VAZZ - Anatomy Of A Piano (2024)

These 50 pieces were recorded in Edinburgh between 2014 – 2016. Some of them had been written as far back as 1990 and I still had a notebook full of mathematical scribblings which served as my notation. Unable to read music, I had devised a system of recording notes and chords using different coloured pencils and the result looked more like a nuclear physics textbook. Knowing well in advance that I was making a permanent move to Andalucia in 2017 and that my piano would not be coming with me, I decided to record everything I could for posterity. It took three years to accomplish.

The older pieces include ‘Detail of V.S.’, which itself was a take on the Vazz track ‘Violent Silence’ from 1985. The music I was writing for Vazz had grown complex and the piano had become a more prominent feature in songs such as ‘Silver’ from 1984 and ‘Breath’ in 1985. As I pursued this cycle of recordings, new pieces evolved and were added to the project. I finished these recordings in the cold light of Edinburgh in December 2016.

This collection is dedicated to Fre de Vos who helped put the music of Vazz back on the map in 2012 with the split-sided ‘Whisper Not’ LP on his Forced Nostalgia label. Without his encouragement and support I probably would never have written most of these pieces. His loss is too painful to put into words. I hope this music will suffice.