Patterns, by A Spot on the Hill

Patterns

by A Spot on the Hill

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1.	Lost in mountain stars 03:15	buy track
2.	Veil of serenity 02:50	buy track
3.	My hope for you 03:18	buy track
4.	The one who knocks 02:44	buy track
5.	Piano meditation 1 02:41	buy track
6.	Dirge for the living 03:15	buy track
7.	Tessellations 1 02:56	buy track
8.	Piano meditation 2 03:15	buy track
9.	Why couldn't I see it? 03:05	buy track
10.	Tessellations 2 03:17	buy track
11.	Within and without 03:06	buy track

about

A significant portion of this album was written and recorded while also working on my last album, a collaboration with Ben McElroy. Working with Ben helped me arrive at a somewhat looser approach to composing. Rather than developing a piano melody for weeks or months before recording it, I stretched my previous writing pattern to make more room for instinct. The result is an album with more spontaneity and more textures than many of my earlier pieces.

But the "patterns" of the title is not just about my own writing patterns. It's about the mesmerizing visual patterns of Mary Robinson's beautiful piece "Weave 5," which she graciously allowed me to use as cover art. It's about the musical patterns in the tracks "Tessellations 1" and "Tessellations 2." It's about weather patterns that are challenging any semblance of normality and historical patterns that are showing us how tenuous human progress can be. And it's about thought patterns and behavioral patterns that can hold us back or take us to new heights, depending on how we arrange our own daily patterns.

My first thought with the title was very literal: a brushstroke pattern, a musical motif. But the more I thought about it, patterns are everywhere.

credits

released October 24, 2023

Music and mixing by Dan Cook

Mastered by Ian Hawgood (mastering@homenormal.com)

Cover art: Detail of "Weave 5" by Mary Robinson (www.maryrobinson.studio)

Cover layout by Bob Wertz (sketchbookb.com)

Tenth wave records 006

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about

A Spot on the Hill Columbia, South Carolina

Dan Cook is the composer and instrumentalist for A Spot on the Hill. He performed previously in indie rock bands The Verna Cannon and Lay Quiet Awhile, and the hardcore band Kids for Cash.

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