S K Y L I G H T S E S S I O N S

That is how I described my Skylight Sessions album in the press release, and this very much rings true to me. Written and recorded entirely under the Velux window of my home studio, it is a record that I very much hope to be a soothing, transportive listen. A journey to places both familiar and otherworldly.

But, to extrapolate a little further, it's an album revolving around a window... and a window has two sides. With that in mind, I wanted to not just bring the listener to strange sonic lands outside the skylight, but to the places inside it too, my own strange world.

As such, it's a deeply, deeply personal record, probably my most introspective one to date - even if it does reach across the galaxy with cosmic tracks like Nebular Shroud and Io Rises. Incidentally, the former is designed to channel that feeling of looking up at a clear night sky, feeling that comforting starlit cloak settle around your shoulders. Whereas the latter is inspired by Io; both the Jupiterean moon, and the Greek mythological figure for whom it is named. Her story is a sad one, and I always felt she deserved better.

So yeah, there's no shortage of interstellar voyaging and celestial strangeness, but there are also tracks like Broken Sleep of the Clockmaker, which is probably the closest thing I have to an autobiographical piece.

As a person who often has trouble sleeping, I really wanted to try and capture the strange waking dream feeling that goes along with insomnia. Both spaced out and detached, yet ferociously fine-tuned awake at the same time; a weird paradoxical existence where nothing seems real, and yet hyper-real at the same time. With that in mind, I loved recording woozy, backwards piano chords, and working with audio of a pocket watch's workings, to reflect this somnambulist state.

The themes and settings on the rest of the album are myriad, from the healing property of time spent among trees celebrated in Shinrin-Yoku, to the ancient, neolithic splendour of Tomb Dive.

Prognosticator pays tribute to Argophrax, my long serving D&D character, while Irusu is a love letter to the simple practice of pretending not to be home when someone knocks on your door. Elsewhere there is no shortage of piano, birdsong, field recordings, arcane instrumentation and cosmic oddity.

I'm never sure how much of these background titbits are of interest in regards to my music, and I don't mean to bore on. Really, the reason I mention all this is that it shows just how much I feel I'm in a position where I've got pure freedom to make the music that I want to make.

And the reason I am in this position, and have that freedom, is entirely down to your absolutely incredible support - something for which I am so eternally grateful.

There are so many people to thank, and I've given a special mention to a few below. However, this is something that fills me with trepidation as there is never enough room to mention everybody.

With that in mind, please rest assured that if you've picked up this album, or any of my music, or enjoyed it in any shape or form, it is very much appreciated. And so are you. You personally allow me to keep doing this, and that is something I am extremely grateful for on a daily basis.

Finally, I should add one thing. This record was conceived and created in the early stages of lockdown during the Covid 19 pandemic (which is very much ongoing at the time of writing), at a time when myself and many were isolating to a major degree.

The life of a musician can make for much time inside, buried under dusty old synths and rat-kings of cables, but it is a different thing altogether when it is mandatory. And for good reason too; it's a terrifying, real threat. Furthermore, it is affecting everybody on the planet.

So, while I didn't intend for this to be a 'lockdown record', it is definitely born of this context, and it is one of the reasons I particularly wanted to make something soothing and meditative. My most sincere hope for this album is that it offers safe haven to those listening; a place of respite and calm. If indeed it does take you to strange sonic worlds, I am beyond honoured of they are worlds in which you find some peace.

Thank you for everything.

I hope you enjoy the record.

Peter/Alpha