I've been working on a lot of orchestral music for fun behind the scenes but this is one that I actually managed to finish :)
I'm a little in love with the strings and a lot in love with the glorious French horns... hope you like them too! Sing along with the lyrics on YouTube or stream on Spotify / Apple Music / everywhere else you can find music these days!
Happy winter and Christmas and Solstice [soon] and hope your December will be filled with peace and time with family and all those you hold dear. In honour of warm nights by the fire after sledding by torchlight [true story!], hot cocoa and hugs and sparkling presents under a shining tree, here's an album for all those long dark nights we get up here in the northern hemisphere. I specifically recorded it in a very mellow mood, so as to make it really good for background music while doing other things and enjoying all the aforementioned good things about the season... hope it adds some cheer and comfort to December for you!
Stream on Youtube here
Or Apple Music here
Or Spotify here
[Also on all the usual platforms where you can buy and stream music :) ]
For long winded stories and [some of the ] Easter eggs, here is the background meaning to the album name and some of the titles...
Here's where it gets a little convoluted but also special. I hate this song and I love it and I'm so very proud of it and yet I wish a million times it didn't exist. I wish everyone we love would live forever. Instead somehow, we have nothing but each fleeting moment, and music to live on. You can read the lyrics here or click below to watch the original lyric video with a parade of magical, cozy Christmas lights...
Side note- I suppose this is as good a time as any to announce that "December Song" is a Semi-Finalist in this year's UK Songwriting Contest, in the Christmas category. Fingers crossed it might go to the finals!?
Anyhow I loved this song enough to base an entire album around it. The first line of the original song is "December Comes Again", which is now what the entire album is called. Today's preview track is called Colder Every Night, and it steals its title from verse 1 of the original. [Stay tuned for a few more homages to the original song, but for now I think this is confusing enough!?] And I promise there are happy songs too- I even did Jingle Bells.... But couldn't end the album without a sad one, obviously.
Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far :) Have a listen, if you like:
So happy to announce that I'll have a winter and Christmas themed full length piano album coming out this Christmas, 12.2.22. It's all the most peaceful and sometimes melancholy [but somehow hopefully uplifting too!] piano music, using a felted piano for that mellow sitting-by-the-fireplace vibe. I've included a mix of carols and covers and originals, and it's going to be just perfect for a quiet moment sitting on the couch wrapped in a warm blanket watching the snow fall. I've already tested it out while getting a head start on my Christmas cards, and even my picky self who doesn't like hearing my own music half the time kind of quite liked it :) Hope you will too!
Here's the first preview, from the track entitled "Coffee", a modernized version of my very favourite song from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. I was so lucky as a kid to get to see the full, larger than life ballet performance of this classic, not just once, and it made a permanent impact on my Christmas soul. Hope you like it :)
For this video I wanted the loud colours to contrast with the laid-back music, creating a loud yet dreamy city skyline that is as vivid as some of the memories of that same skyline... Grandma said nothing good happens after midnight but although she was right about nearly everything else, we're gonna have to leave that one up for debate...
This is a song I've been wanting to record for SO long! I tried with several different producers in different recording studios over the years, didn't like anything, tried it on my own, didn't like it... kept trying and trying on my own and FINALLY after years of work it sounds like I wanted it to sound. [The twitchy life of being a perfectionist haha...]
I'm also happy to announce it's currently a Semi-Finalist for the UK Songwriting contest this year, in the Jazz and Blues category!
Here's a timelapse of the painting I made especially for this song! [Original watercolour painting also available for purchase- just message me if interested]
You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever music is streamed or sold! Thanks for listening- hope it put you in the mood of a slow autumn afternoon with a mug of steaming cider and a good book...
P.S. if you're streaming it - can you help me check something? Somehow my distributor added an audible glitch that was definitely not on the master I gave them... In the Spotify version, you can hear it at 0:09- if anyone can let me know if the Apple Music version or any other streaming site has the same problem that would be very helpful of you- thanks! The video I made is perfect though ;) And I'm sure that they will sort it out for me, so I didn't want to hold off on sharing just because of a wee blip...] If you've purchased it from any store such as iTunes and that glitch is there just email me and I'll send you your choice of .wav and .mp3 super high quality files for the song!
As a songwriter first, it takes a lot for me to want to cover someone else's song [mainly because of all the PAPERWORK!] but this one just had to be done. I grew up listening to so much great music, thanks to my music-loving parents, and I'm so thankful for it all as it's made me who I am as a musician. This song, originally sung by Bryan White, was one of them, and you should definitely listen to his version too! You can hear mine by clicking the album art below or this YouTube link. It's also available on any streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. Hope you enjoy!
Happy October!
Anastace
Here I am, joining the tradition of thousands upon thousands of people covering this song, but it's just so beautiful and why not! I was playing late one night with this deep rich Rhodes sound and just had to try this song... see what you think! May the beauty of fall be with you through the melancholy...
Click the picture to listen on Youtube
You can also listen on Spotify and Apple Music and anywhere music is streamed.
Wishing you a meaningful and thoughtful autumn!
A.
I was inspired to create this piece by that feeling you get at the end of the summer when yet another year has just flown by, and how the years add up. I imprinted the End of August [August 31] on watercolour paper in sequence, then followed it up with swirling, ever-changing paint to symbolize the way the years get swallowed up by time, creating a messy but beautiful sketch of a lifetime lived and how our view of it changes over time... But in the end we always come Full Circle...
As a summer child who lived for the carefree sunny days on the water, the end of August has always been one of the most melancholy times of year for me and I suspect I'm not alone.... Here's a few minutes if you want to immerse yourself in the last fleeting moments of summer [here in the northern hemisphere] before the cold and the dark set in again... All that said, I hope you enjoy this song and the nostalgia in the video too - one of the very last sunny days on the lake!
You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever music is streamed.
