Today is 2 May 2024, exactly twenty-six weeks to Halloween! What better day to release my latest collection of compositions, Four Mages?
đ§ââď¸Four Magesđ§ââď¸ is a collection of ten electronic tracks, all but one of which (“The Blind Prophet“) is color-coded. Each piece explores some facet of fantasy archetypes, weaving and casting a musical spell upon listeners.
The imminent release of Four Mages on 2 May 2024 draws every closer, dear readers, and I’m continuing to feature some of the pieces from that album here. Today’s piece, “The Blind Prophet,” is one I particularly enjoy for its playful experimentation with irregular time signatures and multimeter wackiness.
I’m still promoting my latest release, Leftovers II, but I’m also excited for my next album, Four Mages, which releases Thursday, 2 May 2024. Of course, if you’d like to hear Leftovers II, you can do so at the following places (and probably more):
Last week I released Leftovers II, and in just a few weeks I’ll release my next album, Four Mages (2 May 2024). If you’d like to hear my latest release, you can do so here:
Readers might have noticed some of the colorful mages popping up over the last few weeks on this blog. I’ve posted three of the Four Mages so far (“Black Mage” is coming this Tuesday, 9 April 2024—stay tuned!), so I thought I’d share them with y’all this Lazy Sunday:
“Open Mic Adventures LXXIII: ‘Blue Mage’” – âBlue Mageâ is a duet for oboe and bassoon, built upon a mysterious whole tone scale. The piece is written in 5/8 time, further lending to the mystical feel of this magical journey.
“Open Mic Adventures LXXIV: ‘Red Mage’” – âRed Mageâ is a mischievous and playful duet for oboe and bassoon. It is the companion piece to âBlue Mage.â The piece has a playful, mischievous feel, and I love how it sounds very much like itâs from a fantasy JRPG soundtrack.
“Open Mic Adventures LXXV: ‘White Mage’” – âWhite Mageâ is a bright but flowing solo for flute with celesta accompaniment. A piano could be substituted in place of the celesta. It has a delightful Final Fantasy vibe.
Today is Bandcamp Friday! That means Bandcamp waives their share of any purchases made on my Bandcamp page today (Friday, 5 April 2024), so itâs the best possible time to buy my music if you want to support yours portly.
You can listen to the full thing on Bandcamp for free a few times before Bandcamp locks out full track playback. However, if funds are tight and you’d rather not pay $5 for the album (which you should totally do anyway—it’s just five bucks!), you can listen to the album through the following services:
Last Friday, 1 March 2024, I released Epistemology, my latest collection of original compositions. I personally think it’s some of the best of my newer works.
You can listen to and/or purchase Epistemology through the following services (and more!):
Last Sunday I was exceptionally busy and had to phone in my already-phoned in Lazy Sunday post. Today I’m doing the ultimate phoning in and taking yet another day away from the blog (as it were—gotsta keep that daily post counter mollified). I’ll actually be doing a significant amount of writing this afternoon, so have no fear—we’ll back to the more-or-less regular schedule tomorrow.
I wasn’t completely useless. I finished composing for my next major release, Four Mages. It’s a collection of fantasy-inspired instrumental music, with nine of its ten tracks corresponding to different fantasy archetypes (each with their own color). The titular mages are “Red Mage,” “Blue Mage,” “Black Mage,” and “White Mage.” The other tracks (in no particular order) are as follows:
“Pink Princess”
“Purple Prince”
“Green Knight”
“Yellow Knight”
“Brown Friar”
“The Blind Prophet”
That album will hit Bandcamp and all streaming services (sans Spotify) on Thursday, 2 May 2024—exactly halfway to Halloween! It seemed an appropriate time to release a fantasy album.
Even better:  I have a new album out today! You can pick up Epistemology for $5. Itâs ten tracks of original instrumental music. Your digital purchase includes not just the music, but also full scores for every song; music videos for each piece; handwritten manuscripts for most of the pieces; and exclusive artwork (including artwork to accompany every piece on the album).
Thereâs a lot to dig into in this release. The title track, âEpistemology,â is a multipart suite for clarinet, bass clarinet, and piano exploring various philosophical theories about how we know what we know.
If youâre feeling generous and want my entire catalog of fourteen releases, my entire discography is half-off. Thatâs fifteen releases for $28.39, or $1.89 per release.
Tight on cash? No worriesâyou can listen to Epistemology on any streaming platform (except for Spotify), and all the tracks are on my YouTube page (you should subscribe to that, by the wayâitâs free!).
Iâm excited about this release, and I appreciate your support.
I’ve been composing like a madman lately, so much so that my brother is calling me the “Stephen King of Composing,” not because my pieces are particularly horrifying, but because I am slamming them out with the speed and consistency of the great horror writer.
I thought I’d take a short break from composing, but within a couple of days I was back in my music journal and Noteflight, composing new works. In the process, I’ve stumbled upon my next project: Four Mages.
I started with composing two pieces in my music journal, “Blue Mage” and “Red Mage,” which I then polished and altered in Noteflight. That start got me the idea that I needed a “White Mage” and a “Black Mage” to accompany those pieces.
Here’s a video version of “White Mage,” which I think is my favorite so far:
Bandcamp
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Qobuz
YouTube
The Portly Politico 