Treats, Trauma, and Trust – Slumber (REM) [Piano Improv]

This track has quite a few parenthetical descriptors because there are technically a couple different versions! I wrote this piece about twelve years ago, in my freshman year of undergrad, and it was originally a piece for a trio ensemble: piano, flute, and clarinet. The full, seven-minute piece is floating around the internet under my real name, heh...!

That original piece starts out very slow, and very sleepy, hence the title Slumber. Overall it has a pretty dark tone, then the ending picks up a bit, and I likened that burst of energy to the REM dream state.

The beginning of this particular track is said ending of the original trio, and I found myself continuously coming back to it over the years, playing it as a solo piano piece. More recently I considered releasing it along with other piano pieces, though with just the beginning part and the dramatic ending with the B-minor 9 chord flying up the keyboard, it clocked in at under two minutes. I knew I wanted it to be part of my next EP, but two minutes just didn’t seem long enough.

When the rest of the pieces for the EP were coming together, including improvisation in nearly all the other tracks, I decided to add some improv to this one too! So everything from 1:37-4:26 is improvised! I did stick with the same chord progression, Bm - G - D - G, throughout the improv, for some grounding and continuity. Completely free improvisation is not something I do often... Though the next two tracks are!