The descending chord sequences throughout the piece are beautiful, and give it a sense of consistent motion. Features surreal transitions alla Like Drinking a Shadow, but now fragmentation is the exception instead of the rule. The middle section, starting at [4:52], sticks out to me as one of the finer passages in my discography: the wonderful daydream of the piano against the strings gets to sing for a while before breaking, mid-line, like a wave on the rocks. The closing passages, in which the piano gets mixed down to a whisper, show some wonderful delicacy.

The Achilles’ heel of this piece is the ever-looping background layer, which, to my ears, becomes monotonous over the course of the 8-minute runtime.

      Grade: B+

A rare live recording among the Sketchbook pieces, this piece holds a special place in my heart: I think it’s one of my most beautiful piano performances. I love the peaceful optimism of moments like [0:43] and [2:10]. The audio quality, though much better than most of the RWW pieces, still leaves quite a bit to be desired. (In January 2025 I finally picked up a really good microphone, the kind I wish I had used to record this piece back in July 2024.)

      Grade: B+

Contains some cool rhythmic ideas, and the B section and its transition back to the next A section adds some needed kinetic energy. Overall just doesn’t feel captivating enough, I think because the piano part needed significant refinement. Also, bass tone is way too thin (see [2:40]). In fact, much of the mix sounds right down the middle, which creates that artificial, cheap sound that amateur production tends to have.

      Grade: C

Another breakthrough piece, in which I found a way to use noise textures made with modular synths (my first time using them) as central musical elements, in this case representing snow flurries. The B section, starting at [1:38] and reprising at [2:23], is excellent, and features an engaging use of polyrhythms. Some beautiful subtleties throughout, like the whistling pitches that peek through the wind gusts at a few points. The drum patterns could have used more variation, especially in the A section, in which they start to feel monotonous to my ears. The A section overall just doesn’t as strong as the later material. I also feel like the chirping hi-hats could have been mixed more delicately. Overall a satisfying composition which makes compelling use of new resources.

      Grade: A-

Has some nice melodic ideas, and the passages of slowed-down audio that bookend the piano solo are at least interesting if not entirely successful. A monotonous drum pattern again limits the impact of the material. In fact, the overall sound quality of the rhythm section feels off to me, just sounds a little cheap.

      Grade: B-

A piece which holds a lot of emotional resonance for me, for reasons I won’t get into here. The distortion on the keys sounds a bit harsh at times, which was intentional, but I’m questioning the musical effectiveness of having this applied across the board. The playing makes good use of space, and finds beautiful harmony without relying on complex chord shapes. Effective melodic direction throughout. This piece explores a concept that I’ve been interested in for a while, which is the simultaneous occurrence of tension and resolution, in this case through dissonant timbres expressing open, consonant chords. A pretty effective piece and an accurate snapshot of a moment in time, even if it reads a bit 1-dimensional over the course of its 4.5 minute runtime.

      Grade: B

In contrast to Sketchbook Page 1, which displays a haphazardness and lack of refinement befitting of the term “Sketchbook”, Page 2 offers pieces of consistently good quality, each of which explores at least 1 compelling idea. Looking back on these works as a collection, I see a couple of key areas in need of improvement (i.e. blindspots of mine at the time): one is the background layers, which consistently lacked variation and development; another is the production quality, which was consistently underwhelming, particularly in the drums. Aside from these criticisms though, I’m fairly happy with how Page 2 came out: all of the works on this page offer enough material to justify multiple listens, and all of them differ significantly from one another while maintaining a thread of cohesion.