“Threshold” is a new cinematic piano piece I created that is based on a chorale by Johann Sebastian Bach. An immersive soundscape over 8 minutes long. I created this after attending a concert at the Seattle Bach Festival in May 2026. A friend of mine commented that they focus on the lyrics of JS Bach’s music (they are a native German speaker) and here I thought everyone focused on the music itself of JS Bach. That made me realize how many different ways we engage and enjoy Bach’s music.

The next day I started working on this piece, using the chord progressions of JS Bach’s chorale BWV 2.6 “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein” which was originally by Martin Luther (after Psalm 12) in 1524. The first performance of JS Bach’s music to this chorale was on June 18, 1724 on the 2nd Sunday after Trinity.

The video I created with a loose story line of a young boy discovering the magic of the Aurora Borealis in Norway, helped along by some Norwegian trolls. The video is just a way of creating something visual to go with the music, but I hope that that the real magical video is the one that plays in your mind along with the music.

Coming home from a world tour, and building a small, quiet world.

 – Conrad Askland, May 2026

I was sitting alone in a coffee shop in Bruges, watching people walk past 500-year-old buildings on their cell phones. That’s The Wanderer. That’s exactly what he sees.

My last tour was three and a half years with Cirque du Soleil, across five continents. On tour, every night is just go, go, go. The arenas are loud. The energy is enormous. And then I came off of it, and I came back home, and now everything is very quiet and still.

When it came time to work on my next project, I didn’t want to do anything big and bombastic. I wanted to do something small and intimate.

Continue reading “The Coffee Shop in Bruges — and Why I Made The Wanderer” →

A bust of Beethoven, forty years later, and what it taught me about taste, commitment, and why some things define us.

The top people in the arts and in business all share one thing: a strong sense of aesthetics, and the discipline to commit to it.

So what is aesthetics, exactly, and how do you develop yours?

There is a bust of Beethoven that sits on my piano. I made it when I was twelve years old. My taste has changed in many things over the years, but my taste in this has not. I still love it. And in trying to figure out why, I think I have found something important about the difference between taste and aesthetics, about commitment, and about doing the work that makes a life feel distinctly yours.

Continue reading “Style Is the Residue of Aesthetics You Refused to Let Go Of” →

In this video I do a live pipe organ improvisation in the style of J.S. Bach’s “Toccata” from his Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The purpose of this was to have some fun creating new Halloween pipe organ music while incorporating some music theory from Bach’s original organ work. This was a LOT of fun to record and I hope you enjoy it.