Since December of last year, I've been releasing a track every month, a part of an ongoing album release entitled ‘Celeste’. It's been a great challenge to keep up with the schedule of completing the tracks, some of which were only embryonic at the time I decided to go ahead with the project. I've been really lucky to work with Pietro Amato, a fabulous Montréal-based musician, composer and mixing engineer, on final mixes and mastering.
My latest track, ‘Rings’ is maybe the most ambitious so far.
patrickgraham.bandcamp.com/album/celeste
In 2020, I finally caught the synthesizer bug. Over the last 5 years, learning how to manipulate the enormous sonic palette available with only a few instruments has been tremendously inspiring. In ‘Rings’, the amazing voices of the Chromaplane and the Enner are most prominent in a revolving mass of sounds.
This music is dedicated to my friend, Hideo Arai. Hideo is a multi-talented dance-artist, one of the most creative people I’ve had the good fortune to count as a friend and collaborator. Four years ago he was diagnosed with ALS, a devastating motor neuron disease. While his life is becoming increasingly fragile, he continues to teach and to remain as active as possible, including writing a book about his work as an artist and teacher. His courage in the face of this fatal disease has been an inspiration to me and everyone around him.
I am donating all of the proceeds from sales of this track and the album to Hideo to help him pay for the rising costs of his care.
Learn more about the disease and donate to your local ALS society, such as als.ca in Canada.
Thanks for your support, I hope you enjoy the new music as much as I enjoyed making it.