EPK – Gerald Peter Project – Incremental Changes, Pt. 2 (2022)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations.com
For fans of Tigran Hamasyan, Jordan Rudess, Hans Zimmer, Dream Theater, Haywyre
“I want them to close their eyes, forget everything about their surroundings, their real life, and find themselves completely getting lost in the music, going on a journey with the music and “wake up” again when the album finishes.” – Gerald Peter
Artist Name: Gerald Peter Project
Album Title: Incremental Changes, Pt. 2
Release Date: June 24, 2022
Label: GRIDMusic
Distribution: Universal Music
Geraldpetermusic.com | Facebook.com/geraldpetermusic | Twitter.com/geraldp001 | Youtube.com/geraldpetermusic | Instagram.com/geraldp001
Digital Album Sales Links – GPP.lnk.to/IncrementalChanges2 | Geraldpeter.bandcamp.com
“IT’S AWESOME MUSIC” – JORDAN RUDESS, DREAM THEATER
“DEEP, LYRICAL, HIGH MELODICALLY […] BOMBASTIC DIMENSIONS AND DRAMATIC PATHOS […] FULL OF SURPRISES, MOOD CHANGES, DYNAMICS AND THEMES” (translated from German) – BABYBLAUE SEITEN, VOLKMAR MANTEL
“[…] OFFERING INSTRUMENTAL ROCK-PROGRESSIVE WITH GREAT PURITY THROUGH SYMPHONIC AND LYRICAL DEVELOPMENTS.” – MUSICINBELGIUM.NET, PHILIPPE THIRIONET
“‘ENIGMA’ IS THE CINEMATIC PROGRESSIVE ROCK OUTFIT THAT HAS BEEN MAKING QUITE THE BIG SLASH RECENTLY. YOU CAN CLOSE YOUR EYES AND IMAGINE AN EPIC FUTURISTIC BATTLE AS YOU LISTEN TO THE SONG.” – THEMUSICBELOW.COM
“[…] SOME INCREDIBLE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. BEST DESCRIBED AS PROGRESSIVE IN AN ALMOST AMBIENT AURA. LISTENING TO THIS YOU GET TRANSPORTED INTO DEEP SPACE.” – BATTLEHELM.COM, ANDERS EKDAHL
“A MELODIC POWERHOUSE ANTHEM […] PAINTS A DREAM OF STEADY FLOWING NEON LIGHTS, CRISP CHARACTERS, AND MYSTERY STEEPED IN SHADOW […] ‘ENIGMA’ IS TRULY A WORK OF ART THAT YOU MUST EXPERIENCE TO COMPREHEND.” – THELITTLESTVOICE.COM
Gerald Peter, the composer, keyboardist, seaboard player and producer of his creative project takes the listener on an ongoing musical journey through 10 thematic ‘movements’, transcending genre boundaries with elements of progressive rock, cinematic, jazz and electronic music. The new album “Incremental Changes, Pt. 2” under his artist name “Gerald Peter Project” will be released on June 24th via Austrian label Grid Music. The album features the versatile drummer Aaron Thier and a few prominent special guests, including Dream Theater keyboard virtuoso Jordan Rudess, the award-winning soundtrack vocalist Julie Elven (singer for the game soundtracks of Horizon Zero Dawn, World of Warcraft), and the high-skilled guitarist Martin Miller.
