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.

Last year's compilation can be found here: eeeskildsen.bandcamp.com/album/an-introduction-to-otherness-selected-solo-guitar-works

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

---

Welcome to “Falling into Otherness (Selected Solo Guitar Works)".

Erik gave me the honour and challenge of curating this collection and 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, there are pieces in this collection that I didn’t really hear until I started listening through his catalogue and short-listing them. 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.

“Falling into 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.

Steven Leak, Ontario, Canada, December 2022