Music

In April 2003, my friends M & V called me to tell me they were getting married. After the phonecall, I sat down at the piano and a bunch of ideas came to me at once. I decided there was enough material for an album of sorts and that it would be my wedding gift for them. At their wedding, in April 2004, I performed mouvements I, IV and V together with Odilon R. (flute) and Emilie de S. (vocals).

There's 1.000 things wrong with this album, but I'm nonetheless very proud of the many musical ideas in there. I still listen to it regularly, with joy.

In the various descriptions, I link to other music on Spotify that has particularly inspired each piece.

The entire album was recorded and produced on Linux using Rosegarden for MIDI and Ardour for Audio, including a few free plugins.

Mouvement I

The flute opens, japanese percussions join to bring energy.

Mouvement II

The second piece is a gentle ballad. If I'm honest, this is my least favorite piece. Can be skipped over.

Mouvement III

One of my favorite, a continuous, magnificent crescendo. The ostinato was inspired by Vangelis' Deliverance from the Album 1492. I didn't use any loops for this album. All instruments, including the percussions, were played from beginning to end, which allows for variation.

Mouvement IV

This little piece is beautiful in more than one way.

The music itself is an evolving, meditative counterpoint underscored by delicate synth pads. Inspired by Vangelis' Rachel's Song from the Blade Runner soundtrack.

But there's also a beautiful story to it.

Embedded in the piece is a short, gentle song with Swedish lyrics. Since we planned to perform this piece at the wedding, I asked my friend Emilie, the vocalist on this track, to join us at R's house, one of my best friends and the groom's best man, for the rehearsal. They rather liked each other and a few years later, got married and I got to be his best man at their own wedding (for which I also wrote original music, see below). I couldn't be happier with this piece!

Mouvement V

A piano solo piece, I was scared to death before performing this live, as it challenged my rather limited playing skills. Thankfully, I managed to play through it. Inspired by Aziza Mustafa Zadeh's Always of the eponymous album.

Mouvement VI

Another piece I quite love, it closes the album on a joyful note, expressing hope for the future. Listen carefully to the bass: it gets more and more playful as the song progresses. The main inspiration for this one was Vangelis' Theme From Antarctica of the eponymous album.

Another original piece for a wedding, that of my dear friends Emilie and R in 2007, the happy consequence of bringing them together for Mouvement IV above.

The piece was meant to be played during the communion celebration at their religious wedding ceremony. I wanted to make the moment both solemn and joyful. Since there were quite a few guests, it had to be long enough to give everyone time to receive the Host from the priest.

This track was produced in Ableton Live.