THIS IS AN 8-SONG PROG & CHILL ALBUM

"Twist of 8" is an album of eight songs that are each unlike the next in almost every case as you move song to song through the album. They likely don't belong together at all, but Michael gathered them together as a peculiar assembly of the various musical directions he explored during his time alone in the studio during the nearly worldwide lockdown caused by the COVID pandemic.

And they all do make a bit of sense together: the tracks shift seamlessly from ambient soundscape explorations, through a foray into chill, to a rush of prog blood to the head, and a few acoustical pathways that Michael wandered down for a bit, thrown in for good measure. Michael's compositions throw left-hand turns and interesting bits at you as this album progresses to completion, bouncing easily from genre to genre along the way. "Twist of 8" is a mesmerizing and engrossing ride.

Like many musicians, Michael was involved in quite a few stay-at-home music projects throughout much of 2020 and 2021, much in support of other musicians' releases. Michael started off the lockdown by finishing up his "13 Moons" ambient projects, which he had begun long before any of us had ever heard the word COVID. But, as the pandemic stretched on, Michael was musically stymied by all the alone time in his studio after the release of those ambient albums. He stayed busy helping out his friends Andrew Stone and Andy Faunch on their excellent albums (found at pilgrimstone.bandcamp.com and faunch.bandcamp.com, respectively), but he spent little time or attention on his own wrx for a long while.

The lockdown was an unsettling time for everyone, and it had its way with him, like it did with everyone. Stuck at home as we all were, Michael went online and bought some new (to him!) guitars (who didn’t, right?…). Getting some new instruments to play with kickstarted his creative mind and led to a shift away from the solely ambient material he had been concentrating on previously. Michael found himself writing more guitar-oriented material (well, ~HIS~ sort of guitar-oriented material...), which is all in play here on "Twist of 8." Still, as with the ambient projects that preceded this album, no matter what he writes, he bases it all in a big, lush soundscape with excellent 21st-century production.