The day I have been working towards for so very long has finally come! My latest and newest album, entitled Rapture is finally here!

What started well over three years ago as a raw concept is now a complete and fully realized “vision in music.” As I think over all the countless hours spent at the piano, in the studio and working on the album artwork, it’s hard to believe that everything is actually done. Making this album has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges in my life, and I am so proud to now share it with all of you!

As of this moment Rapture is available for listening and sale exclusively at my official website, www.MichaelSamson.com. As with all my albums, Rapture can be purchased in both CD and MP3 formats. I highly recommend the CDs, as the artwork and packaging is absolutely stunning! If you’d like to see some of what that artwork looks like, please click on the “Album Artwork” link at the bottom of the “Music” page on my site. I have also completely overhauled the discount packages at my official site, making Rapture available in a new 3 CD deal amongst many other great offers. For those deals simply visit the “Discount Packages for Music” page from the main “Store” page.

For your convenience, here are links directly to my official store:

MichaelSamson.com Store | Music

MichaelSamson.com Store | Discount Packages for Music

For those of you who want to hear the album first, you can listen to all the tracks in their entirety at my official site. I have recently made all my music there available for free listening! Over the next few weeks Rapture will be made available in many other stores across the internet, including Amazon, CDBaby and iTunes. However, the best deals are and always will be at my official site! As of right now, the sheet music for Rapture is not yet available, but it is in the works. I will keep you all posted on that project as it evolves.

I’d like to say thank you one last time to the following people who helped make this album possible…

Matt Strieby, Nick Adolphson, Michael Vincent Manalo, Randall S. Davis and my beautiful wife Mandy. It’s because of all your hard work and dedication that this album became all that was possible. My everlasting thanks to all of you!

To everyone else, I hope you enjoy listening to this music as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it!

Please do write to me and share your thoughts and feelings on the music…

All my best!

~ Michael Samson

It’s been three months since my last news story and you all must be wondering what I’ve been up to. Well, I’ve been busy as a bee working to complete my new album Rapture, which I started way back in 2009. These past three months have seen this album finally and truly coming to fruition. I’ve been promising this music would be released in the first half of this year, and I am staying true to that commitment. It’s been an incredible journey writing and producing this album, and I am a mere few weeks away from releasing it!

This past weekend I completed all the post-production work for the album’s audio. For those of you who don’t know this, I have fully produced this album on my own at my home based music and recording studio. By keeping everything in-house I have maintained full artistic control and am able to guarantee this album sounds its best. On that note, I’ve been listening to the music of Rapture a lot lately, and am so proud of the results. This album is truly “an emotional journey in music”, and it absorbs you in the most beautiful of ways.

Of course the other integral part of this album is its artwork and packaging. We’ve been designing the artwork to be iconic, and a visual match for the emotional intensity of the music. The cover of this album features artwork by an eminent digital mixed media artist, Michael Vincent Manalo of the Philippines. Inside the album is a 24 page booklet, containing poetry for all 12 compositions and beautiful photos from the iconic Washington state shoreline. This CD in its entirety (the music and packaging) is really something special, and is my greatest artistic achievement thus far. With all this said, the next news story I publish will be when the album is officially released. So please keep your eyes tuned to your email or my website for that!

In the meantime, I thought you would all enjoy a sneak preview of the album, and a little taste of its sound…

Of the 12 tracks on this album, it is very difficult to choose just one track to show you. The range of sound and emotion is extremely dynamic, and I like every song in a different way. So instead, I am going to show you one of my personal favorites. This song is called Haunting Me, and was the final song I recorded on this album, and also happens to be the final track. This piece demonstrates the dynamic range of the album well, but honestly I just love the song!

Click Here to Download the MP3

I hope you all enjoy this track…

The next time we speak, there will be 11 more to join it!

~ Michael Samson

This is an exciting moment!

Last May, after many months of planning, I and my long-time friend and colleague Matt Strieby (of Newleaf Design) took a trip out to the famous Washington state shoreline for the photo shoot of my soon to be released album, Rapture. Now, all these months later, and after countless hours of work mastering these incredible photos, they are finally ready to be published. Even more of a landmark, this is the first official content (other than the album cover) to be published from Rapture!

The photo shoot was in a word, massive, and took place at two of the most famous beaches in Washington state. I actually had taken a separate trip out to the Washington shore months in advance, scouting the possible locations and determining the best fit. Ultimately we decided to shoot our photos at two beaches, the world-famous Second Beach at La Push (about 20 minutes west of Forks, WA), and the stunning Ruby Beach located about 30 minutes south and just outside of the Olympic National Park. Both these locations are stunningly beautiful, with their trademark rock formations on the sand and in the water; but each also offering unique features to their specific location.

It was decided for reasons of logistics to spend two days shooting the photos; that is, one day at each location. This provided us the time and freedom we needed to fully explore each location and take full advantage of all the artistic possibilities. I knew ahead of time it was going to be a great challenge shooting on the water, with the sand, wind and weather working against us. In fact, we had to postpone the photo shoot multiple times for weather related delays. But the greater challenge was really in the sheer scope and magnificence of these locations. The photographic possibilities were absolutely endless and overwhelming, especially once we arrived on location.

In total we took an incredible 2,036 photos at both locations combined. This does take into account auto-bracketing (for all the photographers out there), but this does mean we had at least 700 unique images. We spent about 5 hours shooting at both locations, covering literally every single spot and angle on the beach. It was a constant battle dealing with changes in the tidal levels; as at the start of the shoot we could simply walk out onto many of the rocks, but later on those spots would become inaccessible and covered by water. For myself, it was also challenging to deal with the wind, water, sand and sun; and it was actually quite cold out! This was my third photo shoot (having done this twice before on my other albums), but this one definitely was the greatest challenge!

I have always had a deep love of photography, as does Matt Strieby who took these photos with me. This is why photos have become such an important and meaningful part of my albums, and I incorporate them into my album artwork. They help to tell the story behind the music, and really add an entirely new level of artistic expression. The photos from my first two albums were also taken at famous locations, but one thing that was lacking were photos purely of the location (without me in them). Going into this photo shoot I knew I wanted to really pay tribute to the location itself, and take pure landscapes; in addition to all the photos I was in. Matt and I took many hundreds of photos, but more than half of them are true landscapes!

Over the last few months we have been steadily working on these images (in addition to the music), editing and mastering them to perfection. This meant literally working on each individual image, ensuring all flaws were eliminated. We then created four unique color versions for every single photo; in original color, black and white, and a color and black and white with a unique enhancing effect applied. You can imagine this adds up to literally thousands of files! It became evident to me early on that what we were working on was truly a project unto itself, with a separate identity from the music.

These photos are a perfect complement to my album, but honestly they are much more than that! I can’t say this about the photos from my last two albums, but these images are something special. After having now published these, and looking at them all individually; I realized that Matt and I had accomplished something remarkable. These photos are iconic, beautiful and are truly representative of their locations. They are in effect a tribute to the unique beauty of the Washington shore. The landscapes in particular are “true art”, and could be blown up to poster size, framed, and displayed in art galleries. Indeed, I am very much looking forward to printing some of these to hang within my home. I am just so proud of what we accomplished, and wanted to really express how these photos stand on their own merits.

Considering how many images there are, at two different locations (half with me in them and half without); I decided to publish all the images into four separate galleries at MichaelSamson.com. There are two galleries for each location we shot at; one filled with portraits (the photos I am in), and the other filled with landscapes (the photos I'm not in). This allows the viewer to really appreciate the unique feel of each location, and experience the landscape photos separately. Additionally, I included every image in both color and black and white formats. Some of the black and whites are just stunning, especially in the landscapes.

As you all know, my new album Rapture will be released soon. The album artwork will not only incorporate these beautiful photos, but will in fact be based upon them. We are planning to create a photo-book of sorts for the album; to really feature these wonderful images. Until that is all ready, I thought it would be great to publish these images now though, rather than later. I truly hope that everyone reading this will explore all four of the photo albums, and especially take notice of the landscapes.

View all four of the Rapture photo galleries at: http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Photo_Video.php

Thank you for taking the time to read about this and enjoy the photos!

~ Michael Samson

A Personal Favorite from the Ruby Beach Landscapes Gallery…

For those of you who follow my news / newsletters closely, you may have noticed that I missed last month's issue. For that I do apologize, but I assure you that things have been extremely busy here and a lot of good things have been happening. I'd like to bring you all up to speed on the progress of my soon to be released album, Rapture.

About two months ago I officially completed all of the writing for Rapture. Since that time I've been working steadily on the post-production phase of the project. Similar to filmmaking, the post-production process includes all of the steps necessary to finalize the music prior to manufacturing and publishing. It's a rather involved process and has a great many steps. On my previous two albums, about half of the post-production work was done in-house, at my home-based music studio. The other half of the work was done with outside help, from a mastering shop based in Germany. Since the publishing of my first two albums I've come a very long way in my knowledge of post-production. I made a decision earlier this year that all of the post-production work for this album would be done in-house, completely by myself. There are a great many advantages to keeping all of the post-production work in-house, the greatest of which is keeping the total production costs down to a minimum. Naturally though, I was a little bit nervous about having to do so much of the work on my own.

So over the last few weeks I've been working step-by-step on this process. It's been extremely challenging, but I'm happy to report that things have been going extremely well. In fact, as of this past weekend I'm about 70% done with the entire process! If things keep going at this rate, I should be done with the entire production by the end of this month. This is a great thing, because it means I'll be able to release the album as scheduled, on time, in early 2012. I wish I could convey to you just how excited I am at the prospect of seeing three years of my work come to fruition. I've spoken before about how much work goes into an album, and how most people don't realize the amount of time and energy it takes. This album has been a labor of love, and seeing it published in a few weeks will be one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

I'd also like to tell you all a little bit about the sound of this album, and just how special it is...

For those of you who know me and have been to my private studio, you know that I use a lot of technology in order to create my music. I don't want to give away all of my secrets here, but I don't mind saying that my music is produced in a purely digital environment. There are many advantages to producing music digitally, and some disadvantages as well. But in the last 3 to 5 years particularly, those disadvantages have truly disappeared. My production process is so sophisticated now, that I can literally control the sound of every single note, phrase, dynamic, and section of my song's. This process begins at my primary instrument, a Yamaha Clavinova. For those of you who are interested in seeing what my Clavinova looks like, and photos of the rest of my music studio, please take a look at the “Still Motion Productions Studio Tour” photo gallery. All of my music is first composed on my Clavinova and then recorded within the same instrument. After that, the music is transferred to my computer in MIDI format. From there, the MIDI files are processed through a specialized software program (called a “Sample Library”) which re-creates the sound of a live piano from samples (or recordings) of an actual piano. The main advantage of using this type of software is that I can make my music sound as if it were played on any piano, including the most famous pianos in the world.