“For me, my album Incremental Changes, Pt 2 is a musical statement, an emotional journey and an inner transformation expressed through music. When you listen to my album, you will recognize that it changes and develops a lot, I think that these changes reflect an inner transformation I went through, but also any person can go through comparable to a character developing and leveling up in a computer game. So step by step you go through this musical journey, you can develop yourself through incremental changes into a better version of yourself with every movement you go through. So in the end, you slowly transform into a state where you are ready for any challenge facing you and your final goal is reached.” – Gerald Peter
Live Band Line Up:
Gerald Peter – Keyboards
Aaron Thier – Drums
Discography:
2022 – Album “Incremental Changes, Pt. 2”
2019 – Two Singles / Videos “Enigma” & Flow
2017 – Video and EP “Incremental Changes, Pt. 1”
2015 – Demo Video “A piece of music by Gerald Peter”
Artist Name: Gerald Peter Project
Album Title: Incremental Changes, Pt. 2
Release Date: June 24, 2022
Label: GRIDMusic
Distribution: Universal Music
Track Listing
1 – Prologue (7th Movement) [3:22]
2 – Enigma (8th Movement) [6:40]
3 – Flow (9th Movement) [4:29]
4 – Transformation (10th Movement) [5:00]
5 – Submerge (11th Movement) [6:19]
6 – Gleam (12th Movement) [4:57]
7 – Timeless (13th Movement) [4:46]
8 – Pulse (14th Movement) [5:51]
9 – Epilogue (15th Movement) [3:15]
10 – Finale (16th Movement) [10:02]
Album Credits
Keyboard, Seaboard, Composition, Production: Gerald Peter
Drums: Aaron Thier
Backing Vocals: Julie Elven
Guest Appearances:
Keyboard Solo by Jordan Rudess on Track 10 Finale from minute 5:42
Guitar Solo by Martin Miller at Track 8 from minute 4:46
Drum Recording Setup, Mixing & Mastering: Mike Wolff @ melonFM
Album Artwork by: Florian Solly / flowdesign.at
Member of AKM (Austrian organization for composer)
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The album as a whole explained:
It is a story being told through melodies and rhythms. I express these mainly through the piano and synth lead sounds and also heavy synth bass lines. Like in a symphony, melodies and themes are recurring. The album starts epic and heavy prog, gets a bit more calm and gentle in the middle, and then gets more uptempo towards the end, in the big finale it gets epic and heavy prog again.
Track by Track Explained:
1 – Prologue (7th Movement) [3:22]
Epic / atmospheric, without rhythm/drums, arose by a free jam with Julie Elven. Introduction of the piano, some leads, and some epic synths reminding on certain film soundtracks.
2 – Enigma (8th Movement) [6:40]
I would describe that as a heavy synth prog track that was inspired by Dream Theater. The idea for the main riff arose already 15 years ago. The main part here was finding the right sound for the riff and leads, but I am happy with the result. What I am happy with as well of how it develops, it starts pretty much heavy already, but through progressive parts and tempo and time signature changes the track is able to raise its energy more and more throughout the end. Aaron plays a killer drum solo in the middle through a theme that reminds of film music. Julie sounds great and brings the right vibe to the track.
3 – Flow (9th Movement) [4:29]
In this track, the album incorporates more jazzy elements, but without losing the epic and atmospheric vibe. Here I am playing a jazzy piano solo at the end which is a lot of fun to play, in the middle and end I am bringing up themes that were used in other movements already.
4 – Transformation (10th Movement) [5:00]
The sounds and themes are inspired by Harry Potter, Hans Zimmer, Skrillex, and Dream Theater. When I listen to it I picture a story about a big transformation in a pre-apocalyptic world. Aaron has a killer drum solo in the end as well.
5 – Submerge (11th Movement) [6:19]
This is inspired by Rachmaninoff, a movie soundtrack, and some jazz jam sessions I went to. This is probably also the most memorable track and melodies from the album.
6 – Gleam (12th Movement) [4:57]
This track turned out beautiful. It starts calm but it develops into an epic rock ballad track in the end, all in 7-8 of course. The guitar solo part which I play on the seaboard is a reprise of the 2nd movement from my first EP.
7 – Timeless (13th Movement) [4:46]
This is the calmest track of the album. It gives the listener opportunity to calm down again after that high-energy section. I really like the piano solo in this track which has a playful vibe.
8 – Pulse (14th Movement) [5:51]
This track is the track with the most electronic vibes, which is inspired by EDM music obviously. But I incorporated some piano music into the mix and also some jazz elements which makes this track a very interesting fusion of styles. Martins’ guitar solo is genius at the end of the song.
9 – Epilogue (15th Movement) [3:15]
Being almost teleported to the beginning of the album, this has a similar sound and vibe to the prologue. This was also recorded in the same impro session with Julie. This track was only improvised. Some additional epic sounds were added afterward. It was an amazing experience jamming with Julie, she has such a unique voice and creates such an out-of-this-world atmosphere with what she is doing, so it was easy to get inspired by that. This track is also the perfect transition to the big finale.
10 – Finale (16th Movement) [10:02]
Like in every big journey there must be a final challenge in the end, as the end boss in an epic computer game. This track would be the equivalent of an end boss in such a game, high energy, thrilling, action, complex, progressive, playful, and full of drama which eventually turns into something playful in between and something positive in the end. Just around the transition to the positive ending part there is a killer lead solo by Jordan Rudess. After that solo, I am playing my final synth solo of the album I am very happy with how it turned out and the album ends with positive and hopeful energy but leaves space for a continuation of part iii.
