My dear friend, and avid listener of my music, Steven Leak kindly curated this compilation of pieces taken from my "Solo Guitar Series". Steven has also contributed most of the artwork used in this series. Here is what Steven has to say about his selection.

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Welcome to "An Introduction to Otherness (Selected Solo Guitar Works)".

Erik gave me the honour and challenge of curating this collection and I will say unreservedly that if you are new to Erik’s music you are in for a real treat!

“Otherness”... 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 to something ”other”. Perhaps this experiencing of “otherness” arrives as 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.

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

“Retrocede Retreat”... Opens tentatively, almost shyly. Erik begins this piece by layering and looping little threads of sound that braid themselves around what feels like a song being sung by his guitar. At around four minutes something enters the song that transforms and opens it out such that this piece literally flies up and into the stratosphere where it hovers and shimmers….

“Current Draft”... Opens with a vibe and a sound that reminds me of very early Joe Zawinul playing a Fender Rhodes electric piano with its edgy and unsettling discord . The piece finds a resolution in a five note repeating pattern that eventually dissolves.

“Into the Murky and Unknown”... Imagine walking on open moorland through dense fog or somehow being magically transported to one of the outer planets. This could be the soundscape.

“Falling Into Place”... Much as parents aren’t supposed to have a favourite child, I’m fairly sure that liner note writers aren’t supposed to have a favourite track. I hereby bust open that fallacy and will tell you that this is my favourite track on this album and probably one of my favourite five of Erik’s vast catalogue!!! Like so many of Erik’s compositions, this one feels like a wordless song is being sung even as all the while, soft whistling ribbons of sound are flying out, back and around the song itself. The drone with which this piece ends is one of those elements that I wish I could put on “loop” and play for hours....

“Eroding Alleviation”... This is the longest piece on this collection, so Erik has time to build a gentle, richly detailed, and expansive soundscape. This feels a lot like some of Erik’s work on his album “The Hunter”.

“Blur” ... Probably the most wistful feeling of all the tracks in this collection. There’s a strong blues presence almost as if Erik’s playing lap steel guitar. I love when he releases a phrase through his pedalboard and it rushes like threads of opalescent water backwards and forwards and then dissolves.

“For It Is”... Perhaps the most minimalistic piece in this collection. This piece has for me a quality of resignation about it … head down and kicking a can as I walk down a darkened city street. Pressing past the halfway point in this piece, there’s a tone of acceptance as colourful glimmers and flickers appear and then resolve into a beautiful and hopeful drone.

“Gate (Door 12)”... In December, Erik released one single every day in a series of releases called “Door”. “Gate” (the 12th release) begins with a shimmering almost flamenco style of strumming that builds in layer upon layer of complexity. Overtones join the mix and the whole then melds into a soft stream of sound that fades off into the aether....

“What Is on the Other Side (Door 24)”... This track begins with sharply plucked strings that gradually soften, allowing the many voices that have come to talk, whistle, sing, mutter, and moan, to have their time. Many of the sounds on this track are new to Erik’s palette. To my ears this track has much in common with Miles Davis’ track “He Loved Him Madly” in its melding of the contemplative, the moody, and the hopeful. I would love to hear this track sung by a choir.

Steven Leak, Ontario, Canada, December 2021

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The solo guitar pieces on this album were composed in real time, performed in one take, and recorded direct to 2-track stereo. No post processing.