This is a journey into the unknown.
Departure is an album strongly built on curiosity, discovery, and freedom; freedom from genre and from the limitations of conventional piano playing. This journey introduces an expanded sonic palette.
 
For the past year, I have been listening intently to traditional sounds and music from around the world - from Africa, South-East Asia, Central & South America, and beyond. The initial intrigue and fascination with the sounds and colours of traditional instruments quickly turned into obsessive experimentations; searching to evoke similar sounds and emotional response from the western piano and other keyed instruments.
 
From the initial analysis and study of the music I heard in the form, scales, and performance practice (as well as taking note of prepared piano and extended techniques by pioneering composers such as John Cage and George Crumb) alongside more contemporary composers and producers, such as Hauschka and Aphex Twin; I began drawing blueprints to create my own world.
Over the past year the sounds and concepts gradually aligned into a journey, traveling through a series of soundworlds that organically unfold. Landscapes of nature and industrialisation, of interaction and solitude, of radiance and darkness... Like travelling through a tropical jungle, each turn brings a new discovery, creating a moment to be experienced.
 
I hope you enjoy this journey.
 
Musically yours,
 
Belle Chen, January 2019