Adriaan Swerts - One (Piano and Coffee)

What You Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

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What We Say

Field recordings from Adriaan Swert's tour of Icelandic glaciers & Scottish lochs guide and the beauty of nature, celebrations of life & love temper this graceful & palliative neoclassical ambient meditation for Piano and Coffee Records on the fragility of existence, something we've all probably contemplated more than usual the last couple of years.

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What The Release Notes Say

Belgian composer and sound artist Adriaan Swerts announces the release of his debut full-length album One in collaboration with piano and coffee records – a collection of twelve deeply personal compositions that, originally, were not conceived with the idea of ever getting released but that, like shards of ice, slowly floated together and formed an island of music.

Both a life-threatening accident – which caused his disability – and the passing of his grandfather confronted Adriaan with the fragility of life. Thematically, this album deals with the eternal, life fading away, death, and the afterlife. At the same time, it attempts to celebrate the beauty of love, life, nature and all that lives on earth.

The characteristic sounds on this album are field recordings of natural landscapes Adriaan visited, which he transformed into instruments and used almost solely to compose. The piano and other acoustic instruments such as the harmonium and strings, as old but not forgotten classical friends, are the other elements that accompany these transformed natural sounds. Icelandic glaciers, geysers, Scottish lochs, waterfalls, oceans and more all found a home on this album. In addition, Swerts uses reel-to-reel tape processing to degrade the sound of the recordings and make them sound broken – a reflection of what his body feels like.

The artwork of the album similarly reflects Adriaan's focus on the theme of the fragility of life and nature. The cracks in the ice symbolise how easily something can be broken into pieces – just like what happened to his body after his accident – but can still be a whole. In addition, Adriaan crafted a videoclip for each piece of the album through the process of cymatics – the study of visible sound vibration and the transformational nature of sound and matter. He filmed the sound vibrations caused by his music in water, unveiling beautiful and unique geometric patterns for each composition.

CREDITS
All music was composed and produced by Adriaan Swerts.
Mastered by Ian Hawgood at Mokoshi Mastering.
Artwork and design by Celia Bayo.

A loving thanks to my wife, my family and friends who enlighten my world. May this music provide you some peace and stillness in this busy world.

P&C 2022 Adriaan Swerts under exclusive license to Piano And Coffee Records. All rights reserved.
adriaanswerts.be
pianoandcoffee.com

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