Background Info:
Gerald Peter Project is a crossover genre-transcending music project starring Gerald Peter as the keyboard/seaboard player accompanied by the versatile drummer Aaron Thier. Gerald leads through a musical story with his ongoing compositions by combining different elements of prog rock, neoclassical, jazz, cinematic, and electronic music.
Gerald Peter founded the project in 2014 as a creative outlet when he was a working musician on a cruise ship playing dance and party music every day. The creative outlet continued when he was working for ROLI as a Seaboard product specialist in 2015 & 2016. He collected many musical ideas over many years by improvising on the piano and seaboard, inspired by his favourite artists over a variety of genres (but mainly prog), and inspired by gradual and drastic shifts in his life (‘incremental changes’). After having a huge amount of music material, he thought it would be a good idea to compose, based on that material, some concert music being able to record, produce and perform his own music without the need of an entire band around him which was at this point in this life impossible to have because of ongoing traveling. In the beginning, it was an entirely solo project consisting of only Gerald on the keyboard/seaboard and a backing track that was created by himself. But after many living room concerts during the demo phase of his project, he decided to bring the project to the next level and add some live drums. He asked his former bandmate Aaron Thier from Circle of Illusion, who was a great fit for the project and music. They recorded the digital EP “Incremental Changes, Pt. 1” in 2016 together as a live video shoot recording in Vienna, which was released on YouTube and Bandcamp in 2017. In the years from 2017 – 2019 several live shows have taken place in many different locations, e.g. in Vienna, Nuremberg, Toronto, Budapest, and Anaheim, California at the NAMM show 2019. In 2019 Gerald Peter Project released two new performance videos and singles ‘Enigma’ and ‘Flow’ which are both part of the current album ‘Incremental Changes, Pt. 2’. GERALD PETER PROJECT incorporates self-made instrument reactive visuals at its live shows, which are created by a MIDI visualizer program Gerald developed by himself. Gerald was working as a programmer in his 20s and has a degree in media informatics. Some of his visuals can be seen in the music video of ‘Flow’ which was shot in the 8K projection room ‘deep space’ in Linz, Austria, and during live concerts.
Gerald Peter, born in 1986, is a composer, producer, and keyboardist from Vienna who has already worked for Jordan Rudess Music as a co-composer (for the albums “Rockestra” & “Heartfelt”), for Cirque Du Soleil as a touring show-band musician and for ROLI as an international seaboard specialist and demonstrator. Gerald Peter has previously released albums with his band’s Circle of Illusion and Inspirational Corner as well.
STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS:
1. In 2017, having Aaron Thier be part of the project was a last-minute decision. I had the studio for a video shoot and camera crew already booked and Aaron had only one week to learn the entire music of Part I which was recorded and shot one week later.
2. When I was in London I got visited by Lisa Maria Harris, and a few moments before I just recorded the demo of the 2nd movement of the first EP and I ask her if she could try singing this melody, “I would like to know how it sounds”. Her voice from this spontaneous take ended up in the final record!
3. When I was performing at the NAMM show in 2019 unfortunately Aaron could make it, but I hired a professional drummer, Camille Bigeaut who learned the entire music. When performing at the Hilton Hotel at our spot we only had 10 minutes for the change-over in between bands, so I had all my interface and cables/notebook already ready in my suitcase which I just put as a whole on the stage.
4. When I was working at the cruise ship as a show keyboard player in 2014, I was using the crew party event “the crew talent show” as a spot to perform my first piece from my solo project in the main theater of the Carnival crew ship I was working at in front of the entire staff of this cruise. After that show, I was known on the ship, and people seemed to enjoy the show. I used video footage from that show to edit the video of “a piece of music by Gerald Peter” which I released at the beginning of 2015 on my youtube channel. This work motivated me to continue my solo project work.
5. We are performing the album release show for Incremental Changes, Pt. 2 in a cinema!
6. I was telling my mother “I need an outfit which glows for my video but I don’t how to realize it”, my mother “I can sew you a neon costume, do you have a draft of what theme you want on the costume”, I showed her what I want … she spent days of sewing but finally she got it right what I want and it is what I wanted which I used in the video and on stage. She is/was my costume creator even if she has never done that before!
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