The album Game is inspired by the book series "red rising" by Pierce Brown and influenced by cyberpunk culture. Be ready for ambient and hard "Tron legacy" electro with a touch of Swedish darkness.

The manuscript of Dresden - D-Dl - Ms. Mus. 2841-V-1 - in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek contains 6 volumes of music by Sylvius Leopold Weiss. It was written in French tablature and copied by hand by several copyists. Interestingly, it also includes many autographs of Weiss himself.

The manuscript of Dresden is an important source, since it contains 34 suites spanning from 1706 to Weiss' death. It includes many late sonatas, which reveal his mastery of composition.

Suite or Sonata 36 in D minor First manuscript volume
Allemande: in the French style, almost an opening. However, its Italian cantabile full of modulating and dissonant chords creates suspense.
Courante: very developed in style imitation, polyphony, and rhythmically rich.
Bourrée: typical popular melody.
Sarabande: Cantabile, almost adagio.
Menuet: elegant gallant in German style.
Allegro: direct, very orchestral melody in which a violin and a bass seem to hold a dialogue.

Suite or Sonata 40 in C major
Probably handwritten by Weiss himself
With the enigmatic dedication P.S.A.M.L.D. from Lobkowitz januaruis,
« Pour son Altesse Sérénissime Monsieur le Prince de Lobkowitz »
"For His Serene Highness The Prince of Lobkowitz"
Second volume of the manuscript

Entrée Spiritoso: Very beautiful example of an Ouverture à la Française with a beautiful cantabile and a German form; one of the most beautiful pages of Weiss.
Courante: very developed work that can certainly be regarded as very mature. However, it misses an end; the piece stops at the moment of a remarkable modulation at measure 160 and leaves us perplexed and dissatisfied. Lutenists and musicologists have sought the rest in different manuscripts. It looks like one of Weiss' riddles that were intended to challenge the performer.
I wrote the last ten measures because I like this suite, and I was unhappy about otherwise not being able to bring it to completion. It was published in the « Luth Dorée » editions.
Paysanne: dynamic and virtuoso folk dance.
Sarabande: still one of the most beautiful pieces of Weiss, melodically sublime and very inspired.
Menuet: always elegant and very virtuoso in constant modulation.
Allegro: A very strange and curious piece with a melody in octaves, full of difficulty and almost a technical "study" for the right hand. It offers a mixture of Scarlatti and Weiss Italian-era techniques.
This Allegro is rich in arpeggios and interesting scales. It pushes the technique and the possibilities of the lute (and challenges the lutenist)!

My name is Juan Sánchez and I am a composer. I started taking piano lessons at the conservatoire when I was 14 and during the end of the 80's until the end of the 90's I played keyboards with different bands. In 1995 I went to London to study music and technology, and I lived there for five years.

In 1999 I started making instrumental Ambient electronic music and since then I have been creating music for multimedia and sound libraries for music producers.

I have been very grateful with my job as an Ambient music composer and sound designer, but I did not feel completely fulfilled with this as I always dreamed about becoming a professional pianist and composer. However, I didn't have the confidence to pursue a career as a professional piano music composer. I felt that this was only for very talented musicians and I did not see myself this way.

One day, I discovered the music of Max Richter and Ludovico Einaudi and I felt in love with their compositions. I've always been a fan of Ambient music, and this is the music I was creating at that time. But after listening to the music from these artists, I loved the way they were mixing classical music with electronic sounds, with the piano as the main instrument. I then started discovering other artists, such as Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds and others called Neo Classical composers and I was very inspired by all of them. So I started composing music in this style.

The first piece was a Neo Classical/Ambient piano composition called "Rebirth". In March 2019, I released "Rebirth" as a single on Spotify and other music streaming platforms, and to my surprise, it was very well-received. People started adding it to their playlists, and I was receiving very good feedback from listeners and music bloggers who gave me some very positive reviews.

This gave me the confidence to start creating more Neo Classical/Ambient piano focused music and I was releasing each composition as a single on Spotify. My audience was growing and the feedback was incredible, I was happy and also very surprised as I had never thought that my music could be so well received.

I was also very lucky to have the support of New Age/Neo Classical music promoter BT Fasmer who runs the popular New Age Music Guide blog. He recommended me to release all of the singles as an album. So I followed his advice and released the album "Rebirth" in September 2019. Thanks BT for your support!

The positive response I am receiving for this album is just incredible, every day I receive comments on Twitter and Facebook about how beautiful the album is. Some people have told me that the album has created an impact in them in a way some other albums don't. Some other people said that they cried when they listened to it as it touched their souls. I am very happy for how things are evolving with the album and very grateful with the people's reaction, this for a composer is such a great achievement.

Some people have asked me why I named the album "Rebirth", they wanted to know what was the meaning behind this title so here is the explanation:

During the last two years I've started to learn how to reprogram my brain and overcome my self-limiting beliefs that were hindering my growth by taking personal development courses, now I feel that in some way I am becoming a new person hence the title of the album "Rebirth".

Por Vida from Castle Pines latest love letter album called "Por Vida" is goosebumps inducing indie rocker with a beautifully sweeping feel. Guitar driven with big bold crescendos of sound it is not afraid to get quiet in spots which only make the full charge running up the hill parts feel even bigger and more passionate. The Corona, California band's musical flourishes feel organic as they shun a lot of indie rock cliche's. No over modulated vox (for example). When Leandro Barrientos sings emotional lines like "as seasons pass me by… we lay forgotten wonder why… what were they saying through their teeth… we were taught to grin through our grief… facades are meant to fade…living inside the walls we made" the words hit home. Real and relatable, Cassiopeia feels cinematic and inspirational. Castle Pines is Leandro Barrientos (guitar, vox), Ricky Garvey (lead guitar), Sterling Fairfield (percussion, drums) and Jesse Briseno (bass).

Recording for the "Por Vida" album was a monumental and arduous challenge for the members of the band. The Summer of 2017, as the band was doing preliminary recordings, founding member and drummer Sterling Fairfield was rushed to an emergency operation due to complications of Crohn's Disease. An ailment that Sterling dealt with his entire time gigging, recording and playing with Castle Pines, he nearly died on several occasions and had his entire lower intestine removed. This left the band in an unsure place for the recording of their album. Sterling, being the diehard loyalist to the band and message, struggled through weeks of recording in a cottage in Southern California, stitches fresh from an incision down his chest, and performed beautifully for the album. An album, with all odds against it, was recorded through perseverance through adversity, dedication and in no small part to the accommodating and kind efforts of Matthew Faulkner of Beta Waves Records who moved his entire studio to a cottage near the home of Sterling, in case he suffered another medical emergency.

The release of "Por Vida" the album that almost never was is a testament to staying the course and faithful commitment to the art in the pangs of heartache, ailment and suffering. The band is grateful for the love and support it has received from the online community, their fans and family and is eagerly excited to premier their latest work. In an industry exploited for commercial and financial gain by juggernaut corporatism, a little garage band, from the suburbs of California, protesting the status quo and proclaiming the importance of art and music, loyalty, persistence and honesty is a fresh and needed voice in the stifling noise of the modern market. Thank you, and remember that Castle Pines is for life homie.