Before the Lockdown (2020)

An album of piano improvisations recorded shortly before the global coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

I was inspired to record some piano improvisations every other day around February/March of 2020. I, of course, had no idea that the coronavirus pandemic would occur on the scale that it did when I started recording this album. My living arrangements changed when the lockdown restrictions came into force around the start of April, and it was no longer possible for me to make this kind of recording.

The idea came from a friend’s art blog. She would post some sketch or drawing every day, even if it wasn’t her best work or just an idea which hadn’t really been fleshed out yet. I decided to do the same on piano; each track is recorded in a single take, some have mistakes in them, and some are not great ideas to begin with, but I think the final product is true to the original idea.

I would like to dedicate this album; to everyone we lost in the pandemic; to everyone we will continue to lose to it; and to those of us left behind, for the sacrifices we have had to make.