Moon in the Monastery Selah Broderick & Peter Broderick

• Selah Broderick (b. 1959): The Deer:
• 1The Deer03:52
• I Am:
• 2I Am03:03
• Mother:
• 3Mother01:37
• Faith:
• 4Faith04:08
• Cut:
• 5Cut01:06
• Silence:
• 6Silence03:45
• True Voice:
• 7True Voice03:23
• Moon in the Monastery:
• 8Moon in the Monastery20:46
• Total Runtime41:40

Info for Moon in the Monastery

When Selah Broderick reached out to her son, musician and composer Peter Broderick, asking if he’d like to help set some of her poetry to music, Peter replied immediately with a euphoric Yes! Having lived on opposite sides of the world for more than 15 years, the two felt this a great way to keep connected, and once Peter heard Selah’s beautiful, vulnerable words, he dedicated himself to helping facilitate this album by his mother.

It was slow and steady over the next couple years that the eight tracks comprising Moon in the Monastery took shape. Utilising Peter’s vast collection of instruments and years of experience as a multi-instrumentalist (violin, piano, percussion, etc.), the two Broderick’s embarked on a process of trial and error, patiently searching for the right musical tones to accompany each poem. Sometimes Peter would get his mother to record herself playing the flute as source material for him to work with. Opening piece The Deer, for instance, is made up entirely of Selah’s flute — sampled, manipulated and sculpted into the perfect backdrop for her recounting of a mystical encounter with a wild deer one evening as the sun was setting in the hills of rural Oregon.

Having worked in the healing arts for over 30 years, Selah’s poetry is a natural, personal extension of her professional life. With a diverse background in fields such as yoga, physical therapy, massage, and hospice, Selah has devoted much of her life to helping others heal, while progressing on her own journey of inner work. Her writings range from the intensely personal to the universally relatable, sometimes within a single turn of phrase. With her pen she delves into the heart of the human experience in a way that feels inquisitive rather than sentimental.

Midway through the album, in a piece called ‘Faith’, she says, “Faith… It’s caught and carved into my heart / Then melts away / Almost asking that I keep renewing it each moment / Perhaps it deepens when I let it go and find it again?”

After finishing work on the seven spoken-word tracks, Selah and Peter created an extended meditative soundscape to finish off the album. The eighth and last track of the album — the title track, Moon in the Monastery, again highlights Selah’s enchanted flute playing and provides a calm and dreamy space for the substance of the seven prior tracks to sink in.

Selah Broderick, voice, flute, percussion
Peter Broderick, violin, piano, percussion, synths, electronics

Peter Broderick
is an American-born multi-instrumentalist and singer, brought up in a musical household in Oregon. In his later teenage years he became entwined in the indie folk scene in Portland, recording for the likes of M. Ward, Laura Gibson and Dolorean.

2007 saw Broderick move across the ocean to Denmark, where he began a long collaboration with the band Efterklang, touring the world with them for the next five years. Meanwhile he recorded several albums of solo material, ranging from the sparse classical compositions of his debut album Float to the homemade folk music on Home — constantly experimenting with different musical genres, and also being commissioned to write music for several films and contemporary dance works. He then lived in Berlin for several years where he met and collaborated with many like-minded artists including German pianist Nils Frahm under the name Oliveray and Englishman Greg Haines as Greg Gives Peter Space.

Now known as one of the label’s veteran recording artist, Broderick joined Erased Tapes with his wanderings into the realms of film, dance and documentary scores. 2009’s Music For Falling From Trees, a 30-minute piece in seven sections, was created for a contemporary dance by London-based choreographer Adrienne Hart at Neon Dance. It was followed by Music For Congregation in 2010 and his classic score Music For Confluence, created in 2011 for Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott’s spell binding documentary film on five unsolved murders in Idaho.

Held together by a dialogue of voices, his 2012 album These Walls Of Mine reveals Peter’s innermost thoughts in an exploration from gospel and soul to spoken word, beatboxing and rap. In 2013 he re-located back to America, living at the Pacific Ocean near where he grew up. Returning to his home where his musical journey began, Peter completed the circle with the release of Float 2013. Encouraged by label founder Robert Raths the album was given a “second chance“ with the help of Nils Frahm who remastered the record.

Inspired by John Cage‘s so-called mesostics, his 2016 album Partners saw Peter experiment with chance, surrendering an entire song’s composition to the roll of dice in a series of voice and piano recordings. The composer closed the year with his equally exceptional Grunewald recordings — paying homage to the discrete yet majestic Grunewald Church, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, that's become a haven for an entire generation of contemporary composers.

2017 marked the birth of Allred & Broderick — a new duo project between Broderick and his musical partner David Allred.

In 2020 he surprised the world with a drop release of Blackberry, his first vocal based album in over five years, followed by the satellite release The Wind That Shakes The Bramble in 2021 — containing additional work from the same sessions, as well as a beautiful two-part rework from Bing & Ruth and the new 22-minute title track; an expansive and meditative ambient odyssey, a balm for the baffling chaos of the current era.

In August 2022 Peter announces the release of Piano Works Vol. 1 (Floating in Tucker’s Basement) — a new comprehensive album of solo piano recordings. Shining a light on the artist’s ongoing piano-based compositions, this release offers an opportunity to celebrate his more intimate work.

Peter continues to travel the world, performing solo piano concerts and collaborating with a vast array of different musicians and artists.

This album contains no booklet.