All tracks written and performed by Chris Fitkin

Recorded at Townshend Village Hall

Cover image by Chris Fitkin

Over the last few years, the composer Chris Fitkin has created music that is predominantly gentle, calm, reflective and sparse.

His earlier compositional style was tonal and tended towards what many identify as minimalism. Works from this period include Cage (six pianos), 100 Measures and Flowing Forms.

Then, after a lengthy break from music, Chris started composing again in 2015. His work from this time onwards is more astringent harmonically and is often economical, low in note density and quiet in volume. In fact, in many ways it is more genuinely minimal than his earlier output.

His latest compositions include DISPERSION for Kantele, Othata for Piano & String Quartet, and Lines From The Renaissance for Cello and Piano. These pieces use all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, split into hexachords. The hexachords are subject to different levels of processing, some being more formalised and others more free form.

In addition he continues to add to a large catalogue of solo piano music, with Now Songs completed and recorded in 2022.

The extraordinary sound worlds he has created with these pieces are both restrained and transparent. They are informed by an acute aural sensitivity, and a commitment to atmosphere and emotion. This is balanced by a fascination with planning and structure.
Chris offers the listener a rare opportunity to experience those subtle nuances that are impossible to hear in ‘busier’ music. Yet while his latest music is meditative in character, it is not meditation music, and more intense passages do occasionally emerge casting darker, busier shadows into the mainly empty soundscape.

fitkinmusic.com