My new album, PRISM, released Friday, 7 February 2025. Use promo code “photon” to get 20% off this release, my biggest and longest to date!
PRISM follows the journey of a single photon through the spectrum of light, flashing from darkness through the dazzling light and color of the rainbow.
The entire album clocks in at fifty minutes, and features my longest composition to date, the title track, “PRISM.” This week, I’m featuring that title track.
My new album, PRISM, is out today, Friday, 7 February 2025. Use promo code “photon” to get 20% off this release, my biggest and longest to date!
PRISM follows the journey of a single photon through the spectrum of light, flashing from darkness through the dazzling light and color of the rainbow.
The entire album clocks in at fifty minutes, and features my longest composition to date, the title track, “PRISM.” It also comes packed with bonus material, including the following:
PRISM is a conceptual musical journey that encourages deep, meditative listening. It also makes for good background music if that’s more your speed.
PRISM is available on the following platforms:
Remember, use promo code “photon” for 20% off!
Happy Listening!
My next album, PRISM, releases tomorrow, so I thought I’d look back at a post about the bit of online frivolity that, in many ways, kickstarted the massive amount of composing I’ve undertaken over the last year.
I never did get around to writing those flute pieces for that one guy (see below), but I’m not too worried about it. I imagine one day I’ll get some more requests to compose some pieces, and I have quite a back catalogue from which to pull and adapt ideas.
With that, here is 29 February 2024’s “TBT^2: Composing Humorous Miniatures“:
I’ve got a weird one this week. You see, yours portly sometimes walks around his house singing old songs. This week’s Open Mic Adventures is a glimpse into the scruffy insanity that sometimes takes hold.
My love for programmatic music, especially music that depicts the glory of God’s Creation, is as strong as ever. Indeed, I am currently working on an album that will be my own attempt at something akin to Camille Saint-Saëns‘ The Carnival of the Animals. One day, I’ll have to write a post about that piece.
Regardless, it’s time once again to take my annual look back at one of Beethoven’s symphonies, and my personal favorite.
With that, here is 25 January 2024’s “TBT^16: Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony“:
The Sunday before the Inauguration I cheekily proposed to my pastor and our deacon that we should sing “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” for our morning congregational hymn in honor of Trump’s then-upcoming Inauguration. I had practiced the piece a bit Saturday evening, but with a pretty gnarly bout of sinus drainage, I found the high notes hard to hit.
Instead of singing the piece—a very old missionary tune by composer Lowell Mason, with words by Reginald Heber—either on my own or in church, I played it a few times as a bit of instrumental prelude music.
The melody for the piece is interesting, with a few suspensions and some unusual timing, like the long half-note pickup at the beginning and midway through the piece.
No movie review this week, dear readers. While I have quite a few posts scheduled, I was a bit short on time and haven’t watched anything worth reviewing lately, so I figured I’d do something a bit different today.
I was visiting Dr. Girlfriend this weekend, and for some reason, I started to tell her excitedly about the video that got me into history in a major way, Sid Meier’s Colonization.
I’ve finished composing my latest album of instrumental music, PRISM. It’s color-themed, very much like last year’s Four Mages; it will release to all platforms on Friday, 7 February 2025.
I enjoy composing with different colored pens, and Dr. Girlfriend gave me some awesome V5 Precision pens that are great for composing by hand.
This week I’m featuring the ninth track from the album, “Violet Fantasy“—note, that’s violet, like the color, not violent.
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Several Internet memesters and commentators have drawn parallels between Trump’s rise, fall, and return to the original Star Wars trilogy: his first term was A New Hope (1977); his stolen re-election bid was The Empire Strikes Back (1980); and his triumphant return (in just two days!) is Return of the Jedi (1983).
I’m not one to reduce all of human experience and history to pop culture touchstones—it drives me crazy when people reduce their entire understanding of the world to Harry Potter references—but I think the comparison is apt here. Trump won election in 2016 against all odds, taking on an Establishment that at first dismissed him as a political sideshow (myself included), then came to fear him. Much like the scrappy group of Rebel X-wing fighters blowing up the massive Death Star—a symbol of the Establishment’s massive, overwhelming power and reach—Trump and his allies blew up the Clinton regime, to the point that the juggernaut of the Clinton machine was utterly destroyed.
2020 saw the Establishment wise up, pulling out every crooked tactic at their disposal to assure Trump would not see a second term. Just as Lando Calrissian betrayed our heroes to Darth Vader to save his own skin, many fair-weather Trump supporters abandoned him in his hour of need, and even supported lesser “alternatives” in a morally compromised bid for relevance. This era would last well into the 2024 Republican primaries.
Then came 5 November 2024, the best Guy Fawkes Day in modern history. It was The Return of the Jedi, with Trump boldly marching directly into the wicked, venal, degenerate palace of the Establishment to free the J-6 political prisoners—and America—just as Luke strode confidently into Jabba’s Palace to confront the lugubrious crime lord over the capture of Han Solo.
We’re at the beginning of that flick now. The momentum is on Trump’s side. He’s already redeemed the fallen Tech Bros, just as Luke led his father to redemption. More machine than men, the tech oligarchs have fallen dutifully behind Trump.
Now: can they destroy the Emperor?
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I’m working on a new instrumental album, PRISM. It’s color-themed, very much like last year’s Four Mages. I enjoy composing with different colored pens, and Dr. Girlfriend gave me some awesome V5 Precision pens that are great for composing by hand.
This week I’m featuring the third piece I composed for the album, which will likely be the second track on the album, “Red Blur.”
The Portly Politico 