From this point the process does get rather technical. But the reason I brought any of this up in the first place is because I wanted to tell you how spectacular the sound of this album is going to be. Technology sure has come a very long way since I produced my first two albums. The piano for Rapture is the sound of a Steinway concert grand piano. My first two albums were actually produced using the sound of a Boesendorfer piano. The sound of this Steinway is absolutely breath-taking. But what really sets this album apart, and brings it to an entirely new level, is the fact that I now have the capability to make it sound as if the piano were located in any of the most famous music halls in the world. I know this is hard to believe, but thanks to this amazing technology, I can really do this. Without never having taken a step outside of my studio, or traveled by airplane, I can make my albums sound as if they were recorded at the famous opera hall in Sydney Australia, or perhaps at a famous piano hall located somewhere in Europe. In this way, Rapture will sound like a live album, except with crystal-clear clarity and no noises coming from an audience. I did however choose to keep the performance environment for Rapture with an intimate sound, so that it didn't sound like the room was too large. In fact, the recording you'll hear on this album is that of a small 19th century church located in the Netherlands. With all wooden floors and walls, you could say that this album was recorded with a piano inside of a piano. ;o)

So in just a few short weeks all of this production work will come to a close. What will be left is to complete all of the album artwork, which is a work in progress. I've chosen not to release the album until the physical CDs are ready to go. Not to worry though, everything is on schedule, and the album will be published on time.

I hope you've all enjoyed listening to me speak about the production process. I'm really very proud of the fact that I’m producing this album completely on my own. I started producing music all the way back in 1997, and back then I never could have dreamed of the type the capabilities I now have here at my studio. It's amazing stuff, and I've enjoyed sharing a little bit of that process with you here today.

Okay folks, that's it for now. I'll be posting again next month with more updates!

Stay tuned!

~ Michael Samson

All Writing and Recording for Rapture is Complete!

This past week I reached a major landmark in the journey towards the completion of my upcoming album Rapture. After a nearly three-year-long process of writing and recording, I have finally completed all the tracks on this epic album of emotions!

As an album, Rapture will contain a total of 12 tracks ranging in lengths from 3 to 6 minutes each. I don't have a total playback time just yet, but I do expect there to be about an hour or slightly greater of music. That hour of original music represents literally hundreds of hours at the piano, composing and recording. It's difficult to describe just how much work goes into writing an album like this, as it is so intensive. But I don't think most people realize just how much time it does take, especially in my case!

I am often asked by my fans how I go about composing my music and what exactly that process is. A little explanation into my process certainly sheds some light into why an album such as Rapture takes three years long to compose and produce. In truth, all of my songs are different in how exactly they come together from beginning to end. But there definitely are some consistent steps that I take when creating each individual composition.

A little insight into my writing process...

Most of my compositions start off as a simple musical phrase or series of notes. More often than not I stumble upon that phrase through experimentation and improvisation at the piano. I suppose one could compare it to hearing something coherent in a lot of static. It's really about picking out certain sounds that are intriguing to the ear, or that is, to my ear. Once I find something interesting, I will then further develop that phrase into something greater, which I typically call a “riff”. That riff will then become the central motif of theme from which the song will be built upon. The concept of starting off with a central theme as a foundation for a composition really makes a lot of sense, especially when considering that I write thematic music. I don't like music without direction at all, and have always preferred strong themes and melodies. Generally if I come up with a theme that sticks in my mind after I have left the piano, then I know I am on to something worth pursuing.

The process of creating a central theme for a song can sometimes happen very spontaneously, and sometimes it can take many attempts. I often sit at the piano over many days before I discover a theme worth developing further. But once I have that theme or riff in hand, I have a foundation to build upon and completing a song is only a matter of time and persistence. The next step is to further develop the original riff and to allow it to branch out into counter-melodies, secondary themes and overall greater detail. Sometimes I have two or even three interrelated themes to work with very early on in the writing process. At other times, I can be stuck on the original theme for days or even weeks. So much depends on pure chance, on my mood, on whether I press one note or another, or if I sat down to play in the morning or at night. I wish I could say there was a real science to it all, but in all honesty, most of my best musical discoveries are made by pure chance. The one common denominator in all my musical successes though is never giving up! It's a simple fact that some songs will come together easily while others will not. Persistence and patience make it all happen!

As I work on a composition, developing its central theme, creating secondary themes, transitions, introductions and endings; I often feel the process is much like shaping a piece of clay. You start off with something very raw and crude, and slowly over time, and with a lot of patience you mold it into greater detail, greater form and greater nuance. This idea really is central to how I create my music. It is a slow and methodical process of listening, responding and experimenting with the notes. In general my songs take anywhere from one month to many months to complete. Sometimes when inspiration strikes, things can come together very fast; and it is at those times that I enjoy creating music the most. But there are also times when a song seems to defy completion, and it is those songs that rely most upon pure tenacity.

While no song is ever truly completed, there does come a point when I must say that this is the best I can make it. If I wasn't able to do this then I would never be ready to record a piece. Recording is naturally the final step in the compositional process. Prior to recording a new song I will typically allow myself a few days for practice, and to know the song inside and out. The actual recording process itself is quite technical, and I do all my recording here in-house at my home based studio (the, Still Motion Productions Studio). While recording times vary, I typically spend anywhere from 4 to 10 hours recording each individual composition! (when I record a song, it literally dominates the day...) I record all of my songs as I write them, so the actual recording process for one of my albums is spread out over a year or more. This recording strategy works best for me because I can record a piece when I am most familiar with it, as opposed to having to record all songs at once. This also allows me to concentrate on only one song at a time for both writing and recording, which in my opinion produces a higher quality composition.

So there you have it! Hopefully this gives you a better idea of what goes into each and every one of my songs. Creating an album like Rapture certainly takes a lot of time and effort, and what I described above is only part of the process. After completing all recordings comes many additional steps, like audio production, mastering, album artwork design, manufacturing and publishing. It is no wonder that it takes me three years to create and album like this!

With all the writing and recording now completed, I am moving into the final steps to produce and publish this album. It's an exciting time, and I feel very positive about this body of work.

So stay tuned, because the music is on its way!  ;o)

~ Michael Samson

“Rapture” Album Cover Unveiling!

Back in early 2009 I started referring to my upcoming third album, Rapture, as the “red” album...

Long before I had a visual concept in mind for this album's artwork, I knew it was going to be a red theme. Why red? Because red is the color of passion and emotion, and that is what this album is all about. I wanted to create a body of music to represent basic and primal human emotions on a very raw and tangible level. The idea was simple, to create songs that convey and evoke pure emotions; rather than songs that tell a complex story or narrative. For example, one title on this album is Joy, while another is Amor and another is A Perfect Moment. All of the songs on this album work in this way, attempting to communicate basic emotional states in both sound and harmony.

So why call this album Rapture?
As you may have already guessed, it has nothing to do with the religious meaning of the word. Instead, it's based upon the primary definitions:

1. An expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion
2. A state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion

This album is literally rapture, an expression and manifestation of passion. But it is also meant to evoke a state of overwhelming emotion in the listener. As you can see, this word is a perfect title for the kind of music I wanted to write.

So nearly three years in the making, and I am finally approaching the end of this compositional challenge. At this moment I'm working on the final track of Rapture, entitled Haunting Me, which will complete this 12 track canvas of emotions. It's been an incredible ride writing this album, and I am so proud of this body of work. The only tough part is knowing I must wait a few more months before anyone in the public can hear this. But in the meantime, I don't mind sneaking a few things out, and that's why I'm writing to you now!

The album cover below represents not only this album's music, but a much larger body of artwork and photography that will be released as part of the Rapture CD Digipak packaging. For those of you who already own the physical copies of my albums, you know how important it is to me that my music be part of a much larger package of artwork. This album is being treated no differently, and in fact I believe the artwork of this album will be even more incredible then that of my previous releases.

This album cover is the very first one that does not have a picture of me on it. I wanted this album to transcend the composer, and to in essence be only about the music. As you can see, we stuck with the red color theme, but took it to an entire new level. The simplicity of this design was also deliberate. There are only a few design elements on the cover: the sky, the beach, the piano, the person and of course the title. My thoughts on this are that the artwork for Rapture should be both simple and pure, just like the raw emotions embodied within the music. The rest of the imagery you will see in this package (which we shot at the famous Second Beach and Ruby Beach of La Push, WA) maintains this feeling of simplicity, purity and raw emotion.

So, here's a little taste of what is to come!

I hope you all like this cover, and are waiting with anticipation to hear the music! ;o)

~ Michael Samson

10,000 Fans on Jango Internet Radio and Counting!

Shortly after making my public debut back in August of 2009 I discovered Jango Internet Radio. Jango is a phenomenal internet radio platform, similar to that of Pandora; which allows listeners to create their own custom radio stations based around their existing musical tastes. Once a listener creates a station and adds some of their favorite artists, Jango makes intelligent musical suggestions based upon that listener’s personal tastes. Each listener may create as many custom radio stations as they wish and can communicate with other listeners on Jango.

Unlike Pandora however, Jango also boasts a powerful advertising platform for musicians, called “Jango Airplay”. This platform provides a powerful service for lesser-known artists to be aired side by side with more established acts. Participating artists are automatically aired within Jango listener’s custom radio stations based upon their musical tastes. More than a simple suggestion, Jango exposes listeners directly to new artist’s music; providing a remarkable opportunity for both artist and listener to discover one another.

It didn’t take me long to realize the inherent value of Jango’s services, and the unprecedented opportunity it provided to gain world-wide exposure for my music. Shortly after I enrolled in Jango Airplay I began to hear from people all over the world who were enjoying my music. These listeners had become fans of my music through Jango, and were writing positive comments back to me on a daily basis. Even better, many of my new Jango fans had followed me to other places online and were purchasing my music and attending my live concerts.

Within about a year of joining Jango Airplay, my music had gained such popularity on the service that Jango decided to elevate my status to an “established act”. This meant that from that point forward my music would then be aired regularly with other mainstream artists beyond the Airplay program. This in of itself was a great honor and allowed my music to be heard by countless more people around the world.

Two years later and with a staggering 248,243 individual song plays as of July 5, 2011, I am proud to announce that my music has now earned a total of 10,000 official Jango fans!

This is a wonderful landmark for my music and I am forever grateful to Jango for helping make it possible. Every day I hear from new fans all over the world that are enjoying my music, and to me that is what making music is truly all about.

