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June 15, 2018Welcome to Sunstrike Piano!
As the tag line says, “A little nature; a little piano; a lot of play.”
I am a pianist with a cell phone who decided in 2018 to release a “secret” album… and then let his project spiral out of control. (Check out my blog. It tells more of the story!)
Now I am incorporating videos of my walks in nature to piano music and releasing it just for you. Hope you enjoy the results of my morbid experiment!
Below are YouTube video playlists with all of Sunstrike Piano’s releases up to date. All music is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, or your digital platform of choice.
Want to help support Sunstrike Piano?
Purchase a digital download. Stream it non-stop. Tell your friends. Send them to my Facebook and Instagram pages.
Also, please join my mailing list! (Trust me. One man operation here. You won’t be drowning in mail. I don’t have that much time in the day.)
On my personal website, I often blog with suggestions for musicians and music leaders.
I am also preparing yet another website Sunstrike Files that will focus on artists, the creation of art, and just in general people doing cool stuff and having amazing adventures.
Here are the releases, beginning with the most recent:
Whole Heart (Hold Me Now) – originally by Hillsong United – was a single I released on my birthday. With COVID – and 2020 in general – happening, it took on a special importance.
No matter what all is going on in the world or our world, we need God in our lives. We are all here for a purpose – which is to glorify His name – but we may not necessarily know what form that is going to take. Everything can break loose, but he is still there with us.
The Goodness of God (July 2020) is Sunstrike Piano’s fourth release.
After getting fired (rather dramatically) from my job in June, I was faced with a lot of decisions about what needed to be done next. That included choices about who I was going to be and what I would allow into my life from that point forward. This album was essentially my “first step” out the door, so I decided it was time to release something rawer, truer to me, and more representative of my piano style.
The previous three releases were done on an old Technics electric piano, but I chose for this one – and any future recordings – to be done on my acoustic Kawai grand. Given the pandemic had already kicked in by then – and my regular piano tuner is 91 years old – I decided to tune the piano myself, pull out what mics I had, and just go for it.
With the exception of “Grace for Hannah” – which I wrote for a special young lady – these are all covers of Gospel and Christian Contemporary music.
My Shelter (September 2018) is Sunstrike Piano’s third release and my first time releasing cover songs. At the time, I was playing mostly Christian Contemporary Music, so I just decided to go with it. The title track “My Shelter” is an original.
This Is Home (July 2018) is Sunstrike Piano’s second release. My hometown of Miamisburg, Ohio was celebrating its Bicentennial and I wrote it a love letter. If you want to know what “Phosphorus” is about… well… Just go ahead and Google that one.
Lil’ Kat Brook (June 2018) is the “morbid experiment” that kicked off this madness. You can check out the story here. All nine tracks are original, with two of them being named after special people.
This album (and This is Home) was recorded on a banged-up 120-lb Technics electric piano I purchased in 1998, put through an M-Audio Fast-Track Ultra, processed through Audacity, and then uploaded to LANDR for mastering.
The album cover was photographed and created by one of my best friends, which you may refer to as DEELSMASH. Chaos is always more fun when friends get involved.