Paul Maroon is a composer from Washington DC, best known as a member of the rock group The Walkmen and for scoring the Oscar-winning documentary Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405.

Jenny Lin is an internationally-celebrated concert pianist based in New York. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and has over 40 recordings on her discography. She serves on the faculty of the Mannes College at the New School for Music. 

Paul and Jenny briefly attended high school together but only met in the last couple of years.

13 Short Piano Pieces was recorded at the historic Sear Sound in New York by Michael Harris (Lana Del Rey, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend) using old techniques, old microphones, and tape machines. Whereas most contemporary piano is recorded to sound the same for the whole collection, Michael brought a different recording approach to each piece. It was mastered by Christopher Colbert at National Freedom.

The pieces here are named for neighborhoods where Paul has lived in Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, New Orleans, Montreal, Lisbon, Barcelona and Seville. Some of the most direct influences on these pieces are the piano etudes of Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg’s string quartets, as well as the playing of Ernesto Lecuona and Tseque-Maryam Guebrou.

Jenny was patient with Paul as learned how to write to scores this complicated - a brand new process for him. Invaluable support in score preparation was given by Jerry Umlauf and Michael Delgado, both composers in their own right based in central Florida.

Paul would like to dedicate this record to his mother, who fought the good fight nightly to keep him learning the piano. It’s been a lifelong dream of his to write a collection like this and dedicate it to her.

New classical music can often be a challenge for the listener because of the density of the material. Paul has shortened these pieces so they develop, unravel, and (usually) re-assemble quickly, which hopefully encourages multiple listens and greater enjoyment! Each piece is a little gem.