Thank you Jango, and thank you to my official 10,000 Jango fans! =o)

Keep on tuning in at: http://www.jango.com/music/Michael+Samson

~ Michael Samson

The Rapture Photo Shoot Location Finds a Home!

I know it's been some time since I last posted news about the progress of Rapture, but the last few weeks have sure been busy! I have been hard at work planning the production stage of the album, which includes all the major steps necessary to create the actual physical product (the CD). There are many steps in this process, all of which must happen in proper order if the album is to be released in a timely manner.

As many of you already know, I pride myself on publishing albums that go beyond simply presenting great music. I prefer to create an artistic experience which can only be fully expressed in the form of a digipak CD package. This means creating a beautiful physical product, that includes poetry for each song, beautiful photos shot on location and inspiring artwork; all meant to present a cohesive theme that further expresses the intent and emotion of the music.

For Rapture, the challenge of creating album artwork to match the intent of the music is particularly challenging. Rapture is an album all about human emotion, in its most primal form, and the heightened state of passion that music can evoke within us. In order to create the visual equivalent of this theme, we decided to choose a photo shoot location that would mirror the dynamic nature of the music without overcomplicating what you see. In other words, we were looking for a certain kind of purity and beauty unaffected by the business of our daily lives.

Having shot the photo shoots for both of my first albums indoors (at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and at Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, NJ), I decided now was the right time to find a truly magnificent outdoor location. And having recently relocated to Washington state, I sure had a lot of great places to choose from! Washington is a Mecca for natural beauty, and my new home here is surrounded by it. Not too far from here is the famous Olympic National Park of the Olympic Peninsula. And not too far from there is the awe inspiring coastline of the Olympic Peninsula.

For those of you who have seen the movie Twilight, you may be familiar the “La Push” community and beach, which is nearby to Forks, WA. It only took seeing a few photos of this location for me to realize it was the place I had been looking for. The shores of La Push are nothing short of breathtaking, marked by grand rock formations overlooking the water, trees up in the sky, sand and ocean; all brought together in a beautiful and dynamic way unique to the Pacific Northwest.

How appropriate it seems to have chosen a location like this, to celebrate my new home here in Washington. But more importantly, the photos we shall take there will truly compliment the music of Rapture.

The actual photo shoot is scheduled in a few weeks, but in the meantime I thought you would all enjoy seeing a taste of what this beautiful place looks like. Please take a look below... this will give you an idea!

Enjoy!

~ Michael Samson

“West Bound” Cross-Country Car Trip from NJ to WA

Photos from Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota & Montana
August 14th-18th, 2010

Please visit the following link to view the photo gallery:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240444&id=20171776361

This past August (2010), I made an epic journey driving across the continental United States; all the way from New Jersey to Washington, a grand total of nearly 3,000 miles! This trip which I made by myself was the first step in my permanent relocation to the state of Washington. I stayed in Tacoma, WA (to the south of Seattle) for six weeks prior to my wife and I permanently relocating to our new home in Bothell, WA. The total trip which took me five days to complete (driving 10-12 hours per day) had me crossing 12 states, four time zones and numerous mountain ranges. It was truly an adventure and an experience that I will never forget!

While I have traveled across the country once before (in my teen years), this was the first time I did anything like this on my own. My purpose was to travel across the country as quickly as possible, but, that doesn’t mean I didn’t see some amazing places on the way! I took the time to take many photos from the road, and was truly inspired by what I saw. Big skies over Minnesota, the majestic Rocky Mountains in Montana, the famous Badlands in South Dakota, the tall Chicago skyline, the dairy pastures of Wisconsin, expansive farmlands for as far as thee eye could see, star-filled skies over Custer National Park in Montana, the historic town of Wallace, Idaho, the beautiful Cascade mountain range in Washington, and so much more! It was a brilliant awe-inspiring trip, and I experienced so much in just a few short days.

Our country is truly beautiful, and I don’t think anyone realizes just how big it is until you drive across it as I did. I wanted to share some of what I experienced with everyone by showing you the top photos from my trek. Many of these photos were taken right from the highway, and I wish I had pulled over just a little bit more. But the photos that I took at the Badlands in South Dakota are what I am really proud of. I spent about five hours at the Badlands, and drove through the 20-mile loop road which takes you directly inside the rock formations. At each scenic overlook you can pull over your car and even hike a little bit in certain spots where it was safe. I can only say that this is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and, being there it almost seems like another planet ironically! The landscape is remarkable and dynamic, with a mix of high and low lands, and rock formations that show the passage of time. You feel awful small when looking over that vast landscape… it is humbling. I was lucky enough to be there at a time when the skies had a contrasting mix of darks and lights (a photographer’s dream). But even more special was that I had a chance to hike out to a private spot on the rock formations, and watch the sunset in solitude. It was a spiritual experience shared only by myself, the land and the sky.

With that said, I hope you all enjoy these photos. I took hundreds of them, but these are the top shots I chose to share.

Please enjoy, and…

I highly recommend that you all take a trip like this at least once in your life!

~ Michael Samson

Videos Featuring the Music of Michael Samson!

Over the past few months I have been thinking a lot about moving ahead with the production of videos featuring my music. I love the movies as everyone knows, and I really enjoy seeing music put to visuals. The idea of storytelling with music and visuals has always fascinated me, and many of my greatest inspirations in music in fact come from films. Since first publishing my music last year I have wanted to create videos as well, but it has taken some time to finally get to that step.

I was lucky enough to get a jump-start in video production from some of my most dedicated fans who decided to produce various videos featuring my music. The first of those was a video produced for my title track “A Still Motion”, which was set to the inspiring final scenes of the movie “Hidalgo”. More recently I was just sent a high quality dvd from a fan located in South Africa, who tracked my song “When Light Dances” to scenes of the morning dawn in a beautiful location where he lives.

Inspired by seeing my music tracked to video for the first time, I decided to start the development of my own video concepts. I have several ideas currently in the works, ranging from filming myself performing live at my home-based music studio, to creating more “traditional” music videos and of course filming myself during live public performances.

I have taken the liberty of publishing the first videos available (one public performance and two fan produced videos) to the videos section of my website, to YouTube and also to my other social sites like Facebook and MySpace. I thought you would all enjoy watching these videos, as a taste of what will be released over the coming months.

I also would like to welcome any of my video producing fans to feel free to create new videos of your own featuring my music! I would be more than happy to publish your video on the MichaelSamson.com website, on my YouTube channel and many other places. All I ask is that you first please obtain the proper Non-Commercial License (NCL), easily purchased at MichaelSamson.com (for only $8.99 per song), to keep things both legal and legit! ;o)

With that said, please enjoy watching the videos at either of these two link! =o)

MichaelSamson.com Photo / Video Page:
http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Photo_Video.php

Michael Samson's Official YouTube Channel (Michael Samson Films):
http://www.YouTube.com/MichaelSamson

~ Michael Samson

“Michael's Favorite Music” Section Officially Launches!

When I first opened up MichaelSamson.com a little over a year ago (back in August of 2009), it was always with the intention of having a special section devoted specifically to speaking about my favorite music and about my many musical influences. While this idea was a daunting task to a profound music lover like myself, I knew that this section would ultimately be of special interest to all my fans and supporters.

So a few days ago I decided to finally tackle this project head-on, and dove into it with zeal! I must say that it took a lot of work (more than expected), but when I was all finished writing, I realized how worth the time the effort had been!

Please Visit the Following Link:
http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Michaels_Favorite_Music.php

This new section of my website is divided into two main sections...

• Behind the Music: Michael Samson's Influences
• Beyond the Music: Michael Samson's Recommendations

“Behind the Music” describes the history of my exploration in music and the many influences that ultimately lead me to become a composer. “Beyond the Music” is devoted specifically to sharing my favorite music selections with the public by recommendation of artist names, genres and web links.

It is my hope that this page will help my fans to better understand my background in music and to take part in enjoying the music that has brought so much joy into my life.

With that said, I kindly invite you to visit my new page and hope you enjoy what you see!

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's Sheet Music Books Have Arrived! =o)

After many months of hard work and dedication I am absolutely elated to announce that the sheet music books for both of my albums Until Tomorrow Comes and A Still Motion have finally arrived!

Before I say another word, I know that many people have been patiently waiting to purchase these books upon their arrival; and so I rushed to get them up for sale on my official website. There are two books now available to purchase (one book for each of my albums) with the option to have them autographed and personalized if you prefer. There are also new discount packages available (In the “Discount Packages for Sheet Music” section) for the books so that you can purchase the two of them together at a discounted price. For the moment, these books are available exclusively at MichaelSamson.com, so please use the links provided below in order to place your orders!

To Purchase the Books Independently Please Use this Link:
http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Sheet_Music_CompleteAlbumsAndMusicSongBooks.php
...Use the green buttons towards the bottom of the music player to add the books to cart...

To Purchase the Books Together at a Discounted Price Please Use this Link:
http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Sheet_Music_DiscountPackages.php
...The first two package deals on this page are for the printed books...

About the books and my experience in creating them...

When the books arrived earlier this week and were unloaded from the delivery truck, it's hard to put into words how satisfying and real that made this all to me. It was reminiscent of how I felt when my CD's were delivered for the first time, after years spent working towards that goal. There really are no words to describe what it is like the first time you hold in your hands an album or book that you spent so much time working on. It really is an amazing feeling, in that moment you open up the box and see the culmination of all your hard work for the first time. That was how I felt about these books when they finally arrived... no words!

For those of you who have been following the progress of this project, you know that I have had these books in the works for a long time now. In fact, this project started out with the creation of the sheet music itself, back in early 2009. I worked with a very talented individual who helped me to transcribe and engrave all of my existing compositions. We then released that sheet music in digital PDF format in the summer of 2009, coinciding with the opening of MichaelSamson.com. But I always intended to release physical sheet music books from the start... it just took a lot of time and effort to make that dream a reality.

Last winter the “real” work began to start planning and designing these two books. A lot of work went into seemingly simple things, like finding a manufacturer that could produce the amazing features and quality I had in mind. We actually re-designed all of the sheet music pages for better presentation and to be more legible on the printed page. And of course. I worked with the extremely talented and “world-famous” graphic designer (who had previously designed both of my CD's), to design all of the cover art and inner-page artwork seen in the books.

It is the artwork and additional content that really makes my sheet music books so special, and unlike any other books of their kind. It was very important to me that all of the beautiful photography, artwork and poetry that was created for my CD's would also be present within these books. The challenge we faced was to design completely new layouts for that artwork, that would fit in the 9x12” size format of the books. In that effort I am proud to say that we succeeded brilliantly! My photography, photos, writing and artwork have never looked better! In fact, the photos look incredible, majestic and impressive at the larger size, and in many ways look even better than seen in the CD's themselves.

