Robert Harbin-McGee

February 22, 2009

My incredible friends from EntropiK have jumped through all the hoops and qualifying rounds and I am thrilled to announce THEY ARE IN THE FINALS for The People's Music Awards!!!

NOW IT IS TIME TO CAST YOUR VOTE TO HELP THEM WIN!

December 05, 2008

Feel Free to enjoy my incredibly talented & wonderful friends, Dan & Deryn Cullen – Composers; Creators; Virtuoso Performers; and Producers of EntropiK, Dreams of Falling (formerly known as Striking Poses), & Striking Media. These two dear souls have combined their brilliance to bring us some of the most incredibly and profoundly diverse and beautiful musical compositions I have ever encountered. Their music is honest, beyond 'the box', and a genre in and of itself. Their music is like experiencing the Past, Present & Future - all at the same time. Amazing.

Here is just a small sample - ENJOY!

rev. December 05, 2008

Now a little bit about my music...

Please feel free to lay back, put your feet up, close your eyes, enjoy, and experience. Headphones recommended.

A litille bit of background info...

“Daydreams” is the first recorded collection of my earliest original piano pieces. Recorded and Copyrighted in 1985 – it represents, chronologically, a compilation of sixty-plus minutes of original piano compositions surfacing over a seven-plus-years period.

The master copies for "Daydreams" are long lost - except for that which resides in the US Library of Cogress - Department of Copyright. The only remaining copies currently in my possession are poor quality 3rd or 4th generation analog copies - transferred to digital. So.. at least for now - the poor reproduction quality compells me to not add pieces from "Daydreams" at this time.

In contrast: “Pink Triangles”, recorded and copyrighted one year later in 1986, is a sixty-plus minute compilation of original piano pieces that surfaced over the year after recording “Daydreams”. These copies - albeit not of perfect "Studio Quality", have fared much better over the years, concerning listenability.

Recording “Daydreams” released an incredible surge of musical inspiration and activity. After recording “Pink Triangles” it seemed, until recently, my mission or purpose, as far as composing music, or whatever it was that occurred, was complete.

In mid 1988, I unexplainably lost the ability to play any of the music I ever composed or recorded during and before that time (Daydreams & PinkTriangles).

Now, just as then, I can feel the channels opening - a deep stirring within. There are many who have always encouraged and supported me - my family and loved ones. Most recently I owe a great deal of gratitude to Jeffrey my Love; Janice, my best friend; Danny & Deryn Cullen aka Entropik, my Dear Ones, for their incredible inspiration and support; Dave Brady for his incredible talent and for helping me discover the electronic keyboard (I now have a new goal d;-) - and certainly not least: Drew Tretick, dear friend, Virtuoso, and supporter - for telling me precisely what I needed to hear.

-notation-

**Originally, 'Pink Triangles' was dedicated to the memory of, and to honor those men who were forced to wear the Pink Triangle Patches – designating their classification as homosexual or bisexual men – while they were caged, tortured and exterminated in the Nazi Concentration / Death Camps during the Holocaust. I now - August 26, 2007 – expand this dedication to honor, memorialize, empower ALL PEOPLES, All CHILDREN who have suffered, and/or are currently suffering horrific atrocities, abuses, and hateful acts.

As for my piano music: I am mostly self taught, with some lessons under my belt. I was totally in love with the Piano from about the age of four.

I remember playing my grandmothers piano and I could hardly bear it because it was so out of tune. The amazing thing about her was that when she sat down to play – it sounded wonderful!

Well Piano’s don’t come cheap, then or now. Somehow my parents managed to buy one. And it was a cool one. It was a full upright converted player (meaning it no longer worked as a player any more) but it did come with some of the old rolls of perforated music (which have since gone by the wayside). It had such a great voice and it was reasonably in tune.

I started playing as much as I could – I drove my parents batty I’m sure, playing the same little exercise, made up ditties over and over, or by struggling to learn to play by taking lessons to read music. I could not stand piano lessons. I wanted to learn Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata so my teacher had me get a watered down version in the key of C (yuck!) I wanted the real deal, so my mom took me to the music store and I found a book of classical music with Moonlight Sonata in it’s original key with four sharps and minor and I learned it by cracky. The next time she came for a lesson and asked me to play version Yuck, I pulled out my new version and played it (pretty well) and all she had to say to my mom was, “he’s not supposed to be able to play that yet, it has 4 sharps.” I think that was my last lesson with her.

