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Ken Elkinson

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Ken Elkinson - Original Solo and Ambient Music

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Hometown	Venice, CA
Genres	Downtempo, New Age / World
Band Members	Ken Elkinson
Achievements
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:	Artist / Band Member Ken Elkinson kene@juno.com 800-334-7874 Label August Son Productions kene@juno.com 800-334-7874
# Years Experience Performing Live:	15
# Live Perfomances Past Six-months:	2
Market Draw:	New York City: 201-250; Los Angeles: 201-250
Similar Artists:	Brian Eno; Tangerine Dream; George Winston; Keith Jarrett
Performing Rights Society:	ASCAP
Discography:	Opal - The Dance Remix (CD Single) Single—2010; Music For Commuting Vols. 5 & 6 - Friday/Beyond LP—2010; Music For Commuting Vols. 1 & 2 - Monday/Tuesday LP—2010; Music For Commuting Vols. 3 & 4 - Wednesday/Thursday LP—2010; Music For Commuting (Box Set) LP—2010; Hatikva Single—2009; Link LP—2009; Generations of Yuletide LP—2008; Borrowed Tracks LP—2008; Cue LP—2006; Opal LP—2004; Revelry LP—2001; Midnight Conversation LP—1997

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About the Artist

Born August 28, 1972 in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, Ken Elkinson competed on the junior classical piano circuit as a child. After studying improvisation and composition throughout high school and college, Ken released his debut CD of solo piano entitled...

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Music

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Achievements

Ambient/Chill Winner, October 2011

Top 40 in Ambient/Chill, May 2012

Top 40 in Ambient/Chill, March 2012

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Press Coverage

Ken Elkinson - Review of Link in Mainly Piano by Kathy Parsons
“Link” is pianist/composer Ken Elkinson’s seventh solo piano release and contains some of his best work yet. Elkinson’s music is accessible and melodic, but it has never been easy-listening or lightweight fluff. Influences from classical, jazz, and pop music can be heard, but Elkinson’s voice is strongly his own. Unpredictable harmonies and rhythmic changes keep the music fresh and interesting no matter how often you listen to it. “Link” will work as background music, but you will probably miss the surprises. Most of the twelve tracks are on the reflective side, making the CD an excellent choice for unwinding and de-stressing as well as for a long drive. The title track opens the CD in a slightly dark and somewhat mysterious mood - an intriguing start! “Homecoming” lightens the mood substantially, but there is still a touch of melancholy behind the sense of anticipation. “Juniper” is one of my favorites with its unexpected chord changes and infectious energy. I also really like “Dry Lake Bed” which is very quiet and understated while conveying a feeling of isolation and perhaps even loss. “Sunlight Through Trees” has a gentle, graceful flow and a subtle warmth. “Doubt” goes to a very dark place deep within, asking questions, but not getting any answers. “Awakening” moves at a casual, easy pace that is relaxed and optimistic, gaining strength as it evolves. The soft and tranquil movement in “Sway” also has a calming effect. The closing piece, “Later,” blends a peaceful mood with a slight edginess that really works. “Link” is a fascinating and very enjoyable album. Check it out at www.kenelkinson.com, iTunes, and cdbaby.com. Recommended! Kathy Parsons MainlyPiano.com 4/18/09

Ken Elkinson - Review of Generations of Yuletide by Richard Banks / Christmas Reviews.com
Ken Elkinson's Generations of Yuletide is an expansive, contemplative tribute to the season. Comprising sixteen mostly traditional melodies and spanning a solid hour, in an era of long, intricate playlists, Generations of Yuletide is a nifty instrumental playlist all by itself. I liked the beautiful Gabriel's Message, a song I don't often hear. Elkinson's arrangement of In The Bleak Midwinter was unusually pleasant; I don't usually enjoy this song all that much, but his rendition made me reconsider it, somewhat. Liberally embellishing the theme with his own style, I felt as if I were being treated to an entirely new song. Overall, Elkinson's pensive stylings took the edge off the set, which works fine for me as I listen to it months in advance of the holiday extravaganza. At the same time, it did not feel overly "new agey" or contrived. What I heard was a musical and sincere tribute to Christmas.