Everything about these sheet music books turned out amazing! Seriously, they are gorgeous, and I am so excited to start sharing them with my piano playing fans! The printing quality is just so impressive... from the shiny high-gloss cover, to the 8-page color insert with the artwork, and the sheet music in its new format printed on brilliant white paper. I could not have asked for this to come out any better! All the many months of hard work and waiting were definitely worth it!

So there it is! I am officially a book publisher now, and am so happy to finally have these books in hand. I hope that all of my fans who play the piano, or fans that know someone that plays the piano will consider purchasing these books. I need your financial support to continue releasing products of this caliber, so please, buy the books! I promise, you will be more than happy with what you receive!

...Until the next sheet music book release (for Rapture)... Enjoy!

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's 4th of July Sale! All Prices Slashed!!!

If you enjoy my music, now is definitely the time to purchase it!
In honor of the 4th of July I have decided to run my largest sale to date. All of my music, sheet music, package deals and even my licensing has been hugely discounted! Everything is for sale at insanely low prices... CD's, MP3's, eALBUM's, Sheet Music, Licenses, Discount Packages and Autographed Products.... all priced to sell cheap and fast! ;o)

This sale is being offered exclusively at my official store located at: http://www.MichaelSamson.com/StoreMain.php

Here is a breakdown on some of the sale prices...

CD - Standard: $9.99 ($14.99)
CD - Autographed: $12.99 ($17.99)
MP3 - Individual Song: $0.89 ($0.99)
eALBUM - Complete Album MP3: $7.99 ($9.99)
Sheet Music - Individual Song (PDF): $2.99 ($3.99)
Sheet Music - Complete Album (PDF): $12.99 ($14.99)

The “best” kind of support...
If you love my music, please do consider purchasing it! Nothing says “I support your music” better than this! When you purchase my music in any form, you are providing me with the means to continue making more music, to produce more albums, more CD's, more sheet music and to perform more concerts. I really do need the financial support of my fans world-wide, and I sincerely hope that you will consider supporting my music in this very real way. 

Enjoy the sale! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Rapture Reaches the Half-Way Mark!

It's been some time since I last wrote about the progress of my upcoming album, entitled Rapture. It seemed like an appropriate time for a project update, since I just reached the official half-way mark on the writing end of the album.

A lot has happened over the last few months in the composing of Rapture, and the album is starting to truly take shape and demonstrate its identity. It amazes me how much the songs and concepts behind them have evolved since their inception in early 2009. I suppose most people don't realize just how long it takes me to write one of my albums from beginning to end. Not including production, mastering and manufacturing time, the compositional phase alone can take as long as two years or more. I have never been one to rush my writing process, and certainly not for this album. The quality of my writing must come first, and that is always my top concern. When I develop a basic concept for a song, I usually like to let it “simmer” for a while and allow the piece to take shape on its own terms. Sometimes that process can be spontaneous and fast, and at other times it can be the opposite, slow and tedious. But with patience and respect for the writing process, I am usually completely happy and satisfied with how my songs turn out in the end.

Rapture is going to have a total of 14 songs when completed, making it two songs longer then my previous albums. This happened mainly because I had a lot of strong early concepts for the pieces. The song lengths also vary a little more than my previous works, with some longer pieces and some shorter pieces. The rule of thumb has been to allow each song to only be “as long as it wants to be”. The original concept for Rapture was to write a collection of songs that focused on basic human emotions. The word “Rapture” after all means an expression or manifestation of passion, or, a state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion. I have done my best to stay true to that concept by writing music that is a little more primal, that can evoke emotion on a more instinctive level. Compared to my previous album, A Still Motion, this album is less about telling a story, and is more about evoking an emotional response. It is then up to the listener to apply those emotions to more specific narratives.

For those of you listeners out there who already know my writing style, you will definitely hear connections with my earlier works. However, you will also notice several differences that represent the evolution of my music. No artist is static, and I have always believed it is important that my music change and grow with time. Like my previous albums, Rapture represents a specific period of my life, and I think you will recognize the artistic growth in its music. I have really been pushing myself hard to improve my compositional techniques, structures and arrangements. It is really interesting when you listen to these pieces, because on one level they are simpler in their ability to communicate raw emotions; but on another level the methods in which those emotions are delivered is more complex. I have been paying such detailed attention to things like dynamics, tempo, pressure on the keys, the intention and expression of every single note. On one hand I have been executing these pieces with a level of accuracy beyond any of my previous works, but simultaneously I have learned to be gentle, and to allow each piece the room to breathe and sound alive. You could say this is an album of balance, a balance between expression and control. Pretty deep stuff, I know!

I can promise you all this... Rapture is going to be my best work to date! I am only half-way through the writing (now on song #8), and I'm already so proud of how this is sounding. The only regret I have is that I must wait to complete the entire album before I can release it to anyone. But I am moving at a steady pace now, and if all goes well, I should be able to release Rapture in early to middle 2011. Of course you can expect beautiful artwork, poetry and photography to accompany my album just as on my previous releases. I will also be creating all the sheet music for Rapture as well, though that will be released in the months following the album's debut.

Well I hope you all have enjoyed this update. There is a lot of exciting music on the horizon. Stick with me for the ride, and it will be there for you to hear soon!

For anyone who wants to keep up to date with my news, releases and progress on Rapture, please join my official newsletter (Between the Notes) at this link: http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Newsletter.php

~ Michael Samson

The Inaugural Issue of Michael Samson's Newsletter “Between the Notes” is Here!

Staying in Between the Notes!
Please consider joining my official newsletter, Between the Notes. Four times a year, every January, April, July and October, I send out Between the Notes to my list of subscribing fans via eMail. If you enjoy listening to my music, playing it at the piano or attending my live concerts, then this is the perfect way for you to stay up to date and in the know! ;o)

Joining the newsletter takes only seconds, and I guarantee that you will enjoy what you read there. To subscribe, simply fill out the short form on the News or Newsletter page, press the “Sign Up” button, and presto, you’re in!

An excerpt from the inaugural issue of Between the Notes...

“   I have been waiting for this moment for far too long! The seed for this newsletter was planted some time ago, back when I first developed MichaelSamson.com in early 2009, but it has taken me a long time to finally launch this endeavor. Since opening up my official website last summer, a lot has happened, and I certainly have been busy. But I never forgot about this newsletter and how important it would be to finally get it going. The timing for this really was just right, as I just broke having 500 subscribers to Between the Notes. Not a huge number... but certainly a solid start to get the ball rolling.

So this weekend I really got my hands dirty and cranked out all the needed steps to make this happen. It was a lot of work, but I am really proud of how this newsletter looks, especially for the inaugural issue! I have very high hopes for Between the Notes, and am looking forward to watching its subscriber base grow with time. For everyone out there receiving this today for the first time, please take a good look through the many sections below. These sections are now the standard sections of Between the Notes, and are what you can expect to see in each and every issue. I have really done my best to make this newsletter both interesting and thorough. There is a little something of everything in here, and I think it represents my music and my endeavors extremely well. Since this is the very first issue, I would like to point out the “Subscription Information” section towards the bottom of the newsletter, as this is where you can look for answers about your subscription.

Between the Notes will be issued four times a year, quarterly, every January, April, July and October towards the middle of the month. Every now and then I may choose to write a special edition, but in general, this is the schedule that I will keep. The idea is to keep my fans informed about my music and endeavors, but not to over-do it. Four issues a year seemed like the best frequency to accomplish that.  ”

With that said, I proudly introduce to you my official newsletter... Between the Notes

~ Michael Samson

Sheet Music Books for Until Tomorrow Comes and A Still Motion On the Way!

There are many ways to enjoy music... listening to recordings, going to a concert, dancing at a party; but for people that play an instrument, the experience of actually "doing" music, with their own two hands is particularly rewarding. This is how I experience the most joy in music, by creating it, composing it, and playing it on the piano myself.

I take a lot of pleasure in sharing my music with the outside world. Since the public release of my two albums last summer, so many people have written to me expressing their enthusiasm and love of my music. It really has been a rewarding experience for me, knowing that my music is touching the lives of so many people. I have always believed that one of the greatest ways to share my music is in making it possible for others to play it themselves, on the piano, as I do. The piano is such a glorious and majestic instrument. I believe it creates a personal connection with the person playing it like no other instrument out there. When you play music on the piano, it has a way of joining with you, becoming a part of who you are... and as we play the music, we experience it in a truly unique and intimate way. It is for this reason that it has been so important to me to make my music available in sheet music form, so that everyone could experience it on the piano as I do.

About a year ago I officially started the project with the goal of releasing all of my existing music to date in sheet music. At the time I began that quest, I had absolutely no idea of the work that would be involved, and how difficult a goal I had set for myself. But in true form, with a bit of innocence, I went right after this idea. I started out by looking for people out there, in the industry, who had a lot of experience transcribing sheet music. You would be amazed by how few people there are that really know how to do this correctly. I had found maybe five people that looked promising. After contacting them all, I settled on one person... located in New York City who has been creating sheet music professionally his entire life.

As it turns out, I had really struck gold by finding this particular person. He was extremely qualified, a consummate professional and someone who had worked with really large music organizations; The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, The Newman Scoring Stage at Twentieth Century Fox Studios, Abbey Road Studios in London, and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, just to name a few. I could not have asked for a better partner on this project. I myself was not qualified to create the sheet music alone... as I typically write and play the piano with my ears only. It takes a great skill to create quality sheet music, and this person really knew what he was doing.

So we set out in early 2009 to transcribe all 24 songs I had written to date. I soon learned that the correct term was not "transcription", but was actually "engraving". They call it engraving because in the past (before the days of computer programs), sheet music was literally engraved onto lead sheets, that would then be used in the printing process. Can you imagine the time it would take to make sheet music that way? Well, lucky for us, we didn't have to grab any hand tools, but we did have to work pretty hard.

I had set the bar extremely high. I wanted nothing less than "perfect" sheet music. And let me tell you, getting sheet music close to perfect is extremely difficult, even for the most skilled person. We decided the best approach would be to utilize a combination of sources, digital midi files and actual recordings of my songs. The idea was simple, we would use the digital files to get the notational accuracy we were looking for; and we would use the recordings of the songs to capture the more artistic and aesthetic qualities. There were many factors to consider, such as getting all the notes correct, the rhythms, time signatures, the dynamics, expression, pedaling and the more subtle nuances of my performance. I wanted to really provide everyone with sheet music that was a true reflection of my music, rather than a mere approximation.

