The experimental composer
internationally known as Josh Stewart has released his new, epic LP
album, “Proemial.” The record contains eight original tracks plus
seven bonus commentary entries for an approximate total listening
time of one hour. Sweeping, soaring, multifaceted and as complex as
the listener's imagination allows it to be, “Proemial” is a
record for hardcore aficionados and ambient music fans alike.
Josh Stewart cites as main artistic
influences composers of soundtracks and soundscapes such as Olafur
Arnalds, Nils Frahm, Hans Zimmer, and Thomas Newman, but also
forward-thinking pop groups like Bon Iver.
His “Proemial” album differs from
the rest of his repertoire, as well as from nearly everything else
the music world has to offer, in having been written from the
percussion upward, rather than the other way around. This puts the
drums in a directorial role controlling the mode and tone of the
music instead of relegating them to mere timekeepers.
“It's really this conversation piece
between a drum kit and music around it,” writes Stewart. “The
concept began with this idea: what happens when a drummer sits down
behind a drum kit, and plays with no set tempo and no set grooves, no
direction, just a blank canvas for him to say whatever he feels?”
Stewart then composed the rest of the
piece around – not to say on top of – the drums, allowing them to
keep a primary and prominent place in each of the eight selections.
“So it was this experiment of
beginning a series of compositional pieces with a drum performance,
and then seeing how that would inspire music that would later be
written around it.”
The drummer in question is Atlanta,
GA's rhythm machine, TJ Rodriguez. At 20 years old, Rodriguez has
already made a career for himself after studying percussion at the
Atlanta Institute of Music. A full-time drummer for various artists
around the city, playing drums is his principle business. Stewart and
Rodriguez have been friends for a little over two years. TJ Rodriguez
delivers his own line of commentary about “Proemial” on Track 11,
“The Heart of the Drummer.”
Josh Stewart's music career began from
a bard's perspective – that music originates in the telling of
tales. Asked to describe his start as a composer, he answers, “Out
of my own curiosity of storytelling. I didn't grow up playing or
writing music. But when I began college, that was when music and
writing began to become an interest and byproduct of loving to tell
stories and of having stories told to me.”
But Stewart is also known for making
music from the perspective of the listener. “Proemial” (from the
Greek for 'introductory')
serves as a self-examination for him, but also of the music fan.
“[Making the album] was a process of
deconstructing how I write music. Hopefully, this gives listeners a
fresh way of listening to a song. But even deeper, how a drum kit can
talk to music, and command it. It was less about genre or song
structure but focused more on color and conversation within music. It
was an organic experience in seeing what music can come from. It was
a true representation of what the drummer was feeling and thinking
while playing. The music personifies his feeling and emotions.”
“Proemial” by Josh Stewart is
available online worldwide beginning late 20 January 2016 and may be
sampled at the official Josh Stewart website now (link provided
below). Get in early, fans of ambient and experimental music. Very
early.
-S. McCauley
Lead Press Release Writer
www.MondoTunes.com
“Proemial” by Josh Stewart
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