Ken Elkinson - Review of Cue by Tobias Fischer / Tokafi
Feels both composed and improvised: One of the few contemporary solo pianists to pay respect to his instrument. Most people will claim that they are striving for happiness, but their spending patterns are contradicting their rhetoric. The machinery behind Pop and Rock has managed to created an addiction to instant satisfaction that is making it hard on anyone with a diverging voice or an attitude which does not scream in hip terminologies to be truly heard. Ken Elkinson knows this, because he is a member of one of the uncoolest and unhippest clubs in town in terms of media representation: The league of contemporary solo pianists. The fact that Elkinson's work is almost exclusively reviewed in New Age publications and that he has had contact with „telephone hold music companies, yoga centers, music therapists, and airline in-flight audio“ to promote and market his music is striking evidence to the fact that journalists have still not opened their ears to the possibility that this might actually be a kind of music many have waited for. Admittedly, part of the dilemma is down to the artists themselves. The consensus seems to be that their repertoire must either appeal to romantically inclined fans of Billy Joel or Elton John, to naive admirers of Chopin's nocturnes or be easy enough to play for former music students who have now taken to a career in insurances. Consequently, the genre is dominated by mimicry and imitation, by surrogats and semi-solutions. It tastes of honey and milk and seldomly smacks of life itself. It is right here that „Cue“ makes a difference. Ken Elkinson is one of the few artists of this niche to pay the necessary respect to his instrument. He neither uses it to play background tracks to unfinished songs, nor to indulge in pastiches of yesteryear. His melodies do not feel like excuses, they come cascading down like waterfalls in long tension archs which often feel as though they're in for a crash landing – but are always sweeped up into the air again by another stroke of the keys. Harmonically, Elkinson doesn't reach out very far. But the distinct rhythmic feel of his pieces, dominated by continuo-passages with a cyclical feeling in the bass section and complemented by the weightless motives hovering on top, makes them intruiging from beginning to end nevertheless. As a listener, one is seldomly genuinely surprised by his modulations or developments, but it remains interesting to listen to him protract tempi, to insert a slightly longer break at the end of a phrase, to carefully change the dynamic of a piece or to come full circle after a long variation. „Violet“, the track with the most obviously classical feel, is a good example of this style, which feels both composed and improvised. If people were more concerned with really being happy, they'd probably buy more CDs like „Cue“. On the other hand, the succes of the free-to-download experiment of Ken Elkinson's previous album „Opal“ proved that his work could definitely touch a wide audience if only it could eliminate the initial threshold of scepticism. Let's hope it falls soon: This man should never ever have to try selling his music to telephone hold music companies again.

Ken Elkinson - Review of Opal by Joe Vigione / All Music Guide
Ken Elkinson's third album, Opal, is a relaxing collection of ten original titles that feature the songwriter's simple, wandering piano musings. No lyrics, no vocals -- one has to get clues from the arrangements as well as the titles of the songs in order to understand the artist's intent. An opal is a gemstone of rich iridescence, and on the title track the pianist explores the initial translucent melody with a style that suggests a musical question and answer. Unlike Canadian Frank Mills' 1979 success with "Music Box Dancer," a piano classic that featured up-tempo riffs and instrumental accompaniment, Elkinson keeps the entire proceedings low-key, new age keyboard movements meant to soothe rather than provoke. When he covered Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing" on his second release -- 2000's Revelry -- he absorbed the melody into the style that permeates this presentation. But Opal is darker in tone to the bright, glassy music found on his first CD, Midnight Conversation, as well as the aforementioned Revelry. Elkinson takes passages that Carly Simon has utilized with great success, her melody to "Coming Around Again" tucked somewhere inside "Augustine." "Orchid," "Indigo," and "Afterglow" form a trio of four-minute-plus essays that seem to work on the subconscious while they close out a creative album chock-full of notions and effect.

Ken Elkinson - Review of Revelry by Julie Bowerman / Rambles
Ken Elkinson strives to be the "David Hasslehoff" of piano music, marketing his soothing new age melodies to foreign markets and diverse outlets, such as in-flight audio systems and yoga centers. His compositions would certainly quell the fidgety flyers and enhance sun salutations throughout the world. On Revelry, Elkinson's second CD of piano solos, the New York-based musician skillfully executes his craft. The pieces flow together mostly seamlessly, letting the listener absorb the music as relaxing ambiance or choose to concentrate on the changing emotions evoked by the progression. The opening piece, "Sunshower," combines a rhythmic rain pattern with bright, joyful images. The title track, "Revelry," is light and breezy. "Solutions" slows the pace a bit, but none of the tracks is so somnolent that listeners completely drift. The arrangements are compiled to include transitions and mood shifts: "Regrets," a somber autumnal dance leads into the rejuvenation of "Green." The only cover tune, Hendrix's "Little Wing," fits flawlessly in the midst of the original choices. The only distractions for those questing for inner peace through inobstrusive music therapy are the second cut, "Zymic," which demands attention with a catchy melody, and the oddly placed hidden final track, which introduces emphatically heavier hands after the silence of a delayed start. Overall, Elkinson's Revelry is a solid body of effectively rendered piano compositions. It's soothing or evocative, depending on your level of concentration.

Ken Elkinson - Review of Midnight Conversation by Marco Piva / Movimenti Prog
Here's the debut album for the brilliant New Age pianist Ken Elkinson who, starting from his genre of choice, manages to create new melodies without attempting musical revolutions. With his piano (and nothing else), the American composer paints ten simple but wonderful scenes, somehow basic but never obvious. Each piece is quiet and relaxing but there always is an unexpected touch, a tiny surprise that allows the listener to tell this record (and all of Ken Elkinson's releases) apart from most of the other New Age records - useful as a background for meditation or rest but essentially boring if listened to with attention. Listening to this record we get the impression that the author has already identified his best traits starting from which he can then develop a personal style, something not common in a debut album. Of course, loke anyone else, Ken Elkinson still has a lot of room for improvement, but the starting point is advanced enough to make this work really good.

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Stage Specs

Technical Requirements

For Solo Piano - Acoustic Grand or Upright - 1 mic

For Ambient - PA System with 2 mic inputs.

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Ken Elkinson

About the Artist

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