Alan Darragh :: | Time to Disenchant

the making of Time to Disenchant

2008 - Alan Darragh solo piano

Time to Disenchant is a solo album of free improvisation on piano by Alan Darragh. All nine tracks are original. More importantly, these are not versions played from written music but are the original improvisations, recorded live in Alan's studio in Toronto over the course of 2008.

And there lies the challenge, which he pits himself against each time he sits at his piano and turns on his recording equipment. The challenge of creating music, as complete in structure, form and melody as possible, straight out of his head from beginning to end. Alan says: "Only I know what I'm going to do next. But until I do it, even I don't know what it will be. Musical improvisation is like getting up on the stage at a writers' convention and writing a novel on the spot. Nothing is predetermined. When I sit down to play I don't think – today, I'm going to play six hundred key changes or just one tone center.

What I play is what comes out that day. Although it's not a conscious decision, by not trying to cover too many keys, it allows me to concentrate on the life of the song and less on the structure. But I am a glutton for chords. They give music a soul."

*Time To Disenchant*
Tracks#	Song Title	Composed by	Length
1	You Belong To Me	Alan Darragh	4:10
2	Cold Comfort	Alan Darragh	3:24
3	Let The Breeze Slide Around	Alan Darragh	2:53
4	Losing The Tale Of A Dream	Alan Darragh	2:44
5	Let Our Hearts Do The Talking	Alan Darragh	4:16
6	Never To Escape	Alan Darragh	8:11
7	When Nobody's Looking	Alan Darragh	3:54
8	Time To DIsenchant	Alan Darragh	5:57
9	When A Woman Breaks Into A Man's Game	Alan Darragh	7:05

Alan Darragh is member of SOCAN and ASCAP

There are many days when ideas peter out. Frustrating days when a brilliant melodic line gets bogged down and the piano goes silent. Days when a groove sucks him into a trance and he forgets to develop the song. He says, "It’s extremely fatiguing to do. Concentration – the amount of concentration in such a short period of time. The intensity in those seven minutes. You’re making it up on the spot. You’re making up your composition on the spot. And it doesn’t always work. If you get in front of an audience, and it’s one of those days when it doesn’t work... With the CDs, it’s ten or twelve incidents of when it did work." He adds, "I’m not unique. This is the way it is for many musicians. It’s always a struggle."

Recorded at Despot Studio
Toronto, Canada