To my amazement, we were able to create all of the sheet music in about three months time! Actually, it was more like a miracle. But that is because the person who helped me is simply that good! So when I opened up my official website last summer, we had all 24 songs available to sell online in digital (PDF) format. Being able to purchase sheet music digitally is great... I mean, it is quick, efficient, and anyone can print out the music at home. I have always approached things both ways with my music... offering it digitally and in physical form. But I knew that creating printed versions of my sheet music, in actual books was going to take a little more time and research.

After the release of my two albums, suffice to say, things got really hectic around here. I was still in the process of improving my website, setting up my albums for sale across the internet, starting a publicity campaign and my first concert tour. My goal of creating sheet music books was going to have to wait a little bit. But about two months ago things had quieted down enough that I felt the time was right to finally make this happen. I figured that since I am in between albums right now (currently writing my next album entitled Rapture), that I should release my sheet music books for Until Tomorrow Comes and A Still Motion before the next release happened.

Like everything else I have set out to accomplish, there was a lot for me to learn in order to make these two books a reality. I started by researching manufacturers and publishing companies that had experience printing sheet music books. To my surprise, this turned out to be a pretty difficult task. Book printing is rather common, and there are many companies out there that do this. But specifically creating sheet music books, in a 9"x12" format is not quite as common. It took a while, but eventually I was able to find a company that could meet my many requirements.

I decided to once again work with Matt Strieby of Newleaf Design, the extremely gifted and talented graphic designer who I worked with on the design of both my albums. Matt is the person who created the incredible artwork that can be seen in my album's CD digipaks. I made a decision that I wanted these two books to contain all of the same artwork, photos, poetry and writing that we had included within my CD packages. This was a pretty tall order though, because we would literally have to re-envision, re-design and re-format all of the artwork to make sense visually in the new 9"x12" format for the books. That was the real design challenge, and I was glad to have the right person helping me with this. At the same time, I was also back in contact with the person who had originally engraved my sheet music; this time to help me re-format all 24 songs to work correctly in the book format. This too was a lot of hard work, and we literally re-designed the sheet music from top to bottom to make the books the best they could be.

So, in about two-three months time, this is what I will be releasing...

Two 9"x12" fully illustrated sheet music books, one for each of my two albums, each with a FULL COLOR eight page insert at the beginning with all of my original album artwork, photos and poetry. Each book will contain all of my songs engraved and transcribed to perfection, providing the player with the ability to truly recreate my performances. These books are going to be like no other sheet music books out there that I know of. The inclusion of the artwork in color, fully redesigned specifically for the books is really going to set these apart. For those who know me, you know that I approach all of my projects this way...  making everything the very best it can be, and offering the most fully featured experience possible.

There is certainly a lot of excitement in the air. I am personally very excited about this. After over a year of work with this goal in mind, I am finally nearing the realization of this project. Many people have been asking for the real sheet music books, and now, they will finally be able to have them!

For everyone who is interested in this, please keep a close eye on the News section of MichaelSamson.com. I will definitely be making an announcement when the books are officially released. Once they do become available, they will be sold in this section of my website: Music Song Books (PRINT) / Complete Albums (PDF). In the meantime, please feel free to purchase my Sheet Music in digital (PDF) format. I have recently updated all of the digital files, and they are now the same versions that you will see in the two books.

So until then... keep on playing that piano everyone! ;o)

~ Michael Samson

The Michael Samson Amazon.com Artist Store Goes Live!

After many weeks of working with Amazon, I am proud to announce the official launch of my Amazon.com Artist Store! (please click on the image below to visit!)

Having your music available in the largest online market place is a rite of passage for any musician. For the last half-year, my music has been available on Amazon.com in only digital format. Over the past few weeks I have been working with Amazon to make all of my products available there, this means, my physical CD's. From this new Artist Store, you can browse to all of my products on Amazon.com, including both of my physical CD's and my MP3 eAlbums. If you click on the links under each album where it says "CD", you will be brought to the CD detail page; which now includes a newly written editorial review for each of my albums, in addition to all the product information and customer reviews. You will find that my CD's are now being stocked directly by Amazon and can be purchased and shipped with the "free super saver shipping" option. The Artist Store itself is a wonderful new feature from Amazon that helps musicians to better represent themselves. In my Artist Store you can listen to some of my songs in their entirety, you can look over my albums, browse my photos, read my bio, and more! I highly encourage everyone to take a look!

Please do keep in mind that the best deals can still be found at my Official Website Store, located at http://www.MichaelSamson.com/StoreMain.php . If you purchase directly from my store, all of the proceeds will go towards supporting my music. I also offer an array of discount deals, purchasing options and can ship internationally! Of course my music is also available in many other reputable stores. For a full listing of all those stores, please visit: http://www.MichaelSamson.com/Store_Other.php .

Thank you to everyone who has expressed an interest in purchasing my music! I really appreciate your support! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Please Click the Image Below to Visit the Amazon.com Artist Store!

A Still Motion Announced as a Top 100 Radio Airplay Album of 2009!!!

I have some pretty amazing news to announce this week...

As many of you already know from my previous news postings, my second album A Still Motion was extremely successful on the radio during the months of September through December of 2009. In fact, my album debuted in the radio airplay charts within the Top 10 back in September ranking at #9, which is extremely rare for a solo piano album to do. The following month in October, it moved up to the #6 spot, and then remained in the Top 20 for November, and within the Top 100 for December. I was extremely proud and grateful that my album was a favorite amongst radio programmers, and in knowing my music was being broadcast to millions of listeners world-wide.

Well, it turns out that in over 2,338 albums submitted to the ZMR (Zone Music Reporter) in 2009, that my album, A Still Motion, ranked as the #33 album of the entire year!!! I thought you all would like to see the ranking as well, so here is the link on the ZMR website. Just scroll down to the #33 spot. ;o)

http://www.zonemusicreporter.com/charts/Top1002009.asp

For those of you not familiar with the ZMR, they are the governing organization for ranking international radio airplay statistics within the Instrumental, New Age and Contemporary music genres. Making the Top 10 in the ZMR for any given month of the year is a pretty big deal... but making the Top 100 for the entire year's results is truly a great honor and achievement!

I am really thrilled to see my album has achieved such a distinction on an international level and in competition with so many other talented artists. I just want to say thank you one more time to everyone who has been so supportive of my music and has helped it to be heard!

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's Music Now Available On Jango Internet Radio!

To listen to Michael Samson's music on Jango internet radio, please visit the following link:
http://www.jango.com/music/Michael+Samson

A few days ago I was introduced to Jango (www.Jango.com), a very innovative and up and coming internet radio and promotional service for musicians and music lovers alike. For those of you already familiar with the concept of "Social Radio", you may think this service is similar to that of "Pandora" or "Last.fm". Like other social radio networks, Jango offers ways for music lovers to connect with new music and musicians that they will most likely enjoy. What really sets Jango apart though, is in its simplicity and how it efficiently exposes listeners to new music based on their current music tastes.

When I signed up for Jango, as a musician, I was able to actually specify other musicians by name that I would prefer my music to be aired with side by side. In other words, by me inputting similar artists of my genre, I can control where my music is aired and the types of people that will hear it. Jango kind of levels the playing field, so that new and upcoming musicians can be heard side by side with larger and more well established acts.

As a Jango radio listener, you get to set up your own private radio station for free, consisting of only the music that you like. It is the ultimate fully customizable radio platform where the listeners control what is played, and not radio programmers. Once you establish your free account and enter in some of your favorite music, Jango will then actively insert other music into your station based on your own tastes. You can then decide to keep the new music as part of your station, or to discard it. This offers the listeners a powerful means by which to discover new music that they may potentially like.

I have only been on Jango a few days so far, but I can tell you already, it is a very impressive website! In less than one week on Jango, I have already earned over 400 new fans, all through their promotional recommendation system. This is clearly a great way for musicians to promote themselves and equally for music lovers to find new music they would enjoy.

This is a website well worth checking out and joining. Once you are a member (which is completely free), you can start adding music to your account and recomending music to other members. For my existing fans, this is a great way to hear my music and to recommend it!

Please do check out Jango.. you won't be sorry! =)

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's 2009 Fall/Winter Tour Now Complete

I'm proud to announce that my 2009 Fall/Winter Tour was a complete success!

It was really a great run! I enjoyed performing very much, meeting lots of new people and creating new fans. Thank you to everyone who attended my shows and were so supportive of my music! =o)

Over the next few months I am going to take a little break from performing so that I can concentrate my time on the writing and recording of my upcoming album, Rapture. This album is 14 tracks strong, and is looking to be perhaps my greatest work to date. I'm very excited about its potential, and so I want to dedicate as much time to it as possible. If all goes well, in a few months I can start touring again after Rapture is closer to completion.

In the meantime... I am most definitely still available for booking concerts!

If you would like me to perform at your venue, home or place of business, please don't hesitate to Contact Me! All of my booking information is freely available on the Booking page. Please take a look there for answers to the most common booking questions.

With that said, I look forward to my next concert tour!

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's A Still Motion Makes the #6 Spot for October's Worldwide Radio Airplay Chart!!! =o)

Last month I was so excited and proud to report that my latest album, A Still Motion had debuted in the Top 10 (#9 Spot) of the Worldwide Radio Airplay Chart for the month of September. That was a monumental achievement and a landmark event for my music career, and for that of anyone's music career for that matter. Not only did A Still Motion make it into the Top 10, it actually debuted in the Top 10, which is very unusual for a solo piano album. Typically albums will enter the charts lower down the ranks and will work their way up into the Top 10 slowly. But like a true juggernaut, A Still Motion slammed its way directly into the Top 10!

Thanks to the incredible hard work and talent of my publicist, we were able to push the radio programmers hard, and get them excited about playing A Still Motion. In a genre as saturated as solo piano, it was a difficult challenge to convince the radio programmers to listen to my album. We had to tell them, "This isn't just another solo piano album; this is something truly special and worthy of attention...". After many weeks of speaking with radio shows across the planet, we were successful and found that A Still Motion had become a favorite among radio programmers. Not only was A Still Motion being played on radio shows all over the world, the radio programmers were playing nearly every track on the album over and over and over again! ;o)

After making the Top 10 in the month of September, we were all hopeful that my album would climb even higher in the chart for the month of October. With that goal in mind, we continued to encourage more radio shows to play A Still Motion, and indeed they did! So after four additional weeks of anticipation for the October chart, it finally was released this past Sunday of November 15th, 2009.

