released May 30, 2020

When creating this conceptual EP, I was on a solo journey in a foreign land away from everything familiar. The goal of this journey to awaken the creative senses to new sights and sounds that would inevitably shape the sound into a unique experience that the listener will actively feel. Melding the lines between lofi hip-hop, boombap, and chill-hop, Returning to Leave is quite hard to place in one particular genre due to its range of moods and textures.

This EP was composed initially as 1 melodic theme. I crafted different variations of the theme utilizing different harmonizations, instrumentation, and texture. As is typical, I had a hard time choosing which version built the sonic picture best. So, I decided to make this conceptual EP as 5 parts that all interweave together and become one 13 minute composition.

For me, when creating new music it almost always starts with the guitar. However, when initially creating this project, the goal was to use primarily nature sounds inspired by this journey and make it as organic as possible. Many of the melodic and rhythmic ideas in the background are sampled from nature. My goal for the use of instruments was alter the way they are normally performed, so in practice sessions I recorded, I cut up the samples, mapped them out to the keyboard, and played them in a fashion that is not idiosyncratic to the instruments themselves. Somehow, altering the sounds of nature and the desired sound of an instrument, and performing it in a way that is unique, helps to give a familiar sound a new flavor.

The title "Returning to Leave" was inspired by the realization that when I returned home after a year long journey, it was as if I was visiting a previous version of myself and the definition of home took on a new meaning as I left again for a 2nd time on another journey. Stay tuned for what's to come next. Cheers!