The third EP under the Full Spectrum label, "Stand Alone" is a breakaway from my completion of an ambient/experimental/neoclassical trilogy that began with "Sketches of Pains and Forgiveness" and continued with "A New Approach." It has been a spontaneous and rewarding departure. But before I write more about the EP, I'd like to thank Cassandra Beltran for providing the wonderful photo for the album's cover. Normally, I produce all the artwork for my various projects, but her photograph really captured the mood, thoughts, etc. of what I was trying to get at with this current work and I'm honored that she would let me use it for this current work. Thank you, Cassandra.

On the surface, the EP appears to consist of four four-on-the-floor dance tracks. But what actually transpires are meticulously crafted compositions with audio movements displaying snippets of various styles of electronic music, stripped-down jazz elements in some instances, and neoclassical, ambient, and experimental musical characteristics in others. I consider these four compositions complete from beginning to end, as I did not simply create dance tracks with generic intros and outros, but began and ended in ways I considered were musically fitting and holistic. And with everything else in between, I had quite a bit of thought and fun as well.

It is challenging to classify the eclectic compositions of "Stand Alone" under any category of electronic music when it draws from multiple forms. The various forms of electronic music I grew up with in the late 70s, 80s, and 90s in Chicago include disco, HI-NRG, Chicago house music, electro, Detroit techno, new wave, italo disco, industrial, early UK breakbeat, and multiple forms of techno, Drum and Bass, etc. Those of you familiar with these and other forms of electronic music know well that electronic music offers a vast lexicon of audio "words" to present our moods, notions, and ideas. Thus I had (and have) a plethora of audio impressions to choose from for the EP. And if it's difficult to pin down what style it is, I'm content with that, as it is a genuine expression of what I wanted realized first and foremost.

It is most apropos that the EP is a "breakaway" project, because as an environmental influence, my yogic practice (going on for eleven years now), with its staple characteristic of inducing conscientious pause and mindfulness. helped to fine-tune my sense of stereo space in this latest project, such that I was able to place sounds where I deemed were their appropriate placements and elicit reflections from those placements. The joined placements create movements reflected in "Stand Alone" that provide the listener with a wider audio landscape than whatever I have created thus far, with more breathing room for each particular audio item to simply Be. Thus, paradoxically, there is stillness and movement in each of the compositions. And while my production skills advanced as I worked on this release, it was more so my spiritual advance that generated a higher movement altogether.

I don't wish to color the listener anymore with my interpretations of the works. I hope you simply enjoy them and that they bring about the sort of pauses and reflections that they brought about for me.