“Softly softly catchee Monkey”
Some ideas come in like a freight train, practically unstoppable and easily assimilated, but others, particularly the really tantalizing ones – well they’re something else – frolicking flights of fancy that dance around, daring to be captured as they inevitably elude harness and drift off to another host.
You see, you can’t just grab these ideas out of thin air – the very act of reaching for them seems to disturb their equilibrium, moving them in space and leaving you empty handed. The trick is to create an environment that draws them to you – where desire and possession are replaced with curiosity and openness – where they’ll literally sit on the top of your head and make a home for themselves.
Adam Protz’s Wait creates this environment beautifully.
Part of me wants to talk about the texture of the piano, the organic mechanical sound of the instruments and the lush patches that bring color, warmth and indeed protection, but what I really want to talk about is time.
About how tracks like this, in the hands of a pianist like Adam, create new time.
How the percussive nature of the composition establishes where time is – how subtly and softly time is then stretched – how the expectation of where time should fall is deftly delayed, and in the process, something new created – something out of time – a space – a magical space where indeed, if you’re lucky, a new idea can choose to land.
Well worth taking out for a spin.