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>> OVERVIEW - THE PIANO SESSIONS - THE NOX SESSIONS - LVX - RECORDINGS

Background
After the success of my Jewel in the Lotus album and concerts, I felt the need to document some of my other solo piano compositions and improvisations. After some gentle persuasion and repeated emailing, I was able to realise this wish on a concert grand piano at an anonymous venue (I am sworn to secrecy as to the exact location!). With the much appreciated loan of Double Bassist Mike Green's DAT Recorder, I managed to capture an uninterrupted stream of musical outpouring from 9pm on the evening of April 22nd 2006 until around 2am the next morning. The next evening, we started out on our journey to Mongolia, so it really was a last-minute affair.

I am very proud of my first foray into the world of solo recordings, Jewel in the Lotus, and it works very well as a concentrated, subdued series of minatures. With the PIANO sessions, however, I wanted to present extended improvisations and compositions with a wide dynamic and emotional range. From the start, my idea for the project was to split the recordings into 5 volumes, with each volume bearing a single letter from the word: PIANO. Aside from being a simple statement of fact, the title draws attention to the solo performance nature of the instrument.

Alphabetical analysis
Contained within the five letters that spell PIANO is the magickal formula, IAO. This is both an ancient and contemporary trinity, as true during the aeons of Isis and Osiris (I am Alpha and Omega, the Rite of the Dying God) as it is today in the aeon of Horus. Also contained within the five letters is the phrase, IO PAN. 'Io Pan!' is the title of a beatiful invocation written by Aleister Crowley, dedicated to Pan, the Horned-God of Music, the 'diablo in musica', demonised and labelled 'the devil' by the bi-polar reductionism of one-god religion. I feel Pan to be at the centre of all creative musical activity. This is PANIC, the feeling of being truly 'alive' that you get as a performer if you achieve 2 = 1 = 0, which leads to the realisation that everything is alive. The Great God Pan is not dead, merely dreaming.

"Thrill with lissome lust of the light,
O man! My man!
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan! Io Pan!"
- Crowley

The Five Volumes of PIANO
The five CD's that make up the five volumes of PIANO are as follows:

Volume 1:
Terra Nostra (theme) - Sounds from Outside - 88 Keys - Paper/Strings -
IAO - PAN - Melody in Low Tones - Film Noir - Merkuri
[Total time: 41'33"]

Volume 2:
Springtime - Moonlight - K.Anger - The Answer? - Winter Flurries -
Marylou - Black Pentatonic
[Total time: 41'33"]

Volume 3:
Mongolia Dream - Three Three Two - Rewind - Pollyanna - Despair turns to -
Uprising - Short/Long - OTR
[Total time: 40'43"]

Volume 4:
Chord Colours - Discourse - The Question - Sounds from Inside -
Idea - Reticence
[Total time: 40'18"]

Volume 5:
Nuit
[Total time: 49'59"]

The Series
The PIANO Sessions are the first recordings as part of the 2 = 1 = 0 Series. These solo piano recordings, and other solo recordings, taken from sessions recorded between 2000 and 2006, have provided the source material for another 2 = 1 = 0 Recording Project, N O X. Please click on the name for full information about the N O X 6CD Set, the sister project to PIANO.