I am truly elated to announce that A Still Motion has climbed the charts, against all odds and fierce competition, and has attained the #6 Spot in the Worldwide Radio Airplay Chart for the month of October!!! For two consecutive months, A Still Motion has maintained its Top 10 ranking status, and now has risen an additional three spots! =o)

Please take a look at the link below to see my album on the Zone Music Reporter's Radio Airplay Chart...

http://www.zonemusicreporter.com/charts/top100.asp

I just want to say thank you again to everyone who has been so supportive of my music, to all of my new fans across the world, to my beautiful wife Mandy, and of course to my publicist who really made this Top 10 ranking possible. Thank you so very much!!!

~ Michael Samson

Help Spread the Music with Michael Samson's Official Widget!

I have something nifty to share with everyone today. This is my brand new official music widget, created with a little help from my digital distributor, TuneCore. This widget is extremely advanced, has lots of cool features and easily allows you to add my music to a variety of places. I have entered in here a select few of my songs to help promote and spread awareness about my music. The main idea behind this widget is for people who know me and like my music to have an easy way to share it with friends. The widget can be easily embedded into any webpage, blog, forum, on Facebook, MySpace and practically any other social site you can think of.

Please take a look at the widget below... this is it. Most of the controls are self-explanatory, but in order to add/share this widget on your website or social site profile, just click the "Share" button on the widget. It's the button that looks like a small social network diagram. Once you click that button, a menu will pop up which will provide you with tools to add the widget to pretty much any place. The share menu will show you how to easily add the widget automatically to a location of your choice, or manually add it by copying the appropriate widget code.

I would really appreciate it if everyone who likes my music will help me to promote it by posting up this widget. The more places this widget is seen, the more people will hear my music and will continue to spread the widget. I am permanently placing this widget on my MySpace page so that it is easily accessible to everyone.

So here it is! Enjoy it and Post it!!! ;o)

Thanks everyone!

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's A Still Motion Makes the Top 10 in Worldwide Radio Airplay Chart!!!!!!!!!! =o)

I am extremely proud to announce that as of Friday October 16th, 2009, my latest album A Still Motion has made the TOP 10 (# 9 Spot) in the Worldwide Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart!!!!!

Please click this link to see!
http://www.zonemusicreporter.com/charts/top100.asp

I received this incredible news late last night from my publicist who was so ecstatic, he nearly called me up at 1 am in the morning! Instead he sent me over a very excited email with the breakthrough news. Over the last few weeks I have been working with a very gifted publicist, who has been helping me to promote my latest album A Still Motion. We have been running two international publicity campaigns, one for general publicity, reviews and write-ups, and the other for radio airplay and exposure.

For those of you who don't know, there are worldwide ranking charts out there (usually top 100) for radio airplay in a variety of genres. For my genre, which falls officially under "Contemporary Instrumental", the governing chart is run by an organization called the Zone Music Reporter. Each month the ZMR releases a top 100 radio airplay chart for the New Age, Ambient, World and Instrumental genres. This is an international ranking, and is indeed the governing chart for worldwide radio airplay. Making this chart is not an easy task, let alone making the top 10. It would not be an overstatement to say that making this chart is a career milestone for any artist.

My latest album, A Still Motion has entered the top 100 chart for the month of September at a ranking of #9! What is truly remarkable about this is that it entered the chart in a top 10 ranking. This is a very rare thing, especially for a solo piano album. Of all the other albums in this month's chart, only one other album has debuted with a top 10 ranking. While there have been other solo piano albums in the top 10 before, they usually do not rank this highly. This is truly a tremendous accomplishment for my music!

Over the next few weeks we will be continuing to promote my album, and to obtain more radio exposure. It is very possible that in next month's radio airplay chart (for October) that my album may rank even higher. But even if this does not happen, having a top 10 ranking albums is a lifetime achievement that I will always be proud of! My music is now being listened to all over the world, and this is really the greatest reward that any artist could ask for.

I just wanted to extend my warmest thanks to my publicist Randall S. Davis of The Creative Service Company. You are truly the best and I could not have achieved this without your talent, hard work and overwhelming support of my music! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! =o)

~ Michael Samson

My First Official Concert Was a Success!  =o)

This past Friday (October 2nd) marked my first official concert on my very first official concert tour!

As you may imagine, it was a both an exciting and nerve-racking night for me. After nearly six weeks of preparations for a 14 show tour, I am proud to say that the first show went extremely well! I was actually surprisingly not all that nervous... I think because I felt so confident in my playing after all that practice time. Practice does indeed make perfect... because I played very well that night!

My first show was at BORDERS - Books, Music & Cafe in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Borders has been extremely welcoming of me and my music, and I am grateful that they have allowed me to play in so many of their stores. Many of my shows over the next few weeks are at Borders locations throughout New Jersey. I am playing at other small venues as well though, such as the It's a Grind Coffee House and the Triumph Brewing Company. Right now I am keeping the shows fairly local (in New Jersey and Pennsylvania), but I do ultimately plan to take my concerts to other areas of the country.

It was truly a thrill playing live in a concert format for the first time. I performed a variety of pieces, mostly from my second album A Still Motion, but also some from my first album Until Tomorrow Comes, and even one brand new piece from my upcoming album Rapture. My concerts run for approximately two hours, and I perform a lot of music. In between songs I tell stories here and there, and give some insights into the making of the music. It is an enjoyable experience for both me and the audience.

The first show was really a blast, and I am very much looking forward to the next. I hope to see some of you at the upcoming events... please see my Concerts page for a full listing of locations and times.

I have also now created a new section in the Photo/Video page specifically for live concert events. We are taking photos at all of my concerts and posting it there. I just posted the photos from my first show tonight, so please do take a look! ;o)

Lastly, I have in the works plans to film my upcoming show at the Triumph Brewing Company. It will be a simple video to showcase my performance and give viewers a feel for the venue. I will be posting this on both my official website as well as my YouTube page.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all enjoy the concert photos! ;o)

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's Debut Concert Events Now Scheduled!

I am proud to announce that I have booked my very first venues! =O)

Since the release of my two debut albums earlier this month, it has been a landslide of craziness for me. The initial response to my albums has been sensational, and I have been so very busy talking to my new friends and fans. Thank you so much to everyone who rushed out and purchased my albums... your support really means a LOT to me!

So now the real fun is beginning. I am starting to book my very first live shows. The idea is to book venues in small locations where I can get my feet wet, and get used to performing live. There is a lot of planning in the works, but I am starting now to book at locations like coffee shops, book stores, colleges, performing arts centers and even shopping malls. Whevever I can get out and perform live, make fans and sell my albums.. that is where I am at!

This week I booked my first shows at the BORDERS (Book Store Music Cafe) and the It's A Grind Coffee House. Hopefully by the end of this week I will be booked at numerous other locations as well. I am moving fast to schedule venues during the busy holiday season.

For everyone who knows me personally, and everyone who is discovering my music for the first time... I kindly invite you, your friends, your family  and colleagues to come out and see me perform at my very first concerts!  This is a very exciting time for me, and I hope to be able to share that excitement with all of you.

For a full listing of my concert events schedule, please visit the Concerts Page.

Thank you again everyone!

~ Michael Samson

MichaelSamson.com is Now Open for Business!!! =o)

You heard right! It's Official!

Nearly two years in the making, I am proud to officially announce the grand opening of my official website, www.MichaelSamson.com. It was truly a sweet moment late last night when my wife and I pushed over the tiny piece of code to the server that opened up the website to the world! After so much hard work, dedication and countless hours spent at the computer, the moment was indeed a little sureal. So we made a toast to embrace the moment, and drank to the opening of this site!

As many of you already know, the opening of this site is more than a mere website opening. Today is indeed my professional debut, in that all of my music if officially being released to the world for the very first time! This includes both of my completed albums, "Until Tomorrow Comes" and "A Still Motion", along with the sheet music for each and every song! In some ways I have been working towards this moment for over ten years, as I started writing this music way back in 1997! We waited to open up the website to coincide with the arrival of my physical CD's, and that is happening today.

All of my music and sheet music is available directly on the official site. You can purchase the music either digitally (as MP3's) or as a physical CD. I would recommend to everyone buying the physical CD's (which you can purchase autographed), because they include gorgeous album artwork, photos and poetry which we worked on for 8 months! My music is also available in a wide variety of stores across the internet (listed in the store section), but I suggest making your purchases on my site, as that way the full proceeds go to me (and not to Amazon or iTunes).

I ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO VISIT MY SITE TODAY AND TO SPREAD THE WORD!!! =o)

I would like to kindly invite everyone who knows me to come and visit www.MichaelSamson.com today! Bring yourself, your friends, your family, your colleagues... anyone who you think may enjoy my music! I need all of your help to spread the word out about this! This is the start of my professional career as a pianist, and it is going to take all of you to help ignite the fire! Help me now to get the word out so that everyone can enjoy this music!

I want to thank the three people that really made this website possible. To Justin and Richard...  The dedication you showed to this project was incredible. I know I drove the two of you nuts at times, pushing and pushing to make this site the best it could be. But look at what we have created together! This website is a marvel in every sense, and I have the two of you to thank for that! I will never forget what you both did for me here, and I could not have made it this far without you! And of course, to my beautiful wife Mandy, this was such a sacrifice for us both... mainly for the time I put into this and how that kept us apart, but I just wanted to say thank you for supporting this site and my dream to release my music! I love you baby! =o*)

...I will be releasing another news headline after the CD's arrive on the truck today. I have a lot of unloading to do! lol! Feel free to start placing your orders now though.. the CD's will be here before 5pm! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's Official MySpace Page Ready to Go!

Well after 5 days of exhaustive work, the official Michael Samson MySpace page is now complete! I am really very proud of how this came out. The original work on the MySpace page was done by the same designer that worked on my official site. But over the last few days I have been working hard to perfect the page and get it ready for my debut which is less than two weeks away now. The MySpace page is going to be a major gateway for people to find me and my music, so it was something that I really wanted to make amazing. I think I can safely say that it is one of the most impressive MySpace pages ever created, and it is a perfect companion to my official site.

Anyways, please do feel free to check it out! Just remember that all the links to my official site won't be active until opening day. ;o)

http://www.MySpace.com/MichaelSamson

Enjoy!

~ Michael Samson

Michael Samson's Music Now Distributed by TuneCore!

Hi Everyone…    I have some great news! =o)

I am proud to announce that I am the newest member of TuneCore Music Distribution!

TuneCore is an up and coming music distribution company that specializes in digital distribution for artists. As a member of TuneCore all of my music will now be available for purchase across a large array of music retailers on the internet and worldwide. TuneCore specializes in digital distribution, which means that my music will be sold electronically in the form of MP3’s through their many retail members. As many of you know, my music will be sold both in digital and physical form… the physical albums being in the form of beautifully designed CD Digipaks. While I do encourage everyone to purchase the physical product, for the beautiful artwork, photography and poetry inside; it is a great honor to have my music made available worldwide in digital form. All of my music has been submitted to the below list of online retailers, and will be online in time to coincide with the release of my physical CD’s. My official website, www.MichaelSamson.com will be the best place to preview the music, purchase the MP3’s and the physical albums. But if you are more comfortable purchasing from a large retailer, you will now have that ability as well thanks to my new distributor. Ultimately you will be able to purchase my physical CD’s as well in online retail stores, such as Amazon.com and CD Baby.

