July 24, 2024

A new piano piece for four hands: “Here There and Anywhere”

“The world is a mountain, in which your words are echoed back to you.” – Rumi

“I will be there and everywhere. Here, there, and everywhere.” – McCartney

Hello my loves.

Short story: New wordless and heartfelt piano piece created with Luke Gajdus is out today, here’s the link. Share away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQrDtjzdVs8

Reminder that tour dates for Tarrytown, NY, Fairfield, CT and Northampton, MA are on sale to patrons only til Friday at 10am.

I’m here reading and responding to comments.

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Greetings from NYC, where I’m on my way to the west coast for a memorial. Life keeps life-ing. Someone I know lost their mom late last night. The circle never closes, it just keeps spinning.

The more I see people losing people, the more I think that music is the best thing I’ve ever been able to contribute to a moment where there’s really no words for the pain.

That being said: I am so pleased to put this in your eyes and ears given the state of the world right now.

Please let is wash over you like a warm tea, a warm bath, a warm embrace.

I fucking love this piece. Here. There. And Anywhere.

Luke and I created this piece to express a certain feeling from within each of us, and for me, the feeling was a combination of homesickness, loss and connection above all. One of the things that’s been so relevant about my work with Luke has been the ability to leave more space. Four hands on a piano requires a lot of intense listening, a lot of silence, a lot of knowing exactly when to step off and let the other person resonate.

It’s similar in my recent work with Brian and the Dresden Dolls’ new material. Sometimes space and silence is more powerful. Sometimes subtraction is more than addition. Sometimes you gotta bang it, hold it, let it ring and resonate before you bang again. Sometimes that’s where the real message, the real power, the real force comes out. The power of the quiet.

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A little history.

I’ve visited New Zealand – my adopted pandemic home country – twice since living there full time during the pandemic. The first time I went back to visit, in I created this four-handed piano piece and live-take video called “Neither Here Nor There” with a piano busker named Luke Gajdus…and it was a beautiful moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBgmtvWfUY

It healed something.

When I returned to Aoteraoa this past January, for the “New Zealand Survival Songs” tour, I got together with Luke once again, in secret, and we made this video. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to release it…and it’s now. We need a balm.

I’m dropping the balm!

There’s a mistake in my piano playing somewhere about halfway through the piece. It was impossible to do an entire live take without making a single mistake; this was the best one.

I hope you love that mistake as much as I do.

It’s alive, and honest, like all good art should be.

Here are the credits, and here are some beautiful photos (also by Mrozik) from the day of the shoot.

This space was donated to us by a relative of someone on the crew. We truly lucked out. Thank you, Fran.

I found Mrozik, the filmmaker, through the yoga community in Glenorchy. I’d only met him once before we made this film. You just never know. Sometimes, it works like a dream

The piece title is a nod to the first piece we composed (“Neither here nor there”) to the Beatles classic “Here there and Everywhere”).

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One day, we’ll all get home.

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Filmed January 22, 2023 by Mrozik, in Mount Creighton, Te Waipounamu, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Special thanks to Sadie Rittman, Fran Lebowitz, Michael McComiskey, Sue Farry and Simone Flight.

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The Filmmaker: