Recorded at the intimate Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix in Quebec over three days in spring 2025, this album captures pianist Chris Andrew at a moment of creative clarity and the beauty in his approach. While technically skilled in every sense, what truly sets him apart is his ability to express the foundational elements of a song.

His touch is lyrical, his phrasing always navigating forward in surprising and emotional ways, setting Chris apart from his peers. Awakening (due out July 10th, 2026 via Chronograph Records) is his first solo piano album, and it reinforces these sentiments perfectly. For those who know his work as a collaborator and accompanist, hearing him in this stripped-back setting is both revealing and powerful.

This recording does not feel like a departure from his collaborative voice. If anything, it reinforces that strength. He plays with such awareness and balance, accompanying himself seamlessly and weaving melody, harmony, and style with remarkable freedom. The aptly titled Awakening reveals a spiritual dimension in Chris’s playing.

There is a clarity of intention as he navigates the melodies, and a sense of presence that draws the listener in. The music floats between modern jazz, traditional swing, Brazilian influences, and gospel touches, yet nothing feels contrived. Everything is genuine. Each piece plays with narrative form and unfolds like a journey.

1. Out the Door
2. Choro Para Oscar
3. Awakening
4. Minority
5. Coastal Mist
6. Digging
7. Reverence
8. Letters for Millie
9. In My Mind
10. Like Someone in Love
11. Illumination

A key player in the Alberta music scene, Chris opens his new recording on the supple playfulness of Out the Door and the gentle robust Choro Para Oscar and then we get gifted the smoothness of the titular Awakening, the spirited Minority and the all-embracing Coastal Mist.

Along next is the jaunty jaggedness of Digging and the ornately sculpted Reverence and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the sheer elegance of Letters for Millie, the resoundingly emotive In My Mind, the set rounding out on the decadent Like Someone in Love, coming to a close on the resplendent Illumination.

This album is not just a personal statement. It is a clear and confident expression of an artist who is at a point of transition in his artistic pursuit and is now sharing his voice in a new and complete way. Awakening is lyrical, fluid, and unmistakably personal.

Official Purchase Link

www.chrisandrewmusic.live