In the spring of 2002, Josh Bradford was approached by the physchology professor, Linda Duncan, to provide music for a set of guided meditations she was planning on recording later that year. This collaboration sparked a once in a lifetime opportunity for the musician (then choosing to use his first full name, Joshua) to have music produced that had not seen any performance coverage up until that point. Over the next few months, Josh returned to the studio to remix and rerecord the piano tracks for what would become his first solo album release, Openness. This album received a very small local release around the Dallas/Fort Worth in December of that year to the group of loyal fans and friends that had followed Bradford’s music throughout his college years. It was intended for the music to be performed nationally at several music festivals, concerts, and collaborations to gain a more widespread appeal for the project and continue to write more music that would be added to the later Openness projects. That tour never materialized, and the music practically became forgotten as well as the hundreds of physical copies that hoped to be sold and shared with appreciative listeners. Jump seven years to 2009 when Josh finally starts organizing solo concerts of his music, including music from the project presented here. Up until that point, none of the music had received any kind of effective or well attended public performance except for the song “My Blessing” written and performed for the Greg Ball Trio, a jazz group that Josh played for weekly between 1999 and 2002. This music started finding new listeners and receiving very enthusiastic praise including one Mannuel Arredando who states “it’s the most beautiful music Josh has composed.” Then in 2012, one of the pieces, “Looking Glass,” received a big break when it was used in the gripping documentary Raid at the Rainbow Lounge, directed by Robert Camina, who called the music “haunting.” That piece received a digital release in the summer of 2012 as part of a 2 track release of music written by Josh Bradford used in that film. All the music on the release comes from a prolific period of music composing between the years 1997 and 2002 during Bradford’s college years. The compositions are ordered and presented as if they are part of a 3 sided LP if such a thing were to exist, devoting a full side to its final 20 minute track. Each third presents pieces that grow in proportion, both in time and in form. The pieces alternate between electronic and acoustic piano, with the one song directly appearing in the very center of the cycle. There is also a clearly deliberate symmetry provided in the way the music progresses, creating a sort of duality in mood. “eternity” breaths of sound within a short span of 5 minutes pitted against the final epically proportioned and ever expanding “…journey…” The peaceful, lilting movement of “between Memory and Silence” finds its yang in the relentless incessant drive of “Looking Glass.” And the joyous rhythmic celebration of “Openness I” desolves into a somber, stoic presence within a few minutes in the glacially moving “still.” The music shows heavy influence of new age and so-called minimalistic music of the 1980s and 90s, in particular by composers like Chip Davis (most famous for his Mannheim Steamroller projects), Tangerine Dream, Jim Brickman, and Philip Glass. The music, however, is not mere imitations of those musicians, but attempts to build on their sound worlds to propel new musical works from a twentysomething composer still trying to find his own voice. Openness receives its first digital release now after 11 years of only being available in CD format. The photo used here for the digital release was the photograph originally intended to be the cover of the CD by photographer Anthony Marcus Black (credited as Anthony Jacobus on the CD). The artwork, though providing its own sense of duality with the music, is compelling in its depth and much like the music, derives influence from images predating the digitally color saturated world of 21st century pictures and film. More of his artwork can be viewed and purchased at madhatterphotography.com.