Updates and News: February 2026
Pics are scenes this winter from the village of Collanzo, where I live.
I've been away from the website for a while. I went to Texas in December and did a recording session on the piano there. Nuria and I are currently working on polishing the audio files and getting them ready to publish. Here are updates on travel for 2026 as well as the planned projects currently in development...
A Shoutout to Nuria:
I first hired Nuria Dieguez to teach me more about Digital Audio Workspaces (they used to be called "Sequencers") used by musical artists to compose and record. We started with Reaper, although I had been struggling with Cubase for years prior. Her kind patience and talent together with her technical knowledge have been invaluable to me. I actually was considering giving up on anything related to digital technology for music when we started working together. Now, over a year later, I'm looking forward to her technical help on anything I do. We transitioned back to Cubase about four months ago...
In addition to being a skilled sound engineer and a joy to work with, she is a musician / composer and also devotes her talent to music as therapy.
Update on Substack:
My plan is to finish "Precursor" and be ready to start the new series "Echoes of Guernica" in April. But in the meantime, I do plan to write a short series while I am in Scotland. That set of articles (probably three) will be stories from past pilgrimages with an article I plan to write in Iona.
Travel Schedule as of this month, for 2026:
March: Plans are to go back to Scotland and spend some time in the village of Pitlochry, writing. Watch for the Substack articles with the working title "Journals from Pitlochry". From there I plan to go back to Iona for my birthday.
April: In April, I will be traveling across Spain filming for a new Substack series inspired by the events related to the Spanish Civil War. The working title of the series is "Echoes of Guernica". In it I plan to explore the themes of family, ideology, individuality, and the tragedy of political passion. The series will include videos taken at Torrelavega, Ebro, Madrid, Valle de Cuelgamuros, and Avila.
Composition Work:
Two Preludes: Piano Composition
Recorded in Mason (December 2025) this one is a re-make of the YouTube video by the same name. Expected Publication: March
In the Jemez: Piano Composition
Also recorded in Mason, this is an older work depicting a solo camping trip in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico.
Expected Publication: April
Rowboats of Sligo: Instrumental
This one is up on YouTube but I have never been satisfied with it. The themes and phrasing are okay but there are missing passages, and the voicing is wrong. It is being re-worked.
Expected Publication: May
Along the San Isidro: Instrumental
During one of my walks along the San Isidro River here in Aller, I had a chance to reflect on how much I love the mountains of Asturias and how grateful I feel to be able to live here. This one was inspired by the sounds of cowbells in the pastures up there. I will write a Substack backstory when it is published.
Expected: Spring / Summer