A Time for Peace is a Christmas-themed album of contemporary piano composed specially for the festive season! Released on Yellow Rose Records.

It features a collection of original piano tunes written and performed by 15 artists from all around the world (full track listing below).

The album has a calm and peaceful vibe providing a perfect backdrop for the upcoming holiday season and time to be spent with loved ones.

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A Moment of Wintry Wonder

My contribution to A Time For Peace is a new composition called A Moment of Wintry Wonder. Here’s the background story:

I wanted to write something that “sounded” wintry, and I also wanted to have some references to traditional Christmas or seasonal songs. I’ve always been a fan of Joni Mitchell, and her album Blue was a bit influence on me for its open and personal storytelling. The track River famously opens with the piano playing a very sad sounding Jingle Bells.

I decided to start and end my new piece with a similar reference to Jingle Bells, but when I made the recording I changed the rhythm. I hadn’t intended to do this – but it sounded right, so I left it like that!

I also remembered the lyrics for the Christmas song, All Through The Night (which I had recorded as a Christmas release in 2018). It begins: “Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee” – which seemed very appropriate for the theme of this compilation album: A Time For Peace. On my 2018 recording I imitated church bells at the beginning of the piece, and I had a repeating “Ding Dong” theme throughout. And in A Moment of Wintry Wonder I’ve added a similar pattern in the main body of the piece.

I like the chord structure of many carols – and had a lot of fun writing felt piano arrangements for 12 traditional Christmas in my 2020 album. I wanted to keep the feel of those chord structures in a brand new composition. Listening to the carols that I’d recorded for Deep and Crisp and Even I chose a chord sequence that had elements from several of the traditional works, I particularly like In the Bleak Midwinter – and you may be able to hear hints of that in A Moment of Wintry Wonder.

And then the title: It’s called A Moment of Wintry Wonder because of the times in my life when wintry scenes or events have evoked a feeling of excitement and joy. Fresh snow on tree branches. Children making snow people. And Christmas decorations and lights. The YouTube video uses photographs of the Christmas lights in London – mainly Regent Street, but also Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden.

Tracklisting (links to artist and track on Spotify):

1. Alstad – The Sparkle In Their Eyes
2. Sigvard – Christmas Solice
3. Andrea Sertori – The Children’s Tree
4. Stephen Weber – Peaceful Christmas
5. Melany Thompson – This Time
6. Oscar Pascasio – Christmas, A Special Night
7. Angel Ruediger – Stillness
8. Glenn Natale – Contentment
9. Antonija Pacek – Life Is…
10. Eric D. Lawrence – Home
11. Matt Tondut – Snow Globes
12. Rikard Mathisson – I vinternattens ljus
13. Mark W. Griffiths – Snow Drifting
14. Andrei Poliakov – One Little Miracle
15. Roger Evernden – A Moment of Wintry Wonder

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