Tom Rogerson – Retreat To Bliss – Vinyl LP Released 25/03/22

Description

Since the release of his last album 2017s Finding Shore, a collaboration with Brian Eno pianist and singer-songwriter Tom Rogersons life has undergone a number of dramatic transformations. While writing his new album Retreat to Bliss, Rogerson had a child, lost a parent, and received his own diagnosis of a rare form of blood cancer. The new decade brought him from Berlin to the Suffolk of his childhood, composing profound pieces of minimal songwriting in the church next to his parents home. All my life, the piano has been my constant companion, my confessor, my best friend, and my worst enemy, Rogerson explains. Ive always written music on and for the piano, but it felt too personal, too private to release. Indeed, listening to Retreat to Bliss feels almost like eavesdropping, as though youre crouched in the belfry of a Suffolk church, bearing witness to a form of musical bloodletting. For the first time in his noteworthy career, Rogerson has combined masterful piano playing and subtle electronics with the texture of his own voice, an attempt to express deeply private emotions that were difficult to articulate using instrumental music alone. The last few years have brought some struggle, some joy, and a lot of change. My response has been to retreat to what I trust the most: the piano, my voice, and the landscape I grew up in. Thats how the album got its title, and how I came to be ready finally to release a solo record.