With that said, here is a listing of all the online stores my music will be sold in digitally!

Right Here on MichaelSamson.com

iTunes – United States  |  iTunes – Canada  |  iTunes – UK / European Union

iTunes – Australia / New Zealand  |  iTunes – Japan

Amazon MP3  |  Rhapsody  |  Napster  |  eMusic  | IMVU  |  Lala

ShockHound  |  Amie Street  |  LimeWire Store

Michael Samson is Now Officially on Twitter! ;o)

As of today I have officially joined Twitter!

I have heard many good things about this service over the last year and decided it was finally time to try it out! I made my official first "tweet" earlier today testing it all out. This looks like it's gonna be a lot of fun to use. I think this is a great way to keep my friends and fans up to date with what I am doing on a daily basis. Now I only have to remember to tweet regularly! ;o)

I have already added a Twitter application to my MySpace page, and am in the process of trying to make it work in Facebook as well. Here is the official link to my new Twitter profile page..

http://www.Twitter.com/MichaelSamson

Tweet Tweet to you all! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Album Artwork Completed and Submitting for Manufacturing!

I am happy to announce that we are officially completed with the album artwork for both CD's now! This was the final step in a nearly two year project, which means that we are submitting the albums for manufacturing next week! This is great news indeed, because as soon as the albums arrive, I can officially open the doors to MichaelSamson.com and the rest of my music business. Naturally all of you who have been patiently waiting for my albums will finally be able to purchase them. We are all very excited over here..  it has been a long road to get to this point, but I couldn't be more proud. The albums are stunning, from the music to the artwork and packaging. I am expecting to be able to officially open up mid-July. We are almost there!!! =O)

~ Michael Samson

The Final Countdown to Launch...

Just a quick update here about my official release date for the two albums and practically everything else, the website, sheet music, digital distribution, etc. We are now in the final leg of the project and are working to complete the album artwork and design for A Still Motion. The artwork is completely finished for Until Tomorrow Comes. As soon as we are done with all the design work we can move directly into the manufacturing process. Once that starts, it will be a three week countdown to receive the completed CD's. At that point, I can officially open the site and make the big debut!

So when you may ask is this all happening? I am expecting to be able to launch in early July! So only a few weeks to go! It is definitely getting exciting, but I must admit that I wish we could open right now. Good things are worth waiting for though. Stay patient everyone..  we are almost there! =o)

~ Michael Samson

The Masters for A Still Motion Have Arrived!

This past Friday the master audio files for A Still Motion finally arrived from the production team over in Germany. I had been waiting for these for a few weeks now. Turns out that the production team decided to work on A Still Motion before Until Tomorrow Comes. They kind of got things a little backwards there, but its cool! Actually, I am kind of glad this album arrived first.. since really it is my favorite of the two albums.

The second the files arrived I burned them to CD so I could hear it all. I ran out to my car like a little kid with candy, to play it on the car stereo system. I am happy to say that the tracks sound spectacular! Actually, they sound breathtaking! For those of you who didn't know, we have spent the last few weeks reworking the piano in my recordings, improving it greatly. The piano sound literally soars! The sound is really incredible..  and I am so proud that we achieved this. I can't give away our trade secrets about how we actually did it, but suffice to say these two piano albums will be second to none!

My wife and I did the formal review of A Still Motion over the weekend. The album is really solid from beginning to end. I can honestly say that this is my best work to date. Everything about this album flows, the writing, the passages, the tone and movement of the recordings. And now we have this incredible piano sound to match! I am one happy camper! =o)

The masters for Until Tomorrow Comes should arrive in about two to three weeks. We are still wrapping up other things like the album art, but all is looking good to reach my goal of a end-of-June debut. So keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks.. I can't wait for everyone to hear this music!

~ Michael Samson

Getting Closer and Closer to My Dream!

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote. Things have just been so hectic the last few weeks, it has been tough to even find a moment to breath! It has been a good kind of busyness though, and I have accomplished a lot as of lately. I can assure you though that once my albums premier I will be making more regular entries to my blog, news and newsletter.

For those of you who don’t know, my official website www.MichaelSamson.com will be making its grand opening in late June. (don’t quote me there!). The idea is to open the website along with the premier of my two albums. We are definitely inline for a end-of-June opening though… so keep your eyes peeled on the website. The reason I bring it up is let you know that there will be many community / news type features on the website which you can follow me with. The type of message I am writing here, a blog entry, will be in my blog on the website. There is a news section that will show more current, shorter headlines as to what is happening in my life and music. I have a newsletter as well, which you will be able to join through the website. The newsletter is called “Between the Notes”, and I am planning on sending it out about once a month. You should all definitely join it once the site opens… as this is where I will put in concert dates, interesting news and neat offers. Believe it or not, there is also a completely featured Forum on my website which you can join as a member. The forum has in it lots of sections to discuss my music, and music in general. I mean, not everything is about me..  the idea behind the forum is to offer a community spot where people can discuss interesting subjects, share thoughts about music, etc. Anyways, definitely check all this out when the website opens. Just click on the News and Community links at the top of the site.

So many things have been happening the last few weeks, it is tough to know where to begin. Well, as I was saying before.. we are moving towards the big debut, with an opening planned for late June. At this point pretty much everything is dependent on the albums being manufactured. Once that is done, we can open the website and start showing it all off. At this point we are smack in the middle of the design process for the album art. Everything we are doing is double work because we are designing not one, but two albums simultaneously. It has been a daunting task to say the least, but things are going so very well!

Each of the albums is going to be printed in a “Digipak” format. For those of you unfamiliar with this..  Digipaks are the CD packages that are completely made out of paper / cardboard materials. If you have ever seen one of these, they are much higher quality then plastic jewel cases. There are a lot of advantages to them..  mainly a much more beautiful aesthetic feel and print presentation. I have never liked jewel cases..  they crack too easily and are kind of ugly. The Digipaks we are making are really gorgeous. The cover art can be a little wider on them because there is no hinge like in a jewel case.  We are printing on a very high quality paper stock. The Digipak itself will be on a higher quality stock, as will the insert booklet. The printing quality is going to be amazing too. I am using a very good manufacturer known for doing the best custom work. You can expect the print and photography to look amazing on my albums.

The artwork itself is coming out incredible. I am working with such a talented graphic designer.. really I am very lucky. Everyone I have worked with on the project has been exceptional. Honestly I am not sure how I got so lucky.. but I am thankful for it. So the artwork looks so amazing. We are of course using all the beautiful photos that I worked so hard to take many months ago. But the artwork takes it to an entirely new level. Each Digipak we make will have a full 16 page booklet in it! Each booklet features original photography, artwork and poetry I have written for each song. I have really been taking the time to make these packages an experience. I mean, what I have learned is that the artwork for an album is just as important an artistic statement as the music itself. So I have been really working hard to write great content for each album. Every song has its own words and poetry that I wrote for it. I have also written an “About the Album” message for each album, which gives a nice background about the album and how I feel about it. This will be featured in the centerfolds of each booklet.

On other fronts, things have been moving along really well. We have been working to improve the sound of the piano on both albums. I can’t tell you everything.. as it is top secret stuff, but let me say this..  We have re-mastered all of my compositions in the last few weeks. The new recordings are in a word “break-taking”! It has been so important to me that the final sound of the piano recordings be timeless. I mean, at the end of the day, that is what this is really all about.. the piano and the recordings I make. I want my albums to be something that will stand the test of time, so that I can look back on them years from now and say, “man, what a great job we did!” The piano is such a gorgeous instrument, but it is equally as complex and for that reason a difficult instrument to record properly. We have taken steps to make my piano recordings flawless. But beyond that, we have taken many more steps to make my recordings beautiful. I can guarantee you that when you hear these two albums you will be awed by the sound of the piano. =o)

Lastly, I thought I would mention my third album, to be entitled Rapture. In the last few weeks I have started writing again. Man, it feels so good to say that. Starting this music business has been so much work, and it really took me away from the piano for many months. I am happy to say that I am writing again and trying to spend more time at the piano. It is still difficult managing my time, but I have been meeting with some success. I have managed to create the basic concepts for pretty much every song that will be on Rapture. In fact, I have a few songs already that are starting to sound complete. Rapture is going to be a different kind of album then Until Tomorrow Comes and A Still Motion. This album is going to have songs that really speak towards basic emotions and experiences. I tend to look at my first two albums as telling more of a story. Rapture is more basic in what it is trying to do musically. So these songs will be a little shorter on average. In fact, I am planning on making this a 14 track album instead of 12 tracks like my first two CD’s. The melodies are really sounding beautiful.. I am very happy with how things are going. I am at the stage where I will soon have to start buckling down on each song, and turning the more basic concepts into fully featured compositions.

Ok guys, so that is it for now. I hope you all enjoyed this update. I will try to do this more often, I promise!

So please remember, my website and albums should become available at the end of June. You can keep track of me on my social network sites like Facebook and MySpace until my official site opens.

Talk to you all again shortly!

~ Michael Samson

Album Photoshoots Now Loaded Across Social Network!

Just a super quick update here! I just wanted to let you all know that I have been uploading all of the photos from my two photoshoots across my social network. If you take a look on my musician pages on Facebook, MySpace, iLike, Reverb Nation or iMeem, you will see there are two new photo albums in there.. one from each of my music albums. These photoshoots took a lot of hard work, and they will be used in the album artwork of my cd's. I am proud to finally be able to post it all for you to see! I have taken the liberty of putting up all the different color versions, so you can see these in the original color, black and white, sepia, etc... Of course all of these photos are also available here on my official site.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy! =o)

~ Michael Samson

The Music of William Joseph!

I don't usually do this, but I really wanted to share with you all the music of William Joseph. I can honestly say that William's music has been my greatest musical discovery of the last few years. In a word, he is a genius! It is tough to summarize his talent, he is an incredible piano player.. a true virtuoso. They are calling his music "classical pop", though I think "classical rock" would be more appropriate. William's music is exciting, thematic, at times tear jerking, at other times pulsing with energy! His playing style is extremely sophisticated, pulling on many elements of classical music, but reinvented and infused with a modern sense of energy and excitement. He is a classically trained musician, and perhaps the most technically perfect player I have ever seen!

