Fearless Creativity! is my blog about the creative journey – and about learning to transcend the blocks and fears that keep us from embracing it fully. It explores the philosophy, psychology and spirituality of living creatively and intentionally.

There will also be reviews of books, courses, websites, anything I find noteworthy in terms of the existing and ongoing literature on the subject… as well as a free ebook (coming soon!) and a whole lot more… Click here to visit Fearless Creativity!.

Broken Saints began as an experimental online serial graphic novel in 2000, created on a shoestring budget in a basement in North Vancouver by Brooke Burgess, Ian Kirby and Andrew West. When Brooke asked me to provide original music to enhance the dark and powerful storyline and imaginative art, I volunteered my existing catalogue (specifically, the albums ‘Passage‘ and ‘A Suite Hereafter‘, and later expanded on these with tracks composed specifically for the series.

The resulting body of work is mostly instrumental and electronic, often ambient or atmospheric, but always intended to be engaging and to provoke active listening… This work is deeply concerned with the subtle, dynamic interplay of acoustic and electronic sounds and textures; between the spontanaeity, depth and physicality of real instruments played by real people, and the precision and infinite possibilites of digital editing and computer-assisted sound design.

Click here to listen or find out more…

Aeos Records (Acoustic, Electronic, Organic, atmoSpheric) is my online label, home to more or less all the music I’ve been involved with over the last 20 years or so. It is broken down into ‘projects’, which are also presented here: the Broken Saints soundtrack series, the ‘continuum’ solo piano series, my trio Stillness3 (meditation in the form of sound!), other band projects that are dormant but still musically interesting, and my ‘novel in words, sounds and images’, Symmetricity.

Most albums available through Aeos Records are linked from thumbnails on this site. All are released under a Name Your Price model, with a reasonable minimum in most cases except the two compilation albums. All proceeds go directly to the artist(s) – skip the middleman! Ecommerce and streaming preview are handled by the wonderful BandCamp. Of course, most titles are also available through iTunes, eMusic and other mainstream online venues.

Most tracks are also Creative-Commons licensed, so if you feel like choping them up and doing something creative with them, I’m fine with that as long as credit is given and the results are released under a similar license (‘Share-Alike’).

Enjoy the music and please leave me a comment here or on the Aeos Records site if you like it (or even if you don’t)!
-tobias

Stillness3 is: Organic, contemplative music created from the calm and energy of the moment, without haste or urgency… a flowing collage of sound, rhythm, colour and texture. This is music to bathe in, to relax and renew the body and spirit – music that speaks to the stillness within us.

Stillness3 is: A jazz trio playing original compositions that draw more from the Ambient and New Age genres: slow, simple, patient, sometimes haunting, mysterious, always relaxing, meditative… in a word, still. This is music by master craftsman, using sparse and poignant brush strokes to create a warm, beautiful and contemplative pallet.

Stillness3 is: Intuitive, meditative, inspired music which breathes and lives in real time. Acoustic instruments played with subtlety and depth; lush, rich soundscapes, drawn from the deep well of instrumental mastery.

Click here to find out more…

Fulfilling a lifelong dream, in 1999 I inaugurated the ‘continuum’ concert series. These solo concerts are fully improvised, long format live performances drawing on jazz, classical and New Age influences. The listener is invited to join in a remarkable journey, a leap of faith…

I am interested in exploring the possibility of tapping into a musical flow – a continuum - which is ‘out there’ somewhere, and happening all the time, continuously… It just needs people – performers and listeners willing to collaborate in bringing something magical about, to bring it to life. As much as possible without being neurotic about it, I try to approach the piano with nothing pre-conceived at all in terms of what I am going to play. The results are invariably surprising to me, both musically – I frequently have no idea how I am actually able to play what comes out – and in terms of their intensity and emotional directness.

I attribute a great deal of this to the energy and focus of a live audience, who participate in and are a vital part of the experience and thus, of the music itself. Hearing them recorded is one step removed from this immediacy, but hopefully some of it comes through…

Click here to find out more and hear the music…

Symmetricity is a novel in words, sounds and images. Set in Berlin, it’s about music, and creativity, and family, and the way the brain works, and the nature of self and reality. It has been in development for over 5 years.

Symmetricity combines mystery, magic realism and metafiction, along with music that intersects the story itself. It will initially be presented serially, online, in various formats including flash eBook, pdf and other portable formats, podcast and videoblog.

Here’s the ‘Back Page Blurb’… click here for more information!


In 1973, an East German border guard patrolling a quiet section of the Berlin Wall has a strange and powerful experience: walking between apartments separated by the border, he hears piano music coming from either side – beautifully played and perfectly synchronized, as if by a single pianist… As he stands transfixed, he realizes that only he can hear it, from his unique position between the buildings – and between worlds…

Three decades later a young Canadian academic, in the midst of a personal crisis, has come to Berlin to explore his German father’s heritage and experience this remarkable city… and finds himself drawn into a series of bizarre co-incidences, uncovering a long-buried family tragedy and profoundly changing his understanding of himself and reality.