Holding Time is loved by young and old in all walks of life. People wake up to this music, fall asleep to this music, have been born to this music, and have even died to this music. Listeners have said the music helps them relax, reflect, and reconnect with the beauty of life.
Notes from Emilyn Stam, the artist and composer:
This CD is a selection of 12 solo piano improvisations that I chose out
of the 80 that I recorded over a few sessions back in July of 2008. This was
just a few weeks after my mentor Oliver Schroer passed away, so the music is very raw and
really portrays a lot of emotions I (along with many others, I'm sure)
was feeling those days.
I named the project Holding Time. Holding Time is a phrase that came to
me a few years ago when I first started getting into improvising with
Oliver, with the idea that while improvising, time is irrelevant. 5
minutes of playing would go by, and it felt like seconds. Or sometimes
15 or 25 minutes even, without knowing it...
Most of the music was created completely on the spot in the studio.
Each track is an unedited snapshot of where I was. One of the pieces I
improvised on a theme of 7 notes. 3401271. This was Oliver's hospital
number, a number heard many times by those visiting his hospital room.
I took those numbers and applied them to degrees of the scale, which
then inspired one of the improvs. Another piece, Leaving, was a melody
I had written last spring after returning to BC from a visit to
Toronto. Aside from these, its an improv album. This music is really
close to my heart, and I hope you can find some of the peace I found
through creating it.
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