Dustin O’Halloran releases a new single entitled Red. An improvised piano piece recorded in a single take in his Reykjavík studio, it’s the second of three mesmerising tracks that will form The Chromatic Sessions EP.
Red is a partner piece to Gold — released last month — with a final chromatic track called Blue set to follow. The theme of colours emerged organically during the process of writing and recording. “It wasn’t something pre-planned,” says Dustin. “I was improvising on the piano every day, and I realised I was always thinking about colours as I wrote. When you have the mic set up and you’re recording, it puts you into deep focus. There’s something about that red light being on that really pulls you into the moment.”
O’Halloran has long experienced synaesthesia — a mingling of the senses that may sound
familiar to many. It can be something as simple as a taste snapping us back to a place we’ve
been, a familiar scent triggering a powerful emotional flashback, or — in Dustin’s case — a
certain sound evoking the feeling of a colour.
“I believe that people are more synesthetic than they realise,” he says. “It’s something that you
can tune into. All sensations are ultimately translated in the brain — and I think you can learn to connect different parts of those sensations together.” Such connections are a theme that runs through The Chromatic Sessions — including the connection between Dustin and his audience. All of the Chromatic singles come with downloadable sheet music when bought on Bandcamp, allowing listeners to play the music themselves. It’s a gesture born of O’Halloran’s heartfelt wish to forge a closer relationship with his listeners.
“Releasing music digitally feels so distant and disconnected,” he says. “And I think we’re all
looking for connection. When people get involved in playing the music, it becomes part of them in a different way. It becomes communal. It becomes theirs.”