I had always been inclined to find my way around on the keyboard, occasionally finding a little melody or nice chord combination here and there. I would practice exercises off and on and took lessons again for awhile. Then, in the early to mid 80's everything changed. I can only describe it as music just began to ‘come up'. I was finally able to play piano in a way that was new to me and allowed me to express myself emotionally. In 1982 I began Junior College, taking pre-reqs for an AS degree in Registered Nursing. This gave me access to the newly completed Theatre on campus that included a wonderful Baldwin Concert Grand Piano. The forestage was actually an elevator to the basement.

Whether the Baldwin was on stage or in the basement, it made no difference to me – I just had to play it as much as I could. It was my mission. And I was also beginning to realize that I had to find a way to start recording my music, just because there was so much of it and I was afraid I would start forgetting it.

The Director of Music got to the point where he would literally sigh out loud when he saw me headed his way. (Poor guy, I was so driven - I'm sure he must have considered me a real pest.) What he didn't realize was that I made it a point of always knowing his schedule so I would know the best times to 'to make sure our paths crossed' - and he rarely said no to my requests.

And as fate would have it (now I know better - it was pure intention manifest), a guy named Tino walked up to me one day and asked me If I ever thought about recording my music? After what I was sure was a brief out of body experience, I regained my composure and we worked out the details. With Tino’s help, I made two 60 minute audio / analog cassettes. The first is called Daydreams and was recorded on July 26, 1985. Pink Triangles was recorded on July 22, 1986. Due to typical tight schedules and limited access to the theatre, we had only slightly more than an hour to record each hour long cassette. Although the theatre was empty, both cassette recordings were Live – one shot deals. What you hear is what you get, mistakes, glitches, real, un-cut piano. Now whether or not it is to your liking is something completely different. I hope you do. It came from my heart – the voice of my soul – the very fabric of my being. But that was then… I’ll explain more below.

Both the summers of 1986, and 1987, I was Full time into the RN Program; working as much as possible and Performing at Events and Fund Raisers for AIDS Awareness. One of these summers, probably 1987, I made homemade copies of Pink Triangles cassettes and the inserts and sold them for cost plus $3.00 - this left over $3.00 per cassette was donated to the Central Valley Aids Team of Fresno, CA. I only sold about 50 tapes, raising $150.00 for CVAT – but it sure felt good. Especially during a time when I was working as an Orderly in a hospital where a Nurse tried to have me written up for refusing to wear gloves while giving a back rub to one of the hospital’s first HIV+ patients who had no open sores. I argued my point (I was not going to have unsafe sex with him – I was giving him a routine back rub with out risk of body fluid contamination), I met with the Board of Physicians Medical Director and he whole-heartedly agreed with me and new staff education policies were implemented.

December of 1987 I graduated with honors from the COS RN Program as Class Salutatorian and became immersed in my career as a Registered Nurse.

I need to add a note here – sorry if I am repeating myself: I had always had a tremendous sense of urgency about needing to record my music, or I would loose it forever.

I mustered all my courage and sent out several demos of both cassettes. Windham Hill replied saying that they only listen to demos referred by their own artists. I got a few; thank you for sharing - just not quite our style. And I got one back from a real person who commented on a few of the pieces, telling me I was certainly into cyclical or circular music. I couldn’t agree more. What's so, is also So What?

The strangest, most disconcerting thing happened. For no reason that I can understand or explain, within about 12 to 18 months after the completion of recording Pink Triangles I completely lost the ability to play every piece of music I ever recorded. It was as if someone just flipped a switch.

I still play piano. Actually I catch snippets of stuff coming up quite often. I just don’t repeat the same stuff very often. I like to say, “I play my best music when I’m alone with my eyes closed.” And I am inspired and humbled greatly every time I listen to the incredible musical talent I find on MySpace.com. If my time to play and compose has passed me by for a few more moments or from now on – I will luxuriate in the talent and bask in the radiant healing rhythmic sounds of those I meet along my journey along this path called life.

I hope you enjoy my music! If you do, and think a friend might also -please feel free to forward me to them. Add requests are always welcome and comments appreciated.

All my Best to you and yours,