I recorded this in April of 2014 in the recording studio at Santa Fe University of Art and Design with then-student Willa Snow as the engineer.
I didn't have anything too specific in mind, just to track a few loosely planned sketches. The arrangements are spontaneous, a combination of modern jazz and pop and classical and whatever else happened to be bouncing around this brainhole of mine. It's got some of the introspective vibe of the rainy Pacific Northwest where I grew up, some of the intensity of my time in New York City, and maybe some of the space and solitude of my current life in New Mexico.
It was probably kind of a funny way to work; very little planning and one or two takes per track. It was an interesting challenge, and it inevitably comes with some inevitable imperfect moments. It also allows things to happen that would never happen in a carefully notated, extensively rehearsed kind of session.
There's a certain kind of intensity or feeling that I hope to come across when I'm listening or playing music, and this little project documents the process of me trying to find "that thing" in a couple different ways. It's not perfect, but it's human and it's honest.
1. Papa Dog 07:36
2. The Black Sun Riseth 04:54
3. Count Shebula 04:56
4. Nixie 08:28
5. The Fifth Thing 09:09
6. Ool Blues 06:00
7. Stacks 09:29
8. Vilhelm's Revenge 08:05
Robert Muller, piano and composition
Willa Snow, engineer
