Roger O’Donnell has today released his new album titled ‘7 Different Words For Love’, on his label 99X/10 (pronounced Ninety-Nine Times Out Of Ten).
As much a concept as it is an album, ‘7 Different Words For Love’ beautifully encapsulates the meaning and emotions of the word. Inspired by and conceived on the Una Corda, inspiration finds conception with a quartet meant for the mind.
As part of a more than 50 song set for the score of the movie ‘Sam & Kate‘, we find the original seven here with a theme that is left for the definition of the listener and recorded to coincide with the life experiences we associate with them. Music in it’s purist form.
About ‘7 Different Words for Love’
In March 2022 I was introduced to a local piano restorer and after talking to him about his work decided to have my Steinway restored. I’ve owned it for more than 20 years and it’s always been in need of some love and attention. Bill came to my house and we started chatting about pianos and keyboards and he asked me if I’d heard of the Una Corda. He said he was considering making one and asked if I would be interested in trying it out.
I immediately fell in love with the instrument, something about its percussive yet fragile sound just made me play it in a certain way, I instantly started playing arpeggios and repetitive themes… I ended up with 7 songs and a title, ‘7 Different Words For Love’.
Around the same time my friend Orian Williams was working on a movie in Georgia with Darren Le Gallo. I always share my work with Orian so I sent him my favourite from this new collection, ‘Two’. He played it to Darren and they asked me to score the movie they were working on, ‘Sam & Kate’.
Originally I thought it would just be a case of placing the 7 songs or edits in the places in the film where they wanted score but I was wrong and ended up writing about 50 new pieces using the same palette of piano, Una Corda, harmonium and cello. It was at times a super-frustrating experience and I came close to walking away several times. However, I persevered and my relationship with Darren blossomed both musically and personally. Finally he came to my studio with Orian and we finished the score in a couple of days (an “overnight success” that took 5 months).
At the end of this I still had the seven songs plus one other, ‘One Last Word’, which seriously Darren pulled out of me, and I have decided to release this collection as an album.
It’s only going to be digital for now with a single piece of art made by my friend from art school Ian Wright. We are going to make this available as a signed (him and me) limited edition art print in December. The album was mixed by Paul ‘Corky’ Corkett, a long time friend and incredible mix engineer. Playing cello is another friend Miriam Wakeling whose delicate interpretation of my writing is just about perfect.
SOURCE: Roger O’Donnell