I was lucky enough to see William Joseph perform live this week, not once, but twice! I went to his show in Philly with my wife and a few friends. We had seats literally next to the stage, and within 8 feet of the piano! It was a brilliant show! After the show William came out into the crowd to meet everyone. He is really very sincere and dedicated to his fans. I was lucky enough to actually get to meet him and tell him about my music and its upcoming debut. I was so honored to know that he will be listening to my music in the coming weeks. While I was up there with him, I met his Manager as well. She was very kind, and seeing how much I loved his music she offered me free tickets to his next show, the following night in New York City. I was invited to be her personal guest at the show. I just got back from that show tonight, which was another incredible performance.

Anyways, I really would love for all of you to check out his music. Listening to him has really inspired me as of lately. Sometimes a musician comes along that simply must be heard.. William is one of those!

This is a link to William Joseph's website.. http://www.William-Joseph.com

When you go to his site, there is a music player built into the main page that has a full concert he performed recently. William is great to listen to live, he has lots of stories and he shares them with the audience. He is already well known for doing some amazing stuff live, like composing a piece of music on the spot, from four random notes that an audience member chooses for him.

Btw, I should also mention that his story of being "discovered" is really amazing to hear. He tells that story in the concert on his website. He is produced by David Foster, a very famous producer who has worked with Celine Dion, Josh Groban.. just to name a few.

Anyways, check out his music.. you won't be sorry! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Moving Towards the Big Debut! =o)

I know I have been absent for a while with updates. I do apologize for that. These past few weeks have involved some of the most difficult and complex phases of my project. It's been pretty crazy, I haven't had much free time at all. The good news is that things are going really really well, and I wanted to give you all an update..

So much has transpired these last few weeks.. and I am getting very close now to debut time. It is tough for me to give you an exact date, but I would say that the debut should happen sometime in April. I know that seems like a while off.. but considering the amount of things I am releasing, it makes sense.

I am very proud to say that ALL of the music has now been fully mastered! I received the masters back from the audio engineer about two weeks ago. I am still in the process of reviewing everything, but so far it sounds really really good. I decided that it was time to let you all hear some of what is to come! So tonight I went and uploaded 6 full songs from my albums. These songs are the actual master recordings that you will be hearing on the albums! I am so proud of the sound we have achieved. To really get the full effect, play the songs on a good stereo system.

All of the sheet music has now been created and is complete. I am also in a review process with that, but I can tell you that the accuracy of the transcriptions is truly remarkable. For all you musicians out there.. if you want to learn my music, just get this sheet music when my site open. If you have this sheet music, you have my music note for note!

I have finally started a landmark point in the project.. the creation and manufacturing of the physical CD's. As many of you know I have already taken some incredible photos for the albums. I have now teamed up with a very talented graphic designer to turn those photos into the art for the albums. We are going to create a visual story and theme for each CD. So when you buy my albums, you will really be getting a full package. This is the last phase of the project, and at this point it is what I am waiting for before I can make the debut.

The website www.MichaelSamson.com is now in its final stages of development. It really is a monster of a site! Not to sound overly bold, but I can tell you with full confidence that no other musician in the world will have a site of this caliber. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say that going to my site will be a real "experience". One of the things I like best about it are the Community style features we have developed. The website has in it a News line, a Newsletter, a Blog and a full community Forum.

Lastly, I have begun the work on the next album. I know, crazy right, like I don't have enough going on. But I have begun the work. I am slowly writing these next 12 songs, for the album which will be entitled Rapture. And like its name, it will be an album embodying passion.

Well, thats it for now guys! I hope you all enjoyed reading this all.. ;o)
Hang tight with me now over the next few weeks. I promise you that the wait will be worth it!

In the meantime, check out the six songs I just posted!

~ Michael Samson

Photo Shoot News & Project Update!

Some cool new things have been going on with the project.. here is a quick update for you!

About one week ago I had my first professional photo shoot for the principal photography of my first album, "Until Tomorrow Comes". It was actually a lot of fun taking the photos. I worked with a really great photographer who just happens to be the same photographer who took photos at my recent wedding. He is really very talented and has a keen eye for lighting and composition. We took the photos in a beautiful building located on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, in Princeton, New Jersey. The building was really amazing, with lots of interesting architectural features and points of interest. We took the majority of the photos at the piano, a Steinway grand. The room itself was chosen for the concept of the first album's art, which was basically me sitting at the piano in "morning light" as we liked to call it. The idea was that I was playing piano through the night and into the morning hours of sunshine. We took a great many photos for this album, and some of them are really amazing concept shots. I don't want to give away too much, but suffice to say that many of these photos exceeded my expectations. So now we are getting ready for the second photo shoot, for my album "A Still Motion". We are taking those shots at a train station.. it is a very different concept from the fist album.. and I think it will be a lot of fun as well.

Many other things are going on. I recently completed my new PC build. For those of you who don't know me personaly, building custom PC's has long been a hobby of mine. I have been working on this PC on and off for over three years! It took a really long time to complete due to its complexity and because I had so many other things happening in my life. I am really proud though that I completed this project, and that I saw it through. The PC is absolutely breathtaking. It is completely custom modded and looks amazing. The system itself is liquid cooled.. for those non-modders, think of the liquid cooling system in your cars (pump, radiator, etc). Just about every component in the PC is liquid cooled. The entire rig is illuminated with UV lights and UV reactive parts. It is tough to describe it.. its just really amazing to look at. I will post some photos of it soon!

So anyways, this is the PC that I will be recording all of the master tracks on. Up until now my recordings have been waiting for mastering.. which required the PC. Now that my PC is completed I can move forward with the mastering, which is a huge step towards completing my albums. It won't be long now before I have mp3's of my songs.

Last night I recorded my 15th song, "Rising Sun"... which is one of my older songs actually from the late 90's. I have 24 songs to record.. so I am getting there. I plan to pick up the pace now with the recording process since the PC is finished. I also have a great many new song ideas ready for the third album, entitled "Rapture". Since I have been so busy the past few months, I worked more so on generating song ideas/riffs, rather then on complete compositions. This is actually a first for me.. as now I have about 10 song ideas that can be fully developed into songs. It will be really interesting to see how this method of writing turns out.

We are of course still working on the website. It is coming along nicely.. and I am very eager to launch it in a few months. So I guess that is it for now. Keep on the lookout for my updates. The music is coming soon! =o)

P.S. I will be releasing a few tracks for promotional purposes before the albums officially release. ;o)

Thanks to everyone for your continued support! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Project Update! =o)

I know I haven't dropped a line in a while, so I thought I'd give you all an update. Things are moving along nicely with all the projects. I recently recorded the 14th song, of the 24 total songs for my debut. I recorded one of my older songs, "Distant Shores". Like many of my recent recordings, this song was greatly improved during the recording process itself, and I wrote an entire new ending to the song on the spot. This kind of thing has been happening a lot lately, where I come up with new material as I go to record the song. The way I look at it, so long as I don't forget how to play the new notes, then this is a good thing!

I have been very hard at work trying to pin down the locations for the photo shoots for the two albums. This has actually been a very difficult and challenging process. The first albums' photo concept will revolve around three basic elements, the piano, me, and "morning light". So I have been looking everywhere for the right place to take these photos. I think I finally found a location that may work... it is at a music conservatory not too far from where I live. I will be checking it out in a day or so to approve it. The second album's concept revolves around the title itself, "A Still Motion". We are using that oxymoron to build the photography theme. I would rather not give away the exact concept now, as it will be more fun as a surprise! =o)

Lastly, the website is coming out absolutely amazing! Really, it is an incredible feat of web interface design, functionality and programming. The website is packed full with features! I have been overseeing the development process while working hard on the website content. I can honestly say that when we reveal this website, it will be second to none! It is groundbreaking work for any musician, and I have never seen its equal.

So I guess thats it for now. We are still shooting for New Years to release everything.. but that is a very tentative date. I am making sure that everything is perfect first, before we make the debut. So be patient everyone.. I promise you that wait will be worth it!

One last thing... please remember, spread the word out about me and the website, ok!
www.MichaelSamson.com

Thanks everyone for your support! =o)

~ Michael Samson

Half-Way Mark Reached! =o)

Just wanted to drop you all a quick line to let you know that I have now reached the half way mark for the recording of my two debut albums! Last night I recorded the song "Echoes of the Stranger", which makes a total of 12 songs now fully recorded. Each of my albums has 12 tracks on it, and so I have been recording the songs in equal increments for each album. That is, I have recorded half of each album so far. I thought it was best to keep things even during the recording process. This is definitely a landmark for me.. as I am now that much closer to my goal.

Being that these songs represent 10 years of overall writing for me, I have decided to keep the first 12 songs I wrote on one album, and the other 12 on the next. I am going to mix the songs within each album, but the first album is definitely the older material, and the second album the newer. As for the recording process itself, it is going very well. Since I am so busy during the week these days, I have been keeping the recording sessions to the weekends. I am recording typically one song each weekend. If I keep this rate up, that means I will be completed with all 24 songs in three months! Now, that isn't the end of this process, as I still have to master the tracks on the PC.. but I envision that process will be fairly simple. Better yet, as soon as I am done with the first two albums I will go straight into the songs for my third album, "Rapture".

I have already begun thinking about artwork concepts for these two albums, and I am also now looking into a photographer. I have a really neat concept for the first album's artwork... I'll just say that it involves a piano and me in very amazing surroundings! Even once the songs are finished.. there is still a LOT more work ahead. I have to start working on photos, videos, sheet music.. and of course the website project has now officially begun.

The road ahead may be long, but it is one well worth traveling! This is an exciting time for me!

Ok.. hope you all enjoyed this update! =o)

~ Michael Samson

“When Light Dances” - Final Song Named! =)

Just wanted to let you all know that I finally came up with a name for the final and up till now untitled track for my second album “A Still Motion”. I was playing the song just now, and realized that it reminded me of the way light tends to dance when reflecting off of things.. like water. Or the way light can seem to change shape off of objects or in reflections. So, I decided to name the track “When Light Dances”. It seems appropriate. I am happy to say that this means all of the tracks for my first two albums are now named! woohoo!

As many of you know, I have already named the songs for my next album, “Rapture”. This was a departure for me from the way I usually name songs. In the past I always named songs during the writing process, or after they are finished. For my third album though, I have come up with all the songs titles ahead of time.. in an effort to see if it guides my writing. The idea was to choose basic concepts, feelings, emotions and ideas, and put them in as song names. Now I will write music for those ideas, and match them up with the titles the seem most appropriate.

It should make for some interesting music. Anyways, I am happy I finally have this song named.

Here's to “When Light Dances” ! =o)

~ Michael Samson