tobias tinker - The Broken Saints Concert

audio CD / download
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Late in 1999, I was asked by my cousin Brooke if I would be willing to contribute some music to a project he had begun, called 'Broken Saints'. It was planned as a 24-part series, presented online, combining his writing and direction with the artistic and programming talents of two other collaborators.

At the time I was in the process of moving to Europe to pursue other musical goals, and could not work on the project full-time, so I offered him my back-catalogue of instrumental compositions; these subsequently became the core soundtrack for the first third or so of the series...

After a year or so, two things became clear to us: first, that Broken Saints had touched a nerve with a growing internet community, obviously more than ready for storytelling of the depth and scope that Brooke and company were creating; and second, that they were going to need some more music.

So began a period of compositional activity which, although I was unaware of it at the time, would dominate the next few years of my creative life. When we were at the end of this rather intense process, I thought it would be interesting to take some of the themes which had become important in the series, and put them into a different and more intimate musical setting: as a solo piano concert. Thus I have selected four themes - two from previously extant material, two composed specifically for the series - and used them as 'springboards' for the extended improvisations on this album. The resulting journeys, almost 78 minutes in total, took me quite far from the source material, but I hope I have not lost its essential spirit...

1. Act I - Shandala's Dream / The Child
2. Act II - Revelation / Concentric Spirals