This is a new edition of my first collection of piano improvisations originally recorded from 2003 through 2005, though they weren't assembled and released until 2009.

The first edition was rendered with the Grandioso Bosendorfer 290 digital piano library. While an excellent sampled piano for its time, my recording process didn't yield audio with a decent presence and quality. Having recently released more modern sounding albums, I decided to create a new edition from the original MIDI performances.

Similar to both Volumes 1 & 2, as well as the 3rd improvisations album titled "Two Skies", all of these pieces are fully improvised with only a little exploratory prep to establish a core idea. Some light editing is done to remove notes that I would consider a glaring mistake, though many such clumsy moments intentionally remain to keep some humanity.

The "Hands Suite" tracks from early in 2005 are a little different in that they derive inspiration from listens to improvised piano tracks by Paul Cantrell, and the names of these performances are derivative of the inspiring title. Lopusikity, for example, drew its inspiration from Torrington Lope and Lusk, I believe; [https://innig.net/music/inthehands/91] Wynono, from Wyarno; [https://innig.net/music/inthehands/66] Natruna, from Natrona; [https://innig.net/music/inthehands/65]

Session number eight, from March 2005, yielded three performances, all of which appear here. The first features slow shifting chromatic clusters which are quite dense, and form a basic melody that repeats about 3 times. The third begins with a line over a minor/major 7 harmony, then shifts into an interesting chord progression starting on a pure C triad, before returning to the opening idea for 2 more trips.

The second is much more adventurous, and I recall was preceded by no prep at all. I was in a somewhat irritable mood, and the only idea in my mind was to grab for as many mino & diminished shapes my hands were familiar with, without trying to tie them together in any meaningful way. After all these years, I still have varied reactions to the piece and have considered many times removing it.

This edition does introduce a new opening track. I had decided against its inclusion in the 2009 edition for some forgotten reason, but upon revisiting it years later, I find its simplicity appealing, and it probably represents my first neoclassical improvised piece. While there was a 1st session preceding it, those tracks were merely takes on some jazz standards.

The remaining tracks all have different characteristics. No. 6, Theme 1 provides a lot more motion than many others; No. 3, Theme 2 has one of the clearest melodies if not a simpler harmonic progression; No. 9, Theme 1, like in Vol. 1, has some heavier reverb added as it's always evoked something unique to me, and I'm very fond of some of the dissonant but light intervals accompanying a frequently delicate and shifting tempo. The closing track is short, but for me carries a finality fitting its order.

For the observant, the track numbering system is different from Vol. 2 (which also gave names to the tracks). There, "No." is synonymous with the concept of a Theme and each Variation stems from the same. Here, in Vol. 1, the "No." merely refers to a single sitting, with no themes being revisited. Each track with the same No. gets the label "Theme" as a secondary, rather than Variation, to better reflect that.