some other biological responses to auditory phenomenon, became the basis for the entire piece.  

TRACK 03: Proximity

The composer’s personal favorite of the six, this piece was created with the idea of using the perceived distance of instruments to the listener as a quality to be manipulated for the sake of musical expression.  While profoundly impractical to try to perform live - it would require at least two full string orchestras to perform along with some sort of ultra silent mechanism to transport soloists and entire string sections very rapidly around the audience during the performance - an engaged listener will find the piece riding the line between otherworldly and somehow grounded in reality.  In terms of the purpose in this project, to produce music that can be effectively used to enhance and inspire prayer, meditation as well as overall stillness and relaxation, the immediate corollary is interesting to consider.  Practitioners of meditation report somewhat otherworldly effects while somehow being profoundly sober minded and rooted in reality.  Likewise, practitioners of faith and prayer have great similarities in thoroughly examining our physical existence while reaching towards an unseen immaterial world to call for an interaction and intersection between the two.  So then, having a piece that would seem so firmly based on an established tradition such as the string orchestra and being enhanced by technology to create something that is beyond the reach of a traditional performance mirrors the experience that this album seeks to inspire. 

TRACK 04: Crystal

The fourth track has a curious story in the scope of the entire meditation and prayer music album.  Following the work on the previous Track – Proximity it was difficult to not get bogged down by ideas, theories and philosophies surrounding or undergirding music rather than simply making music itself.  The work on the previous track, Proximity, spurred on a desire to work on more string orchestra based pieces aimed further down the line of classical art music and with the first three track of this album so heavily derived from an abstract thought process Crystal became a rebellion against the very idea of having ideas.  As such the entirety of the goal and vision for the piece was to create music – that is to create sound to accompany meditation and prayer.  Very early on, the higher-pitched swirling ethereal noises asserted themselves as the atmosphere that would define the space for the rest of the instrumentation.  This began an entirely new sense of building spaces in which the atmospheric ideas were hand-crafted to modulate pitch continuously apart from any harmonic or other determination by the rest of the arrangement.   The freedom to sit back and merely focus on creating music for the sake of the sound of the music itself, rather than attempting to provide a sonic expression built out of theories and philosophies, allowed this track to become the most representative of the entire project.  It borrows and flirts with other ideas that were already shared and firmly establishes it’s own voice.  This track is highly recommended for those who may be interested in the project as a whole but simply find it difficult to set aside over an hour of intentional engaged listening time. 

TRACK 05: Breathe

This piece was created by perhaps the most pragmatic of intentions.  The idea was to create repeated musical queues, built into the piece itself, that would inform the listener when to breathe in and out in a controlled breathing meditation.   There is a low pluck signaling the point at which the lungs ought to be empty and to begin taking in air, and a high metallic ringing that signals when the apex of the breath has been reached and the listener can again begin to breathe out all of the air. The personal practice of the composer is to start at a low rate of breath (only 4-6 breaths per minute) and to then begin to decrease the number of breaths as time progresses.  This track is built to be a personal companion to that very practice and the time to inhale and exhale is increased the longer the piece progresses.  There is a sense that the music is breathing along with the listener when these breathing queues are followed by the listener.  Of course, listen to your own body and needs and insure that you are in a comfortable position if you would also like to try this practice, however, the practice is unnecessary for the piece to still function and aid you in relaxation and finding a sense of stillness.  Oftentimes, even when beginning with the breathing practice, it is easy to become focused more on the music, particularly toward the end, as it barrels towards a final and long-awaited resolution to the scale-like passages.  Due to the nature and goals of this piece, it takes a bit longer to get started, with the anticipation that it may take sometime to get comfortable and really establish the breathing, but the engaged listener will find they are taken along a musical journey all the same by the end of the piece. 

TRACK 06: ReGenesis

This track is the only piece of music that is built with the idea of bringing about a gentle sense of rousing rather than attempting to slow down the listener.  It can be a very jarring experience to go directly from a state of stillness, prayer and meditation to only be thrust suddenly back into the chaos and blisteringly fast-pace of the world around us.  Built from a large continuous motion piano improvisation, even though the idea is routed in constant playing a tempo was deliberately ignored.  This allows the piece to have a sense of breath, and tension and release within itself, all while other instruments take the forefront of listeners attention and begin to weave an experience all their own.  The title of ReGenesis betrays the intended effect – to provide the engaged-listener with a sense of new beginning.  While this piece functions perfectly well as a musical work for meditation and prayer , it truly shines as an ending for the entire album, providing a sense of closure, and perhaps even encouragement, as the listener prepares to engage with their post-meditation life.   The resolution found as the piano and other instruments slowly find their way down to a low-deep A-flat lends itself to a experience of conclusion that provides a sense of strength and stability moving forwards.