Hi everyone,

I hope you're all well! I have a few bits of exciting news for you!

Before I jump into the CDs and Tales, I want to mention that The Black Prism | Lightbringer Album 1 has released today! If any of you feel so inclined, we'd love for you to go have a listen on your favorite platform to help the album gain visibility, and leave the album an honest review! That would be extremely appreciated!

Great news! I just received word today that the CDs have been completed by the manufacturer and are now being shipped. We should have them next week, and we will get to work signing and shipping them out to you as soon as we get them!

So, keep an eye on your mailbox!

And for more exciting news: we have finished the campaign page for Tales of The Black Piper, and we are giving it some finishing touches. While we're planning on launching publicly in March, BackerKit is allowing us to open up early access to the campaign to writers. We want to make sure that you are able to check out the campaign and secure your position, and we also want to give you time to prepare your friends, family, fans, and acquaintances for the big day.

For those who are interested and/or planning to join as a writer - please send me a message, either via email or social media (Facebook messenger via The Black Piper, Discord DM, etc.), and I'll get you access!


Happy Lightbringer Day to you all!

Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

Hi everyone!

I hope all is well with you. We have a few updates for you.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey from last time. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of...

20 tracks!

A few people marked 18 and a few marked 16. Then again, a few other people elected to use the freeform response to let us know that 40 was an acceptable number.

So, with 86.84% of you interested in 20+ tracks, it looks like that's what we're doing! (Well, the 20 part. Not sure on the "+", yet.) This means we're likely looking at delivery sometime around June.

Everything with regards to the album and liner notes has all been approved by the Weeks team. This means that physical Black Prism CDs are now being manufactured. The manufacturer (Discmakers) gave us the following info:

Estimated Arrival Date: Feb 10 - 20 (in our warehouse)

We'll keep you updated both of any changes and of when the albums arrive.

OK, so just to see everything at a glance (and because I'm visual), here is the list of where we are with everything:

The Black Prism digital copy:       ✓ delivered
The Black Prism physical copy:   arriving in the warehouse Feb 10 - Feb 20, 2023
The Black Prism wider release:   see below
Reflections digital copy:                ✓ delivered, mostly*
Refractions digital copy:              estimated June 2023
The Black Prism artwork:             estimated end of February 2023 (though we may send this out in two parts, with part 1 sooner)
Tales of The Black Piper:              campaign prep is in full swing. More info soon! 

* Refractions: we do have a bonus track we'll be sending out in the next little bit. One additional backer/patron granted us permission to include it, so keep an eye out for that.


The Black Prism wider release: We just signed a distribution deal with Symphonic as our distributor, which is something that we're excited about for a few reasons:
 

So, anyway, what does all this "wider release" stuff mean for our fans? Well, simply put, it means that The Black Prism will be showing up on Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else very soon - both for streaming and purchase. My guess is that we should start seeing it on a few platforms sometime in February. So, be ready to share with everyone you know!

We're also debating a wider Reflections/Refractions release, though we haven't had much feedback on Reflections yet, so we're still noodling on whether to roll out as well.


Well, I wanted to keep that brief, but... that's all for now.

As always, thank you for everything, and let us know of any thoughts or questions or comments you might have!

All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

Hi all!

I hope you are all doing well and that you had great holidays!

I wanted to send you a quick update, now that we're back in the swing of things over here.

We are working with Brent's team to finalize the liner notes. We just received some direction from them today on our previous version of the notes, and we should have a new version back to them for review tonight or tomorrow.

Once we get their approval on that, we'll send all the materials to the manufacturer, and from there it should be just a couple of weeks before we are sending them out to you.

This album is coming along, and we're really excited about where it's headed. There will be some energetic, fun, moving, and a few epic tracks on this album. Given the nature of the project, it's going to be a rather eclectic collection, with things like heist music, electronic, gypsy, and quirky piano jazz just to name a few.

It's a bit more intensive to prepare than Reflections was, as Reflections had a lot of the legwork already done. As we're digging into the material, we're finding that so many of the Refractions tracks need some serious updating/overhaul.

Here's our current state:
Finalized Tracks: 4 (with 1 more in the final stages)
Tracks to Arrange: 2, possibly 3 (or more, see below)
Tracks to Mix: this depends (see below)

So, the question about total tracks and how many we have left to arrange/mix is an interesting one.

When we put together our potential track list for this, we had a lot of songs. Some of that was easy to whittle down - some songs are tied up in rights, some were songs whose original files we don't have access to anymore, and some songs would only be redeemable with a lot of rework (far more than the songs that made the list.)

But even after that, we still have enough tracks to put together 2 or 3 volumes of 12 to 20 tracks each. The trick here is that so many of the tracks need so much love. So, the question about total tracks comes down to: would you rather wait longer and receive more tracks, or get a nice 12-track album sooner (possibly as soon as the end of the month)?

If I were to estimate, this is what I think the delivery timing would look like, given where we are and what we are looking at:

8-track album: next week
12-track album: January/February 2023
16-track album: March 2023
18-track album: April/May 2023 (these two additional tracks will take a little bit, as they are full-blown rework/arrangements.)
20-track album: June 2023 (same story for these two, with one of them needing some extra recording.)

Here's where you come in. We could make a decision. (Well, it's tough, because I love a lot of these tracks, and if it were up to me, I'd be happy to spend the rest of the year polishing and getting you a 40-track album....) But your opinion is important to us. Would you rather get fewer tracks sooner, more tracks later, or some kind of in-between?

Please take a moment to let us know through this one-question survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HMPQJ7S -- Thank you!

Were you all able to receive your copy of Reflections (those who ordered it)? If not, let us know! Also, we'd love to hear what you think of the album and the stories that went with each song.

