Mnemonic Records

— The Other Side of
....the World

— September's Sky

— Quintets

— Power of One

— Beside My Shadow

— The Wilted

— Vox Humanix

— Cosmonauts
— Cowpography
— Theatre Artaud Suite
— Inside Your Head

— Six Ways Up

— Napata Mero - Single
"Mannequin of Muscle"

— Reverie for Solo Flute, performed by Matthew Eakle

September's Sky & Other Days of Light
Aliquot Piano Solos

Original Music Compositions by Paul James de Benedictis
Solo Piano Performance by Paul James de Benedictis

Streaming links: Apple Music, Amazon, TIDAL, Spotify, YouTube

September's Sky

This piano music was composed on my Bluthner Aliquot piano and uses its extra sympathetic strings for ‘tuned reverberation’ and ambience. These three pieces were composed over a number of years with September’s Sky being the most recent.

Recorded in Lagunitas, CA on Paul de Benedictis’ 1889 Bluthner Aliquot piano. Paul Stubblebine and Michael Romanowski set up microphones and mic pre-amps for Atmos mixing, also used for the stereo mix. The mic placement included height, close stereo, wide stereo, bass strings, and a Neumann ‘Dummy Head’ binaural stereo mic for the distant room acoustics. The recording was done at 24-bit 96k using Avid Pro Tools with a Universal Audio Apollo 16 D/A.

About the Unique Vintage Piano
The Bluthner Aliquot model was built in Leipzig, Germany in 1889 and features an extra set of strings that are not struck by the hammer but resonate sympathetically and add a dimension of overtones and a rich, complex harmonics to the music. The Aliquot strings are damped like the struck unisons, except the last two octaves of the scale. The Aliquot strings start at F above middle C and are tuned an octave above the hammered string, while the top two octaves are enharmonic. The resonant effect is particularly pronounced with the sustain pedal held down, almost like tuned reverb.

“September’s Sky & Other Days of Light” Aliquot Piano Solos
1. Yellow Fields of Flowers 6:04
2. Weekends Forgotten 8:11
3. September’s Sky 9:40

Recording Engineers:
Paul Stubblebine
Michael Romanowski
Paul James de Benedictis

Mix Engineer (Stereo and Atmos):
Michael Romanowski

Mastering Engineer (Stereo and Atmos):
Michael Romanowski, Coast Mastering

Piano Tuning by Galen Woodruff

Quintets cover