It’s a bit shocking how long these pieces have been in the pipeline. It started in 2012 with ‘Morning’, when I added instrumental parts to an improvised piano piece (see ‘Piano Pieces'). I imagined an ensemble of sensitive classical instrumentalists, but I’m not classically trained, or move in that world, so I had to realise the piece using what I had: a computer, Logic, ‘Miroslav’ Virtual Instruments and some sound engineering skills. The result was a goodish demo, a guide to those real players. Over the next few years, I grabbed downtime from a life of demands to create a number of increasingly elaborate pieces in much the same way, all with this classical sensibility, exploring emotional and auditory territory very different to that of soul, funk and rock I’m known for (by some...).

But as the years passed stuff began to dawn on me. First was the realisation that I’d need some pretty hot players and serious facilities if I was to make recordings that breathed the life I heard in my head into my demos. How was I ever going to afford that? I’m just a guy from Milton Keynes. Secondly, there was massive improvement in the virtual instruments available to me, in particular Spitfire Audio and Spectrasonics. Also, like any other science and maths geek, I got intrigued by the development of AI, and ‘The Age of Spiritual Machines’ (Ray Kurzweil - he invented my keyboard!).

Once I started to revise these pieces using electronics that enabled incredible subtleties, I began to question if I could create something with machines that sounded real and carried the emotions those sensitive instrumentalists would find in the scores. Ensemble Pieces is my first release that serves to answer that question, and the answer is : “No, not quite, but bloody close!”. It’s ‘Uncanny Valley.’ I hope all the beauty, emotion and soul is there, even if classical music experts will know something’s wrong. Does it matter?

Well, let’s put it this way, Planet Zyz in Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes hasn’t really got a choice at the moment. But I do continue to hold out hope that, at some point, that ensemble of sensitive instrumentalists will play these pieces. But they’re going to have to love playing them as much as I have loved creating them, because MU rates are way beyond me right now.

A note about the Artwork. My very good friend Phoenix stayed with me recently, and he happens to be the best photographer in the world. He wandered around the area local to Planet Zyz in Milton Keynes taking shots, and turned them into some amazing pictures that capture the unexpected beauty around here - and the incongruities too. A bit like the music.

Ensemble Pieces is a start. Theres still a lot more coming down the pipeline. Let me know if you’d like to be kept informed.

Steven McDaniel, March 2021