In the spring of 2016, pianist Mark Christopher Brandt and guitarist Dan Leonard went into the studio with no music prepared and nothing written down. They agreed to do something they had discussed doing in the late 1990’s, but with busy careers and burgeoning families they had not been able to get to it before. For this session, they set up across from each other in the studio and simply started playing.
One at time, ten times in a row, they did this until they had an album of completely spontaneous first (and only) take songs. With no song titles in mind, they simply named each piece for the exact length of time it took to create the song from start to finish.
Due to digital sale restrictions with regard to song titles and codes, actual titles, not merely counter times had to be placed with the songs online. Those titles can be seen here in parenthesis.
The Prophet, (featuring James Majewski and Mark’s 3 daughters, Shani, Ko, and Rita on vocals) offers a stark contrast to rest of the album in that it introduces vocals, layers and overdubs. The piece was literally crafted and built from start to finish in one session by Mark with only the minimum of chords and melody sketched out to support his lyric.
An alternate take of A Moment of Peace, originally recorded by the duo on Round Trip, was placed after The Prophet, along with a beautiful and simple solo acoustic guitar version of Brandt’s composition Mountain Air.
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