Collision is a compositional, arrangemental, and improvisational project of mine, and to understand what it is, you need to understand where it came from.
There was a period of about two weeks in mid-2018 that I would dub the lowest point in my life thus far. In the space of three days, I received bad news, after bad news, after bad news. Quite detrimental stuff to my psychology at the time, yet all of which have resolved to happy endings a year on. At the time though, it felt like I’d just been struck with a massive asteroid and myself left a desolate wasteland. This is the context that birthed the idea of this project.
Initially, Collision was to take the form of six individual tracks, with lyrics, outlining how I felt at this low point, but as the months went by I found it difficult to be able to put my experience into words, at which point I realised, “why did it have to limited by words?”, so I resolved I would simply evoke the senses of what I felt instrumentally. What is more, I had at the time been investigating the works of Olafur Arnalds and Nihls Frahm - pioneers in recording and Ambient music. With their inspiration, I realised Collision would not be six individual tracks, but one, with each idea I had chosen to represent these feelings being evoked instrumentally, and then flowing to the next; it would be one seamless track, and it would be released as it was, with no editing or purification. I also set up two extra microphones in the studio to intentionally capture the sounds of my movement on the chair, the rustling of my clothes as I played as well – capturing these imperfections that are usually edited out seemed like a perfect catalyst to represent how I felt at the time.
This left only the content. In my mournings and processings in the months since those two weeks, I had developed the art of providing my own background music. I did not have to mentally engage in what I was playing, I was able to trust in the skill I’d built up over my fourteen years of playing music, leaving my mind to process and think through what had happened, to the sound of my own playing. I had done this on a number of occasions, and I was quite excited to see how it sounded to be recorded. So yes, these 50 minutes of music are entirely improvised, are entirely about mentally processing and moving on, rather than actively thinking about what was being played. Collision is my catharsis.

This is Collision, this is the project of my ability to process and move on from the lowest point in my life, and I hope it can be something similar for you. Thank you to all of my supporters and fans, that have helped me process these times in your own ways, with your support, and thank you to my family and friends for the advice you’ve given me and listening to me vent and all. Also, my sincerest thanks to Amy Wheeler for the incredible work she’s done in the album art for this project, it has perfectly encapsulated how I felt last year. Thank you for bringing this project to a visual medium too and for doing it so skilfully, you’re truly an amazing artist.
I hope that this serves you all in whatever way you need it to, be it background music or your own ability to process things and move on. Thank you.

Much love,
J.