Album Notes

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2009 Update: Van's second CD "Seven Shades of Morning" has been remastered and re-released, and is now available for shipping!

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Earthtones is a collection of solo piano pieces I wrote and recorded between 2004 and 2006. I selected the twelve tracks for this collection from over one hundred piano pieces I wrote during that time. My motivation for writing so many songs was a new Yamaha GC1 grand piano, which I purchased early in 2004, after trying nearly every piano on the market. I found the power and tone of the Yamaha to be inspirational. In fact, I came up with a song idea in the music store while first playing the actual GC1 that I ultimately purchased. I had to hurry home and record the idea, as new song ideas are easily forgotten. In the following months, that one minute song idea grew to become Song #310, which I later named Copper Mountain for this CD. As I continued to compose additional songs over the next two years, the concept for Earthtones began to take shape. I usually knew right away if a new piece was right for this CD. Some of the tracks on Earthtones were actually consecutively written songs. Kalahari Sand, Bryce Canyon Sunrise, Zion Canyon Red, and Midnight Blue are Songs #357, #358, #359, and #360, respectively. They were all written in March of 2005. The last piece I recorded for this CD is Fields of Gold, which is Song #384.
While recording the GC1 for Earthtones, every effort was made to capture the warmth and beautiful tone of this magnificent instrument. A pair of highly sensitive, large-diaphragm microphones connected directly to a digital hard-disk recorder was used. This system captured every nuance of the piano’s tone with amazing clarity and with virtually no background noise. During soft passages in the music, the piano’s felt dampers can be heard raising and lowering onto the strings. This recording was made from the player’s prospective. So, you will hear the bass on the left, and the treble on the right, just as it sounded when I played it.
I hope you enjoy Earthtones, and please let me hear from you!
-Van

Note: For a full list of Earthtones DOWNLOAD sites (including iTUNES), please go to Van's official homepage, http://www.vanmusic.com