RE:BREATHING

sM | You recorded the pieces on breathe both as solo works and with the RPO, how does the concept of breathing alone and breathing together inform your compositional process?

CL ── I‘ve always been a solo pianist as far as how I think about things, but I wanted there to be more colour in this release. What I wanted to do initially was to have the album be programmatic, so the very first song would‘ve been on solo piano, the second song would‘ve been a duet, then a trio, then quartet─and just grow from there. You‘re letting go of everything that you‘ve been carrying, and you‘re bringing people in to help you let go of that. It worked out to where we could create with this massive orchestra ... and I‘m not gonna turn down the idea of doing all these songs with the RPO. When we all came together, not to be cliché, it was the most magical experience I‘ve ever had. We had these two years of being completely alone, and now you‘re surrounded with the most beautiful sound in the world. You have everyone come back together again, and it is this huge exhale. That was the whole purpose of the album, breathe. I wanted to create something where people could close their eyes and just exhale what they‘re carrying. As you leave this door going back out into the world, what things are you gonna leave behind? What things are you not going to pick up on your way out? That‘s what this album is.