had this idea spinning in my head for years: I wanted to play a concert for a small audience of two dozen people — with everyone in the room knowing that I was creating a new album, right in front of them. But I didn’t just want to record it - I wanted to invent everything from scratch!
Usually, I’m a very slow and steady worker. Typically, my albums grow over course of years.
To me, creating an album in this instantaneous way is probably the most interesting and most challenging way of doing it: no second thoughts, no overdubs, no failsafe. Just the pure, joyful energy of capturing a precious moment in time.
Within the 30+ shows of the EMBRACE Tour 2024/25 I was finally ready for this challenge: I came with nothing but an open mind and an open heart; ready to embrace whatever would happen after I pushed the record button.
It was an exciting and deeply frightening experience - I was as open and truthful as I always am when playing Music. And yet something was stunningly different - Music, sounds, words came fluently as ever, but during this intense album recording show, it was as if I watched myself from the outside, wondering “Am I really daring to do this?”
Since everything about the making of this album was so different from what I am comfortable with, creating the album itself turned out to be one big challenge too.
The quick creative rush of recording was followed by an intense period of fear and doubting my work.
I struggled hard to rid myself of these feelings. All I wanted was for everything to feel easy, right, and golden — but it didn’t. After long conversations with dear friends, I realized that the uncertainty and unease were forces that I had invited upon myself: by leaving the well-known slow and steady path; by leaving the path of comfort.
And then everything fell into place: the reason for making this album had never been to feel slow and easy. The real reason was to embrace what emerges when I tear down all my self-made certainties and dive into cold waters, as uncompromising as ever!
So, I embraced the unease, the fears, the uncertainty, the doubts, the pain while working on this album.
Embracing the dark unleashes the light - shining brighter than a thousand stars.
The result is now yours — an album that was a rollercoaster to make, an album that I’m especially eager to share with you. An album that showed me how only new paths can lead to new discoveries.
This album is my invitation to you: to join my curious, delightful journey; let Music guide you wherever it may.
This is my EMBRACE to you.
Malo