Open Doors

Open Doors is a contemporary solo piano album featuring deep and intimate soundscapes and dynamic moments.

Open doors

The title track is in many ways the most representative of the style of this album. At the time of the recording, in 2015 I felt that i want to create music that has a certain type of openness to it. Music that has the harmonic vocabulary of jazz, but instead of emphasising complex, intellectual aspects that is usual nowadays in modern jazz, i wanted to sound more forward, more to the point. I liked this metaphor, “open doors” – this is what i wanted.

Merkel crank

This song was written in Berlin and hence the “German” reference in the title however these references are merely hints and not actual links to things or people – just a general reference to “existing” in Berlin and Germany. The song always for some reason reminded me of being in the woods. I don’t know the reason for that. It’s a lyrical song with a climax that definitely conjures Keith Jarrett-s music. His influence was huge on my solo piano playing, and especially on this album. But there is also the influence of European classical music, the returning theme, that is something that does not exist in Jazz, only in European traditional music. 

Unstoppable

Unstoppable is the only truly uptempo song on the album, a song that gives you the chance to display a strong flowing energy. This one was influenced by the sound of simple pop piano playing. In the “B” section i created a contrast with this pop-sounding theme that is basically just chords played on the 4/4 beat – in sharp contrast with the theme that is a quickly moving 9/8 meter. After playing a lot of complicated jazz in my life i started to develop taste for a more simple sound that is in pop music. I wrote some entirely pop songs at the time and i used the power attainable from pop in “Unstoppable” to create my own “power-jazz” sound. 

Hand-written letter

The most lyrical song on the album. In the world of instagram and facebook, mobile phones and direct messaging, do we remember what it means to get postcards, or even letters? Can we still hand-write or even just read a hand-writing, or are we completely used to reading characters? Do we remember how it feels to read a hand-written letter from our loved ones, a letter that we keep for decades and that might be read by our grandchildren? Also this whole album is somewhat a hand-written letter, something that tries to communicate with its honesty, intimacy, with it’s hand-writing. 

Old flame

This song is the closest to a jazz standard and thus the title “old flame”. The harmonic language of jazz is something that i’ve used consistently in my music, be that a trio song, a soundtrack, a pop song or an electronic track. 

Koletzki 

Now this one is probably my personal favourite song, it is a true “tour de force”. The left hand ostinato is summoning darker electronic rhythms, something that was a common thing in Berlin, where i used to live before recording this album. The melody has a certain bluesy connection, but the whole song  conjures up the grey Berlin skies with its never-ending minor sound, and the improvised lines of the right hand is like my soul flowing into one vision after the another in this grey gloominess. 

Beyond the wave

this is truly an “improsition”, a transcription of an improvisation, that was re-recorded. At the time i was living on a ship, and i did this transcription looking out of the window, looking at the waves of the ocean, and this title just came to me, so obvious was the similarity of the water and the music. Interestingly, i’ve played the original before i have ever been sailing out on the ocean.