We have a few active queries out to some potential veteran authors with a few promising options we are really hoping work out. (I'm itching to tell you all about it!) Waiting for final answer (and contracts) will potentially place the campaign in March, but it will be worth it if we can secure their participation. In the meantime, we are making good progress on the preparation, and we are extremely excited to get started!


Well, I think that's everything! Looking forward to any thoughts, questions, and feedback you all have about all the above, and I hope you have a lovely week!


All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well, and Happy Holidays for those who are celebrating this week.

I thought it was time for a few updates / status check-in on The Black Prism, Reflections, Refractions, and Tales of The Black Piper.

Digital Delivery
As most of you are aware, we sent out the digital album earlier this month. It was a pretty fast turnaround, but our team sure put their hearts into making it happen - and we truly hope that you're happy with the final product.

If you haven't received your copy, please let me know ASAP, and we'll get things taken care of.

If you have, we'd love to hear what you think of the music on this one! Each project is unique, and while the feedback we've received so far has been positive, we'd love to hear where we landed, what you loved, and where there is room for improvement.

Physical CDs
We've wrapped up the design for the booklets on these, and are putting together PDFs to send to Brent's team for review. Once we get the thumbs up from them, we'll send the designs, together with the album, to the manufacturer for CD duplication. If all goes well here, we will be on track to send out the physical CDs in January!

Artwork
The artwork for the wallpapers is nearly prepped. We'll send this out to you soon. We have some artwork for the bookmarks, and are working with our illustrator on the remaining pieces. We don't have a solid ETA on this one yet, but we'll make sure to keep you apprised.

While the music has been written for these two albums, there is a fair bit of work to go into the preparation side on them, including mix improvements. We're currently looking at releasing them in mid-January-ish, though I'll certainly be giving sneak peaks on our Discord from time to time as we work through the list.

Many of you have reached out to me with much anticipation for Tales, and I'm pleased to let you know that campaign prep is well underway. Our intro video is in post production right now, and the page content is being built out, timelines are being worked through, and we're taking lessons we learned from the first BackerKit and making the process as simple and smooth as possible, while making a product that will be as exciting as possible.

After discussion among the team, and considering the holiday season and schedules, we are looking at a possible January campaign - so make sure you have it marked on your calendars, and keep an eye out for the pre-sign-up!


We are looking forward to some great things in the coming months.

Happy Holidays, again, and as always, thank you for everything! Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or to share your excitement.

All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

Hi everyone,

We've gotten the approvals, and the files are prepped! Those who ordered digital music will have their music shortly - we're just putting together the final package to deliver to BackerKit. It should be out tonight!

For the physicals, those will be ordered soon - we're wrapping up the booklets, which will also need approval, and then we'll place the order for those.

Most of you have completed your surveys - thank you! Anyone who needs to add or change their physical address for CD delivery, you probably saw the email go out that we'll be locking that soon. Once that's locked, we'll also be charging cards.

After that... we'll be turning our focus to preparing Reflections and Refractions. For both of those, we will strive to provide you with tracks of beauty and excitement, energy and heart. We're also going to try to load as many tracks onto each as humanly possible, though no guarantees until we sit down with it and determine what is going to work.

As you receive your rewards, we'd love to hear what you think! Feel free to drop us a chat on social media, in Discord (<- !), in email, or even here, and let us know what tracks move you, what you think could be improved, and what you'd love to see us tackle next.

Thank you, our Thousand Stars, for Bringing us Light!

A hearty Blackguard (and/or Bridge Four) salute,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

Hi everyone,

Great news!

We have finished The Black Prism compositions and mixes. They have been delivered to the Weeks team, and we are awaiting approval. And I just have to say that the writing and mixes on these things (from a totally, purely, objective and not-at-biased perspective) are just FIRE. Charles-Henri Avelange is phenomenal, both at writing and at mixing! (He's even up for a Grammy for an album he wrote and mixed in 5.1 honoring one of his ancestors who was a painter.) And Nikhil Koparkar's Lightbringer theme is just incredible, and we totally used his theme all over the place.

Also, I need to fess up and let you know that, um, well, we're including an additional song on the album. I know, I know... we said 5 tracks, but... you know... we accidentally wrote a 6th. So, yeah, sorry about that.

With all 6 tracks, it brings the album runtime to just around 20 mins.

Right, I'm off to bed - it's been quite a month getting this all prepared. (I'm sure the rest of the team - especially Charles-Henri - is ready for a week's worth of vacation!)

We'll keep you updated on the progress of the approval process.

All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

P.s. If you want to get a peak at the mixed songs (not yet mastered), head on over to our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/7VZUwmTqjv - where we've posted some behind-the-scenes mixes in our Announcements and (non-spoiler) production channels.

Cheers!

Hi all,

As many of you have already seen and have begun submitting: BackerKit surveys have been sent out! If you haven't seen yours yet, please check your various mail folders, and if you haven't received your survey let us know as soon as possible. Especially if you are a part of the...

VIRTUAL CHOIR
Virtual choir folks should get their surveys completed ASAP, because there is information in there regarding submissions, which will need to be completed and returned by next Wed, Oct 26. (I wish we had longer, but due to running a second campaign, we are much closer to the release deadline.)

So, if you're a member of the Virtual choir and have any trouble either with the survey or accessing or submitting materials, please let us know right away!


If you have any other questions, send us a message! And thank you to all those who have filled out their surveys with encouraging words! You all mean so much to us and really fuel what we are doing!

All the best,
Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper

Hi all,

Soon (within the next few days), you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://the-black-prism-book-score.backerkit.com.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://the-black-prism-book-score.backerkit.com/faq.

Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper