Music — a language we all know

Music works through our feelings and animates our inner experience. More than just background, it can be interior, present, right here, right now, moving, shifting. I love how an infectious groove can take us over, carry us on its wave, as the music loops or twists, feeling either inevitable or surprising. Personally, I need this kind of music for its warmth, aliveness, presence, connection, beauty, and a sense of release that it brings.

I love to improvise spontaneously, to allow melodies and rich textures to emerge from somewhere inside, whilst the harmony and groove, with vibrant bass lines, hold everything together; because I tend to believe that the truth of music is never really designed but simply expressed, free from thought. So I like to plug into warm, delicious feelings as you listen and absorb them, maybe dance, always open and curious to what happens next. In this way, the music can hold us, and lift us up.

What kind of music is Musometry?

Our culture often makes us try to look cool on the outside, but in my music, I'm much more interested in feeling warm on the inside. I love how solo piano jazz over electronic beats can sound so lyrical — perhaps surprisingly so. Funky, dreamy, glittering? Oh yes, but also intimate and telling. I always enjoy the way saxophonists bend and shape the lines they play. The piano has less flexibility, but with access to so much texture and colour, I seek a similar kind of yield, malleability, flourish, ache — a fluidity that floats, stretches, soars, lands on top of the beat with natural grace.

But restraint is also part of the equation. If the exuberance devolves into empty display, I lose interest. Perhaps I love a strong groove for its discipline, its safety, its boundaries. I love how being in the pocket of the groove (as we say) then allows unforced freedom and flexibility — and dare I say, romanticism. I'm always enthralled by the inner sensuality of music, and determined to uncover how piano can become an instrument with this gentle power. The sparkle of acoustic pianos, the warm, sugary crunch of electric pianos — how I love these intricate, rich sounds! 

Music can take us to a blissful place

I find it fascinating how certain musical shapes can have the capacity to soften and open up the listener's inner world. So I keep returning to musical idioms that are full of a certain kind of loving energy, warmth, and often something wistful or longing — that yearning we feel, whether sharp or subtle, for tenderness or thrill. When I play, I aim to access the music from my body and soul, more than my head. I find that when the music originates from an inner place, it frees us from blockages, loosens inhibitions, it lets us flow with grace and be fully alive in our own space.

More than anything, I find it truly magical how music connects us all in within its soulful space. And I'm interested in the conversation between a dancefloor and a live performer — how the feelings in the listeners as they move inspire the musical shapes and dynamics that I improvise, and vice versa. Whether the audience is dancing or just listening, the sounds appear in the space between us. Our collective rhythm and harmony can animate the musical shapes and colours that my fingers describe, and the music appears at our mutual request — yields to our whim — follows our combined energy. We create its flow together.