Julian's Solo Album, "heaven?indeed"
After months and countless hours of detailed planning and writing, I am finally ready to give you my first solo album! I have set eight poems by the great American poet E.E. Cummings to original music that deeply considers the use of rich colors and textures to support Cummings' poetry, which is also characterized by these considerations.
THE PROJECT
The compositional process involved always starting with the text- Countless hours were spent reading the text aloud to see what musical associations it would spark in my imagination. As for the music itself, the use of texture and color were inspired by Claude Debussy and Billy Strayhorn, two of my personal favorite composers. Their styles and abilities to paint pictures with their music made this project as much of a musical color study in darkness and light (called "chiaroscuro" in music and visual art) as it was a group of text settings.
With those aesthetic considerations on the forefront of the creative process, the choice of musicians capable of thinking in that headspace was clear.
Daniel Thompson- piano, co-composer.
Matteo Sabattini- soprano saxophone, co-composer
Matt Smiley- bass
Sarute "Kai" Wijitwechakarn- drums
Peter Sommer- tenor saxophone
Romina Monsanto, cello
Jessica Bachman, cello
I NEED YOU
Simply put, a project like this (and really, any recording project) has quite a number of fees associated with it. Meeting the funding goal would cover the costs of tracking, mixing, mastering, album artwork (by the amazing Lydia Cruz and Allison Wheeler!), marketing, copyright, manufacturing for physical copies, digital distribution, and compensation for the incredible musicians that agreed to play on the project.
Your decision to help me out fund this project means that I can finally share my hard work with the community in a tangible way. When you decide to fund this album, you expedite the process of process of production and help poise me to perform a live release of this music. Our deadline for release is January 15th, so it would be most helpful if the project could meet its funding goal by Dec. 24th at 11:59pm.
The fact can't be avoided- I cannot do this project without you. Your support would mean everything to me- it would validate the hours I've spent working to bring this vision to fruition as well as give me an opportunity to give back to YOU. It goes without saying that every bit helps. If you can find the time and generosity to help fund my project, you'll have provided me with the resources to keep on giving back to you all both during and after the process of releasing this album.
HOW I'LL GIVE BACK TO YOU
$25+ : 1 early Digital Download (up to 50)
$100+ : 1 early Digital Downloads and a handwritten thank you card (up to 20)
$500+ : 1 CD, 1 Digital Download, a handwritten thank you card
$1,000+ : Private Performance of the Album
$3,000 + : Executive producer credit, lunch meet-up, 1 CD.
Love to you all!
Julian C.
