FOR SOPHIE
2021

As our youngest daughter approached her seventeenth birthday, deep in exam preparations, I asked her what she would like as a gift. Her request was simple yet deeply personal: "An album of piano works just like the ones you improvise—to study and relax to." I had spent countless hours at the piano, lost in free-flowing improvisation, never considering those musical moments to have any real value beyond my own enjoyment. They felt like nothing more than a lazy stream of consciousness. Yet, her request made me pause and reconsider. Determined to bring her vision to life, I took it as an opportunity—not just to compose, but to learn the full process of music production, from start to finish, using Cubase. On her birthday, I released For Sophie, a collection of seven piano pieces written in just one week, launching it on Spotify. Despite no deliberate promotion, the album found its way into unexpected corners of the digital world. To date, it has surpassed 10,000 streams, with listeners tuning in from more than 25 countries—a surprising and humbling experience. The process of composing quickly and intuitively was both enjoyable and illuminating. It deepened my connection with the folk tradition of spontaneous music-making, where melody and emotion intertwine naturally, free from over-analysis. It reminded me of the beauty in simplicity—the power of music that just makes sense. Two of the pieces have since evolved into larger works, continuing their journey beyond the original album: - Autumn - Blood Moon - Snow - Purple - At the End of the World - Innocence - And Then It Was Gone