The Composer - Thomas J. Mosbø
My earliest musical influences during the 1960s were the Beatles, particularly John Lennon, and Simon & Garfunkel, plus Beethoven, Handel and Stravinsky. Justin Hayward and the Moody Blues, along with other experimental musicians (such as Pink Floyd and Greg Lake of King Crimson and Emerson Lake & Palmer), also helped to shape my mellow musical style in the early 1970s. Studies in Classical music theory then opened the way for exploring Pentatonic and Modal music with harmonies in fourths and fifths. And although the music of Jon Anderson and Yes has provided me with my greatest inspiration for expressing spirituality through music, it has only had a minor impact on my own composing style.
Then
Here I am singing The Willingness To Give (which you can listen to here) at my wedding to Coral Fay in May 1975 in my home church - Our Saviour's Lutheran - in Rembrandt, Iowa.
During the 1970s, when much of my music was written, all composing was done at the piano, and I was able to record only very basic demos. A few of the songs were performed publicly, either as solos at the piano or with a smattering of other musicians, often at churches. Then in the 1980s, while continuing to compose a few new songs, I revised the lyrics of some of the earlier songs which I had written as a teenager.
In the 1990s I obtained a modest synthesizer, making it possible to create better demos of my music, but these were still limited in scope and presentation. Then, during the 17 years we lived in England (from 1998 to 2015), I composed and performed virtually no music at all.
And Now
In 2017 I embarked on an ambitious project to revise and re-record all of my compositions using modern technology. All of the music you can hear on this website, or on the CDs advertised here, has been newly recorded between 2019 and 2022 using the application Finale to create all the instrumentation, and the application Studio One to record all vocals and to do the final mixing. Every sound you hear has either been entered by me note-by-note (and drumbeat-by-drumbeat) into a musical score, or has been sung by myself.
Here are some photos of my modern mobile studio, set up in a guest room of our home, including the entire array of instruments and equipment used to revise, score and record all of the music and vocals:
April 2020 - the 21st Century studio
Thomas - April 2020 - in the studio
Thomas - April 2020 - mixing
Thomas - April 2020 - at the microphone
