When I make up this kind of romantic music on the spot, I’m using the language of music to explore, evoke or enter a transformed state, an altered state of consciousness, if you like. Sharing it is more of a conversational thing than a performance – as I often say, I feel more like a stand up musician. I use whatever feelings happen to be present as a starting point, however mundane or everyday they might be – today, I was feeling a little sad and uncertain about the world (well, who doesn’t?) – and from this starting point, the music seems to go deeper into the feelings, deeper into the shadows, to generate a kind of alchemy, where those feelings become beautiful. They may not be happy, certain feelings, but they are feelings of great compassion and love, acceptance and wonder.

In this video I talk about how improvising music is as natural as speaking, and it’s nice to do even when you don’t feel well, as it has the power to make you feel better!

In these videos I explore the inner realms of consciousness that music has the power to uncover. As a fluent musician, I use the language of rhythm and tonality to explore and express inner consciousness spontaneously, and this can open up a portal into a magical realm, taking me out of the mundane, daily grind. In this piece, the realm I go to is a dark one, yet beautiful and compelling too. I hope you like visiting it with me…

Darkest Green is an original piano composition from my project Butterflies, which has nothing to do with their aesthetics but rather their symbolism – exploring themes of transformation, emergence, inner metamorphosis.

This piece explores the hidden beauty of change, and the fragile power of transcendence, as it moves through shadows and feelings of uncertainty, with fluttering textures and expansive sweeps that reflect the tension between darkness and the fertile possibility of becoming.

Thank you for listening — I hope this piece says something that is relevant to you.

In this deeply felt piano performance, I tell a story of loss – of how being in a familiar beautiful place – last visited with someone loved and lost – can cause an avalanche of bittersweet memories. This original composition is both a reflection on longing and absence, but also the beauty of remembering. Before I play, I speak briefly about the creative process. If you’re experiencing loss and sadness, or just need a quiet moment of inward reflection, I hope this might bring you some solace.

In this piano piece, I improvise sweet, warm, delicious jazzy harmonies with lyrical flourishes to create impressionistic, soulful music that floats over a sparse mid tempo hip-hop style beat to create feelings of equanimity and balance.

In this piece, “Darkest Before Dawn”, I use the poetic structure of the rhythmic matrix or groove to generate a powerful feeling of poetic flow and deep, melancholy feeling. It’s easy to play the notes, as there are so few of them, but the poetry needs disciplined focus as you let go to feel the waves of flowing energy. The sheet music is available here.

On a hot humid day, I decided to make a refreshing, sweet piano improvisation over a cool groove in 11/16 time.

The imagination can invent such extraordinary dreams that can leave us feeling a little untethered. Music has the power to bring us back to our centre.