''Changing Stations'' is a classical-contemporary

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

by British composer Daniel Liam Glyn, released on 28 October 2016 via Caravan Boy Records. The album's first single, "Monday", was released to digital music retailers on 16 September 2016.

Background and release

Shortly after graduating from The University of Salford, Glyn relocated to London and began seeking inspiration for a collection of new

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

pieces to coincide with his neurological condition, Synaesthesia. Glyn soon began to study the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

tube map The Tube map (sometimes called the London Underground map) is a schematic transport map of the lines, stations and services of the London Underground, known colloquially as "the Tube", hence the map's name. The first schematic Tube map was des ...

and felt a connection between his Synaesthesia and each of the tube lines colours, and decided to study them in more detail to gain a better understanding of each line and their contrasting atmospheres and type of

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

. Work on the compositions began in late 2012 and concluded in 2014. The eleven tracks featured on the album are based on each of the

's main tube lines: Bakerloo, Central,

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

, Hammersmith and City,

Jubilee A jubilee is often used to refer to the celebration of a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term comes from the Hebrew Bible (see, "Old Testament"), initially concerning ...

, Metropolitan, Northern,

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

, Victoria, and Waterloo and City, and are composed in the keys of

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. The G natural minor scale is: Changes n ...

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

, F♯ minor,

E major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...

B major B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equi ...

, A♭ major,

D major D major is a major scale based on D (musical note), D, consisting of the pitches D, E (musical note), E, F♯ (musical note), F, G (musical note), G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, and C♯ (musical note), C. Its key signature has two S ...

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed ...

, B♭ major and

respectively. Each track focuses heavily on the different speeds, sounds, and mood of each line, and are composed in the

key signature In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the cl ...

synaesthetically assigned by Glyn with reference to the colour of the tube line on the

map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

. The thoughts, opinions and descriptions of the London Underground can be heard throughout the record by commuters of the network, along with stories of different events in the city. The recording of the album took place between 2014 and 2015 in both

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

through the use of computers and mobile phones, paying homage to the revolution in technology on the

since its inception. Elements of

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Works for pr ...

can be heard on several tracks on the record, replicating and imitating the sounds of the train carriages and train tracks in movement. Items such as credit cards, oyster cards,

paper money Paper money, often referred to as a note or a bill (North American English), is a type of negotiable promissory note that is payable to the bearer on demand, making it a form of currency. The main types of paper money are government notes, which ...

coins A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

, and

s, (all of which are frequently used to travel on the

), were strategically placed between the strings of piano to produce an array of different rhythmic and percussive sounds, drawing inspiration from composers such as

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

and Maurice Delage who also used this technique. "Melancholy", the ninth track on the album, is based on the 7th July 2005 terrorist attack on the network's

Piccadilly Line The Piccadilly line is a Deep level underground, deep-level London Underground line running between the west and the north of London. It has two western branches which split at Acton Town tube station, Acton Town and serves 53 stations. The li ...

, and features a narration by one of the survivors of the attacks. The final track on the album, "The Drain", takes its name from the colloquial term for the Waterloo and City line. The album was successfully funded through

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

in April 2016 and subsequently released worldwide on 28 October 2016. In May 2017, every piece from the album was remixed by electronic music producer Damion O'Brien, turning the original compositions into a new collection of

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

ambient house Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It ...

nu-disco Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was popular in the early 2000s, and exp ...

, and drum & bass themed tracks. The project 'Changing Stations: Derailed' was described by Annabelle Carvell of Synaesthesia Magazine as "injecting a new lease of life into the original classical piano compositions, with the tracklisting re-arranged to form a new 'journey' on the

Critical reception

Barry Adamson from

Piccadilly Records PYE or Pye Records is an independent British record label. It was first established in 1955 and played a major role in shaping rock 'n' roll and pop music history. The Pye name was dropped in 1980 due to trademark issues, after which it produced ...

described the album as "a beautiful, and conceptually superb suite of plaintive modern-classical utterances and spoken word narration. Somewhere between the grand, filmic post-rock of This Will Destroy You and the soundtrack work of Adam Wiltzie and

Max Richter Max Richter (; ; born 22 March 1966) is a German-born British composer and pianist. He works within postminimalist and contemporary classical styles. Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the University of Edinbu ...

." Aliya Ismangil of The Mancunion stated the compositions have "a feel of constant frantic energy from the minor pulsing chords under eerie synth sounds, reflecting the haphazard contrasts of the different stations on a line". Sam Liddicott from Music Musings & Such defined the album as "unique and highly illuminating music".

Track listing

* signifies an additional producer.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Changing Stations''. Personnel * Daniel Liam Glyn – composer , piano , clip recordings, string arrangements , choir arrangements , art direction, visual concept * Katie Tavini – mastering, producer, recording, audio concept * Tom Povall – mixing * Laurie Agnew – percussion * Sam Wyatt – art direction * Lucy Ridges – photography, visual concept * Heather Renshaw – logo design, photography * Dom&Ink – illustrations Additional personnel * Ordsall Acapella Choir – vocals * Bjorn Thomassen – voiceover clip * Christopher Lunt – voiceover clip * David Couzens – voiceover clip * James Burrell – voiceover clip * Olivia Thomas – voiceover clip * Scott Elliott – voiceover clip * Sherri Lomas – voiceover clip * Vivienne Rudcenko – voiceover clip * Will Roberts – voiceover clip * Saad Ali – additional production * Danny Pheasey – assistant recording engineer Changing Stations: Derailed * Daniel Liam Glyn – composer , piano , string arrangement , art direction, visual concept * Damion O'Brien – producer, mixing * Katie Tavini – mastering * Lucy Ridges – photography, visual concept * Heather Renshaw – art direction, logo design

Release history

References

External links

Changing Stations
{{Authority control 2016 albums Daniel Liam Glyn albums 2010s concept albums