January was composed between January and May 2003. The inspiration for the cd came from my visit to Japan on a tour with 12k artists Richard Chartier and Sogar. We made many, many friends and it was one of the most enjoyable and inspirational travels i have taken in recent memory.
January attempts to loosely chronicle this trip by combining the stillness of looping passages with moving and non-repeating elements. a simple metaphor for our travels and the ideas of time standing still to experience a single moment forever. Our first morning in Tokyo there was a very heavy, yet gentle snowfall, a very vivid visual memory and the inspiration for the granular sounds in this recording. January utilizes many of the same practices and concepts of my work with loops and frozen sounds (such as on Stil.) but also adds layers of live instrumentation and voices. January features live, processed electric piano as well as vocal fragments, courtesy of Sawako. More pieces with voices were written in these sessions but did not appear on the final release.
This album was written at a time in my life of great changes and new beginnings and is dedicated to my son, Nicholas, who was born on February 19th, 2003.
