Here are my original A Minute’s Peace compositions from Day #1 to Day #14. A compilation of these pieces is available to stream or download here.
…And Breathe This is the first piece I wrote for A Minute’s Piece, and it sets the tone for the project pretty well. Very chilled, with a bed of jazzy major sevenths and a melody that drifts around like a butterfly that’s wasted on Pimms.
Fork Hordes The title is an appalling pun on ‘four chords’, in reference to the Two Ronnies’ ‘fork handles/four candles sketch’. The chords in question belong to the extremely overused but nevertheless beautiful I-V-IV-VI progression.
Hollywood’s Calling I’m not sure what inspired this piece, but it’s somewhere between a film score and Enya. Dramatic and mysterious.
Glass Hall When I first wrote this, I described it as the intense lovechild of Moby and Philip Glass. I think that’s pretty accurate. I really love the chords in this one – very sad, and then very stirring at the end.
November Wind Most of the original pieces of this project are written shortly before being recorded, but I occasionally dip back into my personal archive (my hazy memory) for ideas that were never fully developed/released previously. This is an example of that, and was written sometime in the 2000s.
A Piece Of Fluff This is the exact opposite, and was written about 10 minutes before pressing record. I kind of prefer this approach, as it’s a little musical snapshot of how I was feeling at that exact moment in time. Happy and slightly rushed, in this case.
Enigma For G In G This piece was written in the key of G for ‘G’. Who that G is shall remain an enigma.
Triumph Ants For this piece, I wanted to see if I could write something that went from sad to triumphant (hence another appalling pun) in one minute. I think it does a decent job of that.
Sweet F Major A Minor One of my favourite chord progressions is I to iii (e.g. F major to A minor). It's so simple, but the drop of just one note by one semitone always hits hard. Or gives all the feels. Or legit low-key vibes hard. Whatever it is the youth say...
Stranger In The Store I really love this one – there’s quite a lot going on for a 64-second piece, and it has a really sweet melody. I can imagine it being extended into a full piece played by a jazz band. Well, I can dream…
The Thirties My grandad taught me pretty much everything I know about the piano, even though his style was very different to what mine was to become. My left hand, for example, is a sort of slightly agitated arpeggiating octopus; whereas his was more of a metronomic stride, like a graceful and surprisingly agile elephant. Anyway, he was wonderful, and this is my tribute to him. You can see a clip of him playing on the About page.
Pause For Thought I wrote this piece of music in 1994 or 1995. Seems like at the age of 12 I was already a melancholy old git. I think it’s quite a sweet piece, though.
When I wrote this one a quarter of a century ago and it was originally a pop song with cheesy lyrics. This version is thankfully instrumental.
Dinner Plans I think I was unwittingly channelling Noel Coward in this one. To help write the melody, I made up some lyrics about what to have for dinner. I’ll spare you the vocal recording, but if you’d like to sing along: I think I might / Have linguine bolognese tonight / With cheese and basil on the top / Or I could just have beans on toast / Or take myself for a roast / But whatever I do for dinner tonight / Without you, it’ll be s****