Hi all!

I hope you are all doing well and that you had great holidays!

I wanted to send you a quick update, now that we're back in the swing of things over here.

We are working with Brent's team to finalize the liner notes. We just received some direction from them today on our previous version of the notes, and we should have a new version back to them for review tonight or tomorrow.

Once we get their approval on that, we'll send all the materials to the manufacturer, and from there it should be just a couple of weeks before we are sending them out to you.

This album is coming along, and we're really excited about where it's headed. There will be some energetic, fun, moving, and a few epic tracks on this album. Given the nature of the project, it's going to be a rather eclectic collection, with things like heist music, electronic, gypsy, and quirky piano jazz just to name a few.

It's a bit more intensive to prepare than Reflections was, as Reflections had a lot of the legwork already done. As we're digging into the material, we're finding that so many of the Refractions tracks need some serious updating/overhaul.

Here's our current state:
Finalized Tracks: 4 (with 1 more in the final stages)
Tracks to Arrange: 2, possibly 3 (or more, see below)
Tracks to Mix: this depends (see below)

So, the question about total tracks and how many we have left to arrange/mix is an interesting one.

When we put together our potential track list for this, we had a lot of songs. Some of that was easy to whittle down - some songs are tied up in rights, some were songs whose original files we don't have access to anymore, and some songs would only be redeemable with a lot of rework (far more than the songs that made the list.)

But even after that, we still have enough tracks to put together 2 or 3 volumes of 12 to 20 tracks each. The trick here is that so many of the tracks need so much love. So, the question about total tracks comes down to: would you rather wait longer and receive more tracks, or get a nice 12-track album sooner (possibly as soon as the end of the month)?

If I were to estimate, this is what I think the delivery timing would look like, given where we are and what we are looking at:

8-track album: next week
12-track album: January/February 2023
16-track album: March 2023
18-track album: April/May 2023 (these two additional tracks will take a little bit, as they are full-blown rework/arrangements.)
20-track album: June 2023 (same story for these two, with one of them needing some extra recording.)

Here's where you come in. We could make a decision. (Well, it's tough, because I love a lot of these tracks, and if it were up to me, I'd be happy to spend the rest of the year polishing and getting you a 40-track album....) But your opinion is important to us. Would you rather get fewer tracks sooner, more tracks later, or some kind of in-between?

Please take a moment to let us know through this one-question survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HMPQJ7S -- Thank you!

Were you all able to receive your copy of Reflections (those who ordered it)? If not, let us know! Also, we'd love to hear what you think of the album and the stories that went with each song.

We have a few active queries out to some potential veteran authors with a few promising options we are really hoping work out. (I'm itching to tell you all about it!) Waiting for final answer (and contracts) will potentially place the campaign in March, but it will be worth it if we can secure their participation. In the meantime, we are making good progress on the preparation, and we are extremely excited to get started!


Well, I think that's everything! Looking forward to any thoughts, questions, and feedback you all have about all the above, and I hope you have a lovely week!


All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper