Keeping the joyous momentum flowing following his designation as a Triple Silver Medal Winner for Outstanding Achievement at the Global Music Awards, Joseph L. Young creates a fascinating, multi-dimensional musical exploration of time on his highly anticipated new album Every Moment.
Over the course of four previous critically acclaimed releases – including 2016’s Ethereum, which pulled off a trifecta at the awards, winning the Composition/Composer, Instrumentalist and Album categories - the multi-talented instrumental and artist has established his unique new age/global fusion sound with flute as his lead instrument. On Every Moment, his most personal album to date, he returns to his first love, the saxophone, as the lead voice. Guest artists include Rona Yellow Robe (vocals and lyrics on “Letting Go”), Cornell Kinderknecht (bansuri flute on “Time Traveler”) and Lisa Bittick (viola on “Chronos Dreams”).
“Though my wonderful, loyal fan base has long embraced me as a flute player specializing in ethnic instruments from around the world, my first instrument was the saxophone, which I started playing at age 12 in my sixth grade school band,” says Young. “I’ve played it as a backing texture on some of my recordings and I felt it was time to expand my horizons and explore the emotional possibilities playing the soprano, alto and tenor. Using the sax as a primary voice is a fresh extension of my core sound. It is also my father’s favorite instrument, and my beloved wife’s – I wrote the title track ‘Every Moment’ for her. The album also features definite threads of my trademark style of writing and arranging, in addition to my core love of exploring global rhythms and a multitude of unique world instruments.”
Young, who created all of the stunning graphics and artwork for the album, posted an Every Moment sampler posted on YouTube featuring clips from each track and corresponding images. Working with independent film director Stephanie Michelle Lokelani Cullen, he is currently working on videos for “Every Moment, “Time Traveler” and “Falling Through Time” which combine live performance moments, live actors in real life environments and CGI-created scenes which explore different universes and time dimensions. While the videos can be enjoyed as standalone works or as an interconnected three part story, the overarching narrative finds Joe being torn between following his dream of being a musician, artist and composer vs. pursuing love in the form of a person. One “Joe” goes down the musical path, while the other is on a search for human love. “Joe” is played by both Young and another actor – both following their passion and finding love in different realms.
In an early March newsletter post, Young wrote, “I hope my music touches your heart and soul, in a way I created it from my own.” Since the release of his first album Pathways in 2004, which grew out of a collaboration with the Idaho Dance Theatre, Young’s goal as a composer and musician has been to make universal music without boundaries and to help people work through emotions, releasing the negative as they grow and change. On Every Moment, he adds thematic elements related to time and his passion for quantum physics and string theory to the multi-faceted presentation.
“My overall theme is exploring the concept of time from the abstract to the concrete, manifested in unique time signatures from track to track – yes, the way jazz artists do it!” Young says. “I was inspired by watching my parents as they get older and realizing just how fleeting everything in life is. I’m not just thinking about time the way we usually perceive it, but also how time relates to those we love. It’s the way time can pass in the blink of an eye, and we before we know it years have flown by, as if we are ‘Falling Through Time.’ To draw from more of the song titles, as I look back on the complex ‘Prism’ of my life like a ‘Time Traveler,’ I see how many precious moments have slipped through my fingers. I don’t want to lose another minute of life, so today I strive to be present in ‘Every Moment’ to appreciate and love and share, to be real and vulnerable and honest, and above all, to be kind. To me, time translates to love. So the real story behind this album is love.”