Album Notes

".....Her music is really unbelievable! The world we live in rolls faster than the speed of light, however they totally ignore it, haha! They play on instruments as if they were powerless. Obviously, it is not a negative critique. Actually, this is the specificity of the genre, so you have to dig into the field they act in order to grasp their music. Guitarists carry out experiments on their instruments, making kgmr's music minimalist, weird and freaky....."

Department of Virtuosity 2008


kgmr is a genre-hopping composer, pianist and singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon. Despite intense Classical training, her earliest musical creations utilized a Casio keyboard, Magnus organ, tape recorder, and prank phone calls. Her current musical tendencies involve lush, color-rich chords and quirky-smart melodies for solo piano, rock trio featuring rhodes piano, trio plus vocals, or larger ensembles. She has written music for film, theater, and radio.

Here's the Migrate story:

I grew up playing piano and started writing little songs as a kid. It started with a small Casio keyboard and a tape recorder. Later evolutions involed recording prank phone calls, but that ended with the police. I was devastated and scared into erasing my recordings. But that's another story.

As an adult, I first started writing very Classical genre music. One of these first songs is a very crazed and fast solo piano piece and will appear on the 2008 album, "Evening with Fallen Tree".

After the purchase of a Fender Rhodes electric piano, I wrote most of the material for 2005's "Instant Confidante". Track #3 on this album is a song called, "creepy and strange", which has singing on it. I almost didn't put that track on the album because it was so simple and so different from the other songs. But it turned out to be a favorite among listeners, and I decided it was ok for me to sing on recordings.

I'm not a singer; I'm a pianist and composer who likes to sing. As a kid I was one of those children who got the message that I can't sing and so shouldn't. As an adult, I don't really care that I'm not a singer. I write music that sometimes has lyrics, so not to sing would be acting out of fear. Too little time to do that.

On "Migrate to Carnivora", most of the songs were written at the piano. I'm not a terribly sophisticated verbal communicator. Instead, I sit at the piano and sounds come out. Usually multi-toned chords or what I call "quirky dissonance" come. Sometimes words come too. I basically attend to what is happening by writing it down, and it evolves fairly quickly from there.

On the production level, what's most important to me about "Migrate to Carnivora" is the way the guitar creates the feelings I intended the songs to have. It is a testament to the true musical genius of Bob Read. Piano can only accomplish so much. I never tell him what I want the guitar tracks to sound like, and he somehow creates just what I'm feeling and wanting. It's quite magical. I love guitar feedback and noise of all sorts. So does Bob, and his command of that noisy language is broad and emotive at the same time.

I have played with different drummers over the years, and I'm very excited about Jon Mendez. The energy he puts into drumming is audible and it is perfect. His drumming is so big without being obtrusive. Yum.

Also appearing on "Migrate to Carnivora" is David Walsh, guitarist and longtime musical co-conspirator. A true lover of music, his enthusiasm propels us all along.

We're mixing another instrumental album of solo piano and piano/trumpet songs which will come out in Spring 2008. After that I'm hoping for a dance album.

Thanks for listening.