Metamorphosen Digitiphonic Changes has now been released on Apple Music, Spotify and all good internet music stores. Here is the Apple link for it - 

Tomorrow, 1st April 2022 my reinvention of R Strauss' Metamorphosen is released on Bandcamp.

After 3 years - the first year researching and deciding if I had the courage to attempt it, then 2 years arranging, producing and recording, I have at last finished my Digitiphonic version of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen.

Richard Strauss wrote Metamorphosen at the end of World War 2 as a lament for the destruction of the cultural life and architecture of Berlin - and everywhere else in Europe I guess too - so, even though I started it so long ago, with no idea of what would take place in Ukraine, it seems particularly relevant now, with the needless desecration of war once again tearing apart the fabric and architecture of Europe.. 

Originally Strauss meant Metamorphosen to be a Choral piece, but he changed it to a string piece when he was offered a commission for a strings only piece. So, in this version I have used the words, by Goethe, that he was planning to use. They are beautiful words - the English translation is as follows - 

"No one can really know himself, 
detach himself from his inner being 
Yet, each day he must put to the test, 
What is in the end, clear. 
What he is and what he was, 
what he can be and what he might be. 

But, what goes on in the world, 
No one really understands it rightly, 
and also up to the present day, 
no one desires to understand it. 
Conduct yourself with discernment. 
Just as the day offers itself; 
Think always: it's gone well up to now, 
so might it go until the end."

The final mix is currently with the talented mastering engineer Marcin Bociński in Warsaw. Hopefully it will be finished by early April, then released shortly after that.

My String Quartetettes 0-10 are released on all internet music platforms now. Follow this link for a list of available platforms to stream or buy them - smarturl.it/quartetettes0-10

For the first time in my life I have written a piece of music the tempo of which is marked as 'Grave' (that's 40 bpm, very slow) so in a cunning play on words I thought I would find some shots of graves to put with it. This will be the second movement of my first String Quartet (If I finish the other movements that is)