From an email regarding Tears in the Rain:

In this music there are pauses that are very poetic and at the same time very emotional.

Thank you, that’s one of my favorite compliments. A pause in music is the same as white space on a canvas. Japanese music more than any other music utilizes that space. Most traditional Japanese music does not have a specific meter or pulse running through it. Spaces are notated as such and do not have a specific length. Space or silence is considered just as creative an expression as sound. Actually, I think space is harder to create – it seems to require more experience.

I listened to the six pieces in the Tears in the Rain album this morning and I love what I hear. It sounds bare, exposed, personal, tender, but also strong and confident. I have wanted to do improvisations like this for a long time, but something was missing before and so it remained private until now. I feel that there is more about me in these six pieces than in all my previous albums combined. Or maybe I should say that it is a very different POV of that arbitrary collection of experience and preference that makes up OL.

In case you are new to this Diary – Tears in the Rain is a work in progress, a collection of solo guitar pieces available only from our ListeningLounge. I have recorded six pieces so far and upload them as they are created, without EQ or compression.