Llewelyn Screen

Taken off his recent eight-track album called Trips for Piano, Martin Graff brings us much enlightened peace for our worried souls with a piece that will have you feeling purified again with “Sonare.”

Martin Graff is a mightily skilled composer-pianist, illustrator, writer, and spoken-word performer, who is based in safe and flourishing Arlington, Virginia. With one of the most impressive chin-beards you will ever see, he uses these superpowers to make the type of music you can just sit back with and let it lather a web of pureness all over your willing body.

“At four, my family inherited an old, anonymous piano, and I surged with an uncontainable energy to climb onto the bench and dig my hands into those eight-eight bits of clay, instinctively molding them into little aural landscapes. Crude and square at first; at last, faceted gems after a lifetime of practice, polish, and love.” —Martin Graff

With a calming ambiance and featuring a wizard-like level of genius proportions—which certainly has you dazzled and perhaps a tad flustered at times—his remarkable style is truly translucent as he picks up your bad mood to flip it around and brings you back into a much happier space in the world, where you may feel so much more satisfied with life.

“Making this music is the opposite of death, like the centrifugal force around the sharpest bend of the greatest roller coaster. A reharmonizing of my most tumultuous internal cacophonies and maybe yours. So, listen up as I bang on this gong from the Gods! As the resonance of these radiant compositions fill your ear and make their way to your heart.” —Martin Graff

“Sonare,” from the multi-skilled Virginia-based composer-pianist Martin Graff, is a lovely piece of art from a highly skilled artist who brings so much joy to many. His excellent technique is truly incredible and sadly underrated, as he plays with a true love for what he does. This is a song which will sooth many a soul and bring you back to a place in time where you feel most content.

The true aim of music is to bring us together and heal the wounds of the past, after all.

—LS, September 13, 2021

Llewelyn Screen is music journalist, freelance music booking agent, band manager, optimist, and live-music lover out of Cape Town, South Africa.