Early or Late is the title of the new album following after the 2018 release of ‘Piano & Guitar, vol. II’. The album contain 14 new recorded songs and were mastered by Sterling Sound’s Randy Merrill. The album cover is 70’s inspired, containing a drawing by Heath Robinson that originally appeared on the sheet music album “Forest Fantasies” by Walter Carroll in the early 20th century.
The nucleus of the album evolves around a number of songs that were already composed between mid 1980 and early 1983. The original demo’s of these compositions can be listened to on Soundcloud.
Some of the album’s songs follow rather exact the original composition, like Where Are You Now?, Angel and Tonight. Others may be less recognisable. In some cases the songs are containing now two parts to mark the difference of ‘early’ versus ‘late’, as can be heard on Love Me and Stop & Whistle.
The album opens with a new song, Early or Late. It deals with aspects of youth versus the process of ageing. It contains references to the current difficulties in the world during the corona pandemic. The song Early or Late is also be available in a special remixed edit version with a more intense synthesised feel and beat.
Like the previous album Piano & Guitar, Vol. II the acoustic and electric guitar have an important role on the album. Many songs have an acoustic country pop feel like Sing On and Dear Girl. The music has lots of variety where moods can quickly change like in the song sequence where the intensive Where Are You Now? is followed by a new wave oriented tune (I Beg You) then again followed by a more fragile electric guitar piece (Afterthought). New elements on the album are the introduction of the ukelele on the instrumental version of Dear Girl and the use of extended harmony vocals on Here She Comes.
Synthesizers used: Moog Voyager, Korg MS-20 mini, Sequential OB-6, Roland JX-3P, Arturia Matrixbrute and Roland JU-06. Electric guitars: Gibson ES-335DT, Gibson Custom RD, Kala KA-SA-TE-C Acacia Tenor Ukelele. Software synthesizers used: Spectrasonics Keyscape, Omnisphere 2, Arturia Mellotron V, Arturia Emulator II V (amongst many others). The album was recorded between February and May 2021.
The album and single will be available the second half of July through Spotify and other streaming services.