Coming Home by Justin Kauflin

Ever since losing my sight completely, the way in which I experience my surroundings has been quite unique. Instead of everything going black, what I see in my mind's eye is extremely colorful and textured. Every moment is filled with an almost psychedelic swirl of blues, greens, reds, purples and gold against an expansive, seemingly endless backdrop of blacks and grays. On top of that is how the world around me influences those colors. When I enter a room, hear a sound or word, or listen to a live band, the spectrum of colors and textures in my mind shift slightly to associate with what I'm hearing. Needless to say, my world has become no less colorful since I went blind at 11. If anything, it has become more vibrant.



When I set out to write music for this project, my goal was to "paint" a picture with sound. It's my attempt at reverse engineering my visual experience into a sonic pallet, where the instruments and timbres are the different colored paints.



The title "Coming Home" deals with the many ways I've experienced "home," globally, and the compositions serve to illuminate the various emotions attached to each unique location. For instance, Country Fried and Coming Home focus on my fondness for my hometown of Virginia Beach. John My Beloved is a beautiful song by Sufjan Stevens which perfectly encapsulates the way I feel about Brooklyn. The past few years have broadened my horizons considerably and each track is a glimpse into how the world has become so much more vivid to me.

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I sincerely hope you enjoy this momentary glance of the world through my eyes.

Justin Kauflin is an award-winning American jazz pianist, composer, producer, educator and Quincy Jones Artist. He performs worldwide with his trio or as solo artist; recorded on 31 albums; composed the film score for critically acclaimed documentary Keep On Keepin On; published 29 original compositions and produced 4 albums as leader

JustinKauflin.com
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