Daniel Jorgensen's enjoyment of simple and minimalistic piano music progressed over the years into the 2011 creation of his own solo piano project, named after himself. Taking a step away from the ambient and organic rhythmic elements of his previous releases, he chose to utilize the piano, two microphones, and the occasional ambient texture as his tools in recording music often exuding a wistful and nostalgic warmth that bespeaks cherished memories of days long past.
Discography
A Search for Somewhere Else | 2011
Examples
Daniel Jorgensen's special ability to infuse his piano solos with considerable poignancy and emotional weight is evident in his first piano release, laden with aural warmth and subtle tenderness. At first listen, you may wonder how something so thread-bare and austere could have clawed its way into your emotions quite so. Though with more intentional encounters with this collection of 14 songs, one realizes how absorbed one becomes in the album and how captivating one man and a piano can be. Introspective and sincere,this album is guided by moods and colors more than concrete musical ideas, notably melancholia and wistfulness.
"A Search for Somewhere Else" is a body of music so intimate and hushed you can practically hear the microphones breathing. Besides the occasional gentle contribution of ambient texture, the only accompaniment to the lonely piano is the warm hiss and static of the recording device used. Underneath the softly and delicately played keys, one can actually hear floor boards creaking and errant noises rustling in the gaps between his delicately poised chords, almost like Daniel is sitting in the room, telling melodic stories of his past, reaching back to his childhood in Austria, with careful and thoughtful poise. The beauty doesn't come from needless reverb or a chain of effects but simply from the composition and the sound of the instrument itself. His meticulous structuring and layering gives the feeling you are standing next to the grand piano which drives the album, and at times somehow sitting next to the corda and dampen pedals, though this is never a detraction nor a distraction.
In terms of composition, the songs are pretty enough – flowing between chords as a helpless monologue of unrequitement, occasionally fluttering in arpeggiated sequences, but often hovering over the mournful decay of each chord, allowing each piece to breathe. Touching and affecting, the themes of this album are clear: friendship, love, forgiveness, loss, hope, and, as the title suggest, a search for a place beyond one's current surroundings or situation. Melodies heard and felt. This album remains a calming and transporting journey worth revisiting on those quiet, rainy days best spent inside.