Keyboardist Timothy Wenzel explains that there are
numerous meanings behind the title of his second album, A Coalescence of
Dreams. First he asks, “Do we
really dream alone or do our dreams intersect?” Then he points out that we can attain our greatest successes when
our various goals and aspirations come together in a symbiotic way. Wenzel, also a longtime research scientist,
explains that he realized his dreams of creating new substances by introducing
the right catalysts on the molecular-level.
“And in music, dreaming plays an integral part in the creation, and the
entire process is bringing together notes and sounds into an arrangement,” he
says.
“A Coalescence of Dreams is not only the title and
theme of this album, but it also represents the way I live my life and the way
I see life unfolding,” states Wenzel.
“It’s about becoming aware of our nighttime dreams and using that
knowledge. It’s about day-dreaming,
brain-storming, setting goals and making your dreams come true. It’s about realizing that many aspects of
our lives intersect, and also cross-connect with other lives.”
Wenzel, who has played piano all his life, primarily makes
his recordings with a synthesizer (including a sequencer and computer), and his
albums feature a wide array of instrumental sounds including piano, violin,
cello, flute, harp, guitars, drums and percussion (plus occasional musical
guests). His music, which has subtle
hints of Celtic and world-fusion, fits into the new age genre, especially
because of the haunting melodies and dreamy arrangements that create a sense of
peacefulness and relaxation. There also
is a visual element in the music which is often inspired by dreams, films,
stories and nature scenery. In
addition, on his website Wenzel has attached an appropriate piece of artwork to
each tune on the new album.
More information on Timothy Wenzel is available at his
website (timothywenzel dot com). His
two CDs -- A Coalescence of Dreams and the earlier Mountains Take
Wing -- and digital download tracks from those recordings are available at
online sales sites such as CDbaby, Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody and many
others.
“I get most of my musical inspiration just as I am falling
asleep,” Wenzel says. “A lot of my
melodic ideas come during my dream state when I am accessing a totally
different part of my mind. I often get
up, go into my home studio and quickly record a little piece to capture that
thought. Then later I see where it
goes. I play it back to see if it moves
me, and if there is a spark, I get involved and push it further in new
directions.”
Sometimes Wenzel’s music is inspired by places -- a scenic
drive in Hawaii (“Road to Hana”), a Michigan forest (“A Walk in the Summer
Woods”), or hiking in the wilds of Germany (“Mountain Rain”). Other times it is the history of a place
that causes Wenzel to create music.
“Ice Wind,” which features guitarist Michael Rud from Denmark and
drummer Lenny Lavash from Nevada, is a sequel to the tune “Birka” from Wenzel’s
previous album. Both tunes are about a Swedish
island where a major city existed in ancient times but disappeared in the 8th
Century. “Desert Sky” is what Wenzel
calls “an alternative soundtrack to the film ‘The Sheltering Sky’ directed by
Bernardo Bertolucci and an adaptation of the novel by Paul Bowles set in North
Africa.” With “The River Niger,” Wenzel
says, “I tried to make the music take the listener through the fascinating
history of this African river from the Guinea Highlands to the Sahara to Timbuktu.” “Follow the River” captures the tale and
trail of Mary Ingles who was kidnapped by Shawnee Indians in the Eastern United
States in 1755 and transported a thousand miles, but escaped and made her way
home with no supplies.
Other compositions are more contemplative and
mystical. “Apparition” is about a comet
that could be seen from earth a few years ago, and how “it appeared as a
ghostly, spiritual vision.” Wenzel
states that “Miles From Nowhere” is “about that feeling of being in the middle
of no particular place, so far away from everything that nothing matters.” “Oasis of Souls” features Middle Eastern
sounds and a spiritual theme (“When you are crossing a desert in life or in a
dream, your soul needs a resting place, a sanctuary”). “We Walk Together” is Wenzel’s tribute to
his deceased younger brother.
Wenzel was born and raised in South Haven, Michigan, where
he spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying nature. “There was always a piano in our house. It was built by my grandfather who worked in a piano
factory.” Tim’s mother played piano and
he started plunking on the keys when he was three (“she encouraged me”). Two years later his mother sent him to a
piano teacher. “I remember I did a
recital when I was six,” Timothy says, “and the unusual thing was that they let
me do an original piece that I came up with.
I was deeply into classical music and I took lessons until about the
time I got to junior high. I continued
to play music on my own, but I started being influenced by rock’n’roll and what
I heard on the radio. My entire life I
have not been able to walk by a piano and not sit down. In grad school my biggest purchase was a
parlor grand piano.”
Initially Wenzel enjoyed Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones,
Jethro Tull and The Moody Blues, and later U2.
As he got older he began to appreciate new age music (“George Winston
and the whole rosters of the Windham Hill and Narada labels”). His next journey was female singers that
incorporated some Celtic sounds -- Loreena McKennitt, Clannad, Enya and Sara
McLachlan. In recent years Wenzel also
has begun working with female singers from around the world (he contributes the
music and often the lyrics too).
In addition to music the other steady theme in Wenzel’s
life has always been science. He earned
a BS degree in Chemistry at the University of Missouri, then his Masters and
PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry at Cornell University. He followed this as a post-doctoral
researcher in organometallic chemistry at the University of California at
Berkeley. This led to a career in
research science, first with Union Carbide in West Virginia, and then with Dow
Chemical in Michigan where he still lives.
“I primarily worked in making polymers using catalysts --
discrete molecules with a metal atom that does most of the work. Polymers are a chemical compound of
repeating structural units. My work was
primarily in polyethylene using a new generation of catalysts to make different
plastics. The culmination and highlight
of my career was when they let me run with a far-out idea I had, and I headed a
team that found a way to make two catalysts talk to each other. First one would weave a strand and hand it
off, and then the other would weave one, and they created building blocks
together. It is a powerful technique to
make new types of polymers. It was a
major discovery, a home run.”
Wenzel sees a correlation, or coalescence, of his two
careers. “Science is very much an art
full of creativity. Exploring a
scientific concept is very much like writing a song. In both cases you start with an idea and then explore the
possibilities of where it can lead.
Part of the experience is based on education, training and knowledge,
but the other part is intuition, experimentation and a touch of magic that
makes things work out.”
Wenzel first recorded some original material using
primitive recording equipment when he was in grad school. “I remember listening back to an
improvisational piece I did and realizing the importance of capturing
inspirational musical moments. As I
matured I got more and more serious about my music. I bought an electronic keyboard and a four-track recorder in 1990
and started seriously writing original material. Over the years I got more sophisticated keyboards and recording
equipment. About three years ago I
began creating material for my first album, Mountains Take Wing,” he
says.
“Music, like science, needs a little alchemy to help in
the creation process,” says Wenzel. “I
really enjoy it when two different chemicals or sounds or ideas or people’s
paths intersect and something new comes into being. When my music is heard and affects someone else’s life, that is
another coalescence, another dream coming to fruition.”
