"This kid is like a feral cat that has got a taste outside of the best restaurant and is scratching at the windows. A developed taste for sound with only his own trails for direction. There is a particularity to this sound with a nose down to the earth through overhead trails (tunnels) of grass and bramble.
Each striking note and chord has the unplanned rightness of an unruly uncaring child. And the awareness to effect that sense. A brash exposition.
-Character-
The entire sense of the record: Sitting down to any memory of a child playing piano, any memory you have of that. A production value of memory, and time. And then there is no more time. Like when you fall into the beats and resonance of piano strings. There is a doorway from song to song, to notice, from that feeling of a piano in a memory room to the sense of falling into only sound--- low-fi to an affected electronic ambience. Like your head is in the strings of the piano and nothing at all matters except from that. To me that is waving window sheets.
-Rhythm-
“Illusions of Grandeur”--- such a great title. Sounds the depth of falling into the strikes on the strings, the stupid rapture someone finds in the sounds that sound good together except that tiny processes put together a step by step, here and there composition place. “This is when your head is only in the strings and there is nothing else without”. It sounds like my headphones are busted,,, only right if my head were really truly between the springs, (excuse me, strings).
-Sense-
Because there is only a melancholy curving direction we land right back in that indy-space room. Haunted now. Bursting with a childhood that CAN”T come through. Listen to your child’s piano lessons if available! Build a treehouse, appreciate something, do a cartwheel if you have the breath and stomach for it. Or give a listening remembrance and regret a bit further.

The recording is a whole like looking forward and backward what a lifetime with a piano can be. I don’t think it will be done yet.

This is, one of, an uncloseted shouting child. And if you’ve ever wanted to curl up next to/beneath the hulking weight of a piano- this is your place."

-The River City Review



This album is a collection of recordings made at HomeThrone Studio from 2009-2018.

Most of these songs were played on a beautifully hand painted Kremlin upright piano that I believe use to belong to a fellow named Ben Stillman. I retrieved it from The Evergreen State College pods: which are giant dumpsters for students to discard their belongings in at the end of the school year. I pushed it from the pod nearest to F dorm to where I had stayed my first year in school at in N dorm. There I chained it up with a bike lock to the bike rack for the last week of school. I had fun playing it outside as parents and students passed by the trails throughout the week. My father was in town to see my brother graduate that year and the two of them helped me transport the piano when I moved off campus. The existing casters on the piano were crap so my dad's creativity lead us to drilling into the sides of the piano and installing a larger set of rubber wheels which helped us in the move. We looped a rope around the piano and tied it to my dad's truck and pulled it from Evergreen all the way down Kaiser Rd. which is one of my favorite roads in Olympia! We were moving about 5mph and I had to walk along the side of the piano the whole time to keep it from falling over. One of the wheels starting rubbing against the body of the piano, I noticed this when smoke started appearing in front of me as there was some assortment of burning rubber and smoldering wood from the friction of the two. There are some beautiful scar marks on the piano from this. A group of porch hanging folks cheered us on and offered us whiskey as we made our trek. I can't remember if I indulged or not? When we finally made it to my brothers house the one rubbing tire was complelty wrecked along with it's congruent shitty caster. The piano has since been moved several more times with the aid of many wonderful friends that I'd like to say a BIG thank you to for helping me keep this piano by my side. Skateboards and Uhauls were used in these later embarkments.

I'd also like to mention a heartfelt thank you to a wonderful being of a man named John Grace, who expanded my love of the piano and to "see" it in a way I had never before. John guided me through fixing up the piano and making many repairs on it while teaching me a lot about the art of piano maintenance. John is a patient and gracious sole who I am so thankful to have met.

I am very pleased with these songs and enjoy listening to them very much! I believe in them and the feelings they invoke in me. Some are old and some are new, and I remember vividly the writing and recording process that went into each of them. I like the lo-fi/mid-fi recording quality they have which I think compliments this little rustic piano in all of it's differed states well. These songs are solidifying in my mind and heart as little gems and artifacts to be proud of. I am happy to be sharing them with you!

Thanks for supporting and listening,
Pual