Category: Score Book
Music: James Heather
Transcription: Nate Thatcher and Sam Lung
Editing, engraving and project management: Sam Lung at Pretty Decent Music
Design Direction: SUKI
Production Design:: Ruth Keating
Recordings:: Ahead Of Our Time / Ninja Tune
Cover: Colorplan Ebony 270GSM with white foil blocking
Printed on: Munken Polar White Smooth 130GSM
First Edition Print Run: 335
Size: 305x229mm
Pages: 144 (inc 23 with images)
Music Pieces: 25 (Intermediate Solo PIano)
Binding: OTA Thread-sewn paperback
Language: English 
Printed and bound: In the UK by Halstan Ltd

“One of the most exciting pianists to emerge in recent years.” Mahogany Sessions

“His music is euphoric, dreamy and perfectly formed” BBC Radio 3

“Capable of supreme tenderness and yet, tonally, hugely powerful.” Mixmag

For the first time, “Selected Piano Works” is the long-awaited selection of 25 solo piano transcriptions from ‘Pulse Music’ pianist James Heather. Presented in an incredible 144-page printed folio designed by long-time collaborator SUKI.

The music is taken from all his albums and EPs released 2017–2022, including most-requested pieces ‘Ultraviolet’, ‘Empire Sounds’, ‘Biomes’, ‘Passing Soul’, ‘Last Minute Change Of Heart’, ‘Oizys’ and ‘Beginnings’, with difficulty ranging from entry level to more experimental and advanced. 

This printed collection also includes a special written introduction and insightful performance notes from Heather. The art by SUKI features 88 pulses on the cover representing the piano keys. Each image in the book is a visualisation of a piece in the form of a spectrogram. Track data is plotted in a 3D timeline to visualise tiny pulses overlapping and merging, representing Heather’s unique style of playing. Heather calls his music “Pulse Music”, as our own internal pulses are not rigid — they adapt to the world around us. The music is often meditative, but sometimes it’s faster, fighting for and ultimately celebrating life. Because of this, the tempos and dynamics can be fluid.

Heather notes: “This book’s been a long time coming. I can’t read music brilliantly. I stopped at 15, dedicating myself to composition built with muscle memory after a foundation learning Beethoven, Satie and Joplin scores and overhearing my neighbours Acid House pirate radio station. I’d compose by modulating between keys, feeling like an explorer sailing seas in search of new lands, only to return one day to the start. I respect people who play music by others and the craft of transcription. This respect is why this book took years to make — I had to extract this music out of my head, long after recording. Working with specialists such as Sam Lung and Nate Thatcher, there was back and forth to mould the pieces into a form that was never originally intended to be written down. I’ve made the directions as approachable as possible to play, a balance between being simple to follow and true to the essence of the original recording.

No two people will play these pieces the same. Music performance is like chess, in that no two games are identical. Pieces on the board move like fingers of a pianist between the notes. Direction has been given in the scores and can be followed but sometimes your instinct might want to tweak things a little and that’s fine! Once you achieve a grip of the pieces and if you want to get closer to my style, try to delay or prolong notes a millisecond or merge notes slightly to create tension and feel free to use the sustain pedal liberally,. Trust in your own energy and ear. Here are some fun tips. You can connect the pieces like a DJ in a mix would. Play Ultraviolet and then mix it into Forgotten Cities, or Beginnings into Hidden Angel, or Oizys into Empire Sounds then into Metal Machina or Immortal Beloved into In Your Spirit. You can improvise connecting passages on these and other pieces too.

Each day the weather is different but connected to the last; sometimes the clouds are dark and close, and sometimes they part and radiant light shines through. “