My dear friend, and avid listener of my music, Steven Leak, has yet again kindly curated another compilation of pieces taken from my "Solo Guitar Series". He has also contributed most of the artwork used in this series.

The compilations from 2021 and 2022 can be found here: eeeskildsen.bandcamp.com/album/an-introduction-to-otherness-selected-solo-guitar-works
eeeskildsen.bandcamp.com/album/falling-into-otherness-selected-solo-guitar-works

Here is what Steven has to say about his selection for this year's compilation.

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Welcome to “A Guide to Anotherness (Selected Solo Guitar Works)".

Erik has once more and generously given me the honour and challenge of curating this collection of his music. I will say unreservedly that if like me, you’ve been listening to Erik’s music for some time or, if you are new to Erik’s music, either way you are in for a real treat!

This year’s collection contains music chosen from Erik’s creations over the last two years. As I said to Erik recently, what surprised me was how despite the fact that Erik’s most recent music has a new sound and new “voices” in it, the older tracks sit comfortably alongside them.

Among the small wonders and perhaps the very big joys of living in this place are those moments where otherness makes itself present. “Otherness”... simply and magically, in my own experience is a quality of expression or experience that provides access and insight into something ”other”. Perhaps this experiencing of “otherness” brings with it a new way of seeing, a new way of hearing, and (by extension of both experiences), there arrives the possibility that we might get to a place where a way of being more than what we already are is made available to us.

“Anotherness” describes the place we find ourselves in when, after a long silence, we find a way to open and make ourselves available to the mystery and magic of creative expression. The scenery is somewhat familiar, the language perhaps also familiar, but the paintings we paint, the music we make is unique to that moment of acclimation, that experience of expressing another otherness.

The music on this album was chosen to reflect that experience.

Steven Leak, Ontario, Canada, December 2023