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Many a gifted musician can speak about having a day job, but since 2011 d. mark owen has held down a “night job” in Las Vegas as the Associate Conductor of Cirque Du Soleil’s mammoth production KÁ. A fine pianist, keyboardist, producer, arranger, music director, mixing and mastering engineer, and proprietor of his own innovatively designed studio, Owen has a way of bringing his considerable acumen and wide-ranging experience to bear in every professional context. But with his beautiful new album Respite, he shifts attention to his own artistic journey, working as a largely one-man operation, creating a set of original instrumental pieces with ample tonal and thematic sophistication, engaging melodies, and richly contrasting moods.
“We’re constantly bombarded with music and images in an effort to sell us something or lead us in a certain direction,” says Owen. “I wanted this record to be a place beyond that. A place where you could sit for an hour and just listen, and hopefully come away feeling like you had been given something. A creative endeavor that somehow enriched your day. I wanted it to do for other people what art has done for me over the years: make me reflect, give me pause, make me feel like perhaps there is hope after all.”
The bulk of Respite finds Owen in full solo mode, connecting sparkling acoustic piano, lush synth pads and intriguing harmonies to clear and expressive melodic lines, grounded in a percussive groove sensibility. Three tracks, “Anesthetic,” “Stretched” and “The Traveler,” feature bassist Derek Jones and drummer Cameron (“Cam”) Tyler, bringing the rhythmic aspect of Owen’s writing into even sharper relief. Tyler and Owen share a strong bond as partners in Nonebody Productions as well as their pop-oriented duo project Cryptic Cadet, which released the album Disconnected in 2021. This album features vocalist Olivia Rubini singing Owen’s original lyrics, as well as electric bass giant Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie, Wayne Krantz, Elvis Costello) and other fine musicians. Tyler also works with Owen at KÁ as an on-call, and has also worked with Marie Osmond and Jim Belushi. Jones is the bassist in KÁ and has performed with everyone from Jerry Douglas and Béla Fleck to Sheila E. to David Liebman.
Using state-of-the-art studio techniques and guided by a highly sophisticated ear, Owen built these pieces up from their beginnings (usually on acoustic piano) to become broad, cinematic, fully orchestrated musical stories. They touch on complex feelings related to raising a son (“Toddle,” “1410”), experiences gained working as a commercial fisherman to pay for college (“Lost at Sea”), the inspiration that can strike in moments of semi-consciousness (“In Between”), and the frustrations of life as a working musician paying the bills (“Anesthetic,” “On the Run,” “Breathe”). Throughout, Owen reveals a penchant for arresting sonic detail and a deeply melodic sense as both a writer and soloist. The vamps, phrases and harmonic choices have a way of being highly accessible while also eschewing the obvious. “Bruce Hornsby once said that he wanted his music to have ‘a sense of place,’” remarks Owen, “and that is something I’ve also tried to achieve. And while his is a musical sense of Americana and the South in general, I have tried to make my ‘place’ one that is more of the imagination — one that I invent with each composition.”
“We’re constantly bombarded with music and images in an effort to sell us something or lead us in a certain direction,” says Owen. “I wanted this record to be a place beyond that. A place where you could sit for an hour and just listen, and hopefully come away feeling like you had been given something. A creative endeavor that somehow enriched your day. I wanted it to do for other people what art has done for me over the years: make me reflect, give me pause, make me feel like perhaps there is hope after all.”
The bulk of Respite finds Owen in full solo mode, connecting sparkling acoustic piano, lush synth pads and intriguing harmonies to clear and expressive melodic lines, grounded in a percussive groove sensibility. Three tracks, “Anesthetic,” “Stretched” and “The Traveler,” feature bassist Derek Jones and drummer Cameron (“Cam”) Tyler, bringing the rhythmic aspect of Owen’s writing into even sharper relief. Tyler and Owen share a strong bond as partners in Nonebody Productions as well as their pop-oriented duo project Cryptic Cadet, which released the album Disconnected in 2021. This album features vocalist Olivia Rubini singing Owen’s original lyrics, as well as electric bass giant Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie, Wayne Krantz, Elvis Costello) and other fine musicians. Tyler also works with Owen at KÁ as an on-call, and has also worked with Marie Osmond and Jim Belushi. Jones is the bassist in KÁ and has performed with everyone from Jerry Douglas and Béla Fleck to Sheila E. to David Liebman.
Using state-of-the-art studio techniques and guided by a highly sophisticated ear, Owen built these pieces up from their beginnings (usually on acoustic piano) to become broad, cinematic, fully orchestrated musical stories. They touch on complex feelings related to raising a son (“Toddle,” “1410”), experiences gained working as a commercial fisherman to pay for college (“Lost at Sea”), the inspiration that can strike in moments of semi-consciousness (“In Between”), and the frustrations of life as a working musician paying the bills (“Anesthetic,” “On the Run,” “Breathe”). Throughout, Owen reveals a penchant for arresting sonic detail and a deeply melodic sense as both a writer and soloist. The vamps, phrases and harmonic choices have a way of being highly accessible while also eschewing the obvious. “Bruce Hornsby once said that he wanted his music to have ‘a sense of place,’” remarks Owen, “and that is something I’ve also tried to achieve. And while his is a musical sense of Americana and the South in general, I have tried to make my ‘place’ one that is more of the imagination — one that I invent with each composition.”
