I began working on my own music a few years ago, when I discovered a new generation of artists who wrote contemporary music for the piano.
Inspired by modern classical artists like Greg Haines or Poppy Ackroyd, I am experimenting with combination of the acoustic instrument and electronic elements. My music varies between Ambient, New Age and Solo piano works.
The writing process is very much influenced by an improvisational approach, trying to capture the creative moment as accurate as possible. I am still learning how to put my musical ideas into a finished songs, and I hope to release more music along the road...
I wrote Whatever #3 when I had just broken my right foot. I was stuck at home and while I had plenty of time to kill, I remembered a podcast with a collection of my favorite piano songs I once made. Friends and colleagues wondered if the songs were performed by myself (i wish!), but I thought it would be a nice idea to do this one day.
So I sat down at my digital Piano and started recording a few classical and contemporary songs that inspired me. Whatever #3 became my first Piano piece that was more composed in a traditional way since there were no additional instruments or effects added.
Thomas Nau - Plays was a Christmas gift for my close friends and family, but I also decided to release it for free so people can give it away, too. You can still download and listen to the full album on Soundcloud and Whatever #3 is a part of it.
Whatever #2 was recorded during a very long and cold Berlin winter - the whole city was covered in a thick white layer of ice and snow. Since I am freezing immediately, I am not a very big fan of outdoor activities during this time of the year. But you can't stay at home forever (or can you?), so I went for a walk through a park close by. The snow was still fresh and You could hear the clinging of snow cristals everywhere.
Back home I tried to reproduce this sound with my piano. Only this time I used more layers and a lot of effects on the recorded loops. The Piano melody was still improvised and recorded in one Go. Listening back it always reminds me that I should leave my apartment more often for a walk...
When I recorded the first piece of my "Whatever" series (the songs have no name, so you can call them whatever you like), I had just moved into my new Berlin apartment with my beloved Yamaha Piano. I had been traveling for a long time and after listening to a lot of modern classical music on the road, I felt the desire to make music myself.
Inspired by Artists like Greg Haines, I tried to combine my acoustic instrument with electronic elements. So I set up a USB microphone, recorded a few notes into my iPad, added some effects, and then started to play the Piano on top of it.
I was very exhausted from all the touring and I guess that is what this piece kind of reflects. The result is a fully improvised take, only the fade-in and out werde edited afterwards. And if you listen closely, you can even hear a car slowly driving by my open balcony windows. :)