Kamen Ross throws everything at piano keys

The Korea Times

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Thu, December 7, 2023 | 22:14

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Kamen Ross throws everything at piano keys

Posted : 2021-10-05 13:38

Updated : 2021-11-22 15:13

Kamen Ross / Courtesy of Kamen Ross

By Daniel J. Springer

You'll often hear music enthusiasts and even artists themselves complain of a general lack of depth in modern commercial music. Whether or not that is an actual thing is always up for ever-evolving debate.

However, for those out there that enjoy a rich and layered audio experience while listening to a classically trained musician of utter virtuosity doing their thing, "I Dreamt We Fell in Love" by Kamen Ross is an excellent playlist add.

It's a strictly solo instrumental album featuring the versatile artist working a piano like few can. The sharper ears out there may also notice certain moments on this album that stand out far less like a sore thumb and more like the crack of a bat on a home run ball. Is it possible for just 10 fingers to create such fiery moments of defiant, almost violent, passion?

In a word, no.

For Ross, both the move to Korea and the almost immediate onset of the pandemic after arrival created a need to go further and involve literally everything physically available to get the sound right. Explaining further during an interview earlier this summer, there are moments on the album where, "in order to make the runs and hit the keys" desired, the artist is "literally slamming elbows and knees onto the piano." In short, "My classical background definitely comes through but there's a lot of experimental elements to it as well."

Kamen Ross performs. / Courtesy of Kit Castagne

The Berklee College of Music-trained multi-instrumentalist has been involved in several evolving band projects over the years, such as the Boston-based art collective Rogozo along with Jeju-based rock band Banana Moon more recently. With a past that valued the collaborative experience over much else in music, it does beg the question as to why the solo album made its calling to Ross now.

"I always hoped to spend my life exploring the world with friends through music," Ross told The Korea Times. "But I thought I had to do so in a specific order. Step 1: Find friends. Step 2: Learn songs together. Step 3: Go explore. I realized at some point that I had already done all those things over and over again, and I didn't need a grand plan to shine in a specific way."

Cover of Kamen Ross' album "I Dreamt We Fell in Love" / Courtesy of Kamen Ross

Although a strictly instrumental album with solo piano as the motif, "I Dreamt We Fell In Love" feels both deeply personal and highly expressive. The borderline manic but always in control crescendos followed by lush ebbs and flows make for a cinematic listen, from which each listener can take any number of things with them in the process.

However, there are intensely personal moments on this album, through which one can find a genuine connection that is not merely emotive reaction to the sumptuous and, dare we say, at times jarring sound experienced.

Take "Yellow Rose" as an example, which was dedicated to a best friend of Ross's mother who passed away suddenly when Ross was quite young. "I don't remember experiencing tragedy before seeing my mother after she had received the news. To honor our friend, we planted her favorite flower, a pair of yellow roses, in our garden. We tended them carefully for years, but they never blossomed. After three years, they finally bloomed on her birthday."

Other songs on the record, like "Howl," come from what the artist describes as "a deep emotional state adept at evading explanation." Ross clarified, "I like to think that an undefeatable Spirit hides within us and only shows itself when we get in touch with greater love."

And that is what this record is all about, a greater love.

Kamen Ross visits a waterfall. / Courtesy of Kamen Ross

How does Ross awaken this greater love in daily life, even here in Korea? Whatever the location, it only happens through Mother Nature.

"I haven't always lived with immediate access to trees, and I get sadder the longer I've been away from the wilderness," Ross noted. "The wild of Korea that I get to see every day, especially since moving to Jeju, awakens something beautiful inside me that I never want to lose. When I pay attention to rustling leaves, birdsong, fox prints, I feel that I am both at home and somewhere entirely new. At my most inspired, you can find me singing to the deer in the woods somewhere."

Visit kamenross.bandcamp.com or youtube.com/c/KamenRoss to listen to Ross' music, or follow the artist on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok @kamenross.

Daniel J. Springer is the creator, producer, and host of "The Drop with Danno" on GFN based in Gwangju, broadcasting nightly from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. He is giving a GIC Talk for Gwangju International Center on Oct. 16.

jdunbar@koreatimes.co.kr