A Time and a Place - Music of Rob Power (2025)
Album available soon!
1. A Time and a Place (for Kellie Walsh and Lady Cove Choir) [8:22]
2. Ballyhack (for John Wyre) [7:56]
3. Mahone Bay (for Erin Donovan) [8:04]
4. Red (for Kjellrun Hestekin) [8:16]
5. Fearless (for Paul Bendzsa) [6:46]
Produced by John D.S. Adams and Rob Power
Recorded May 2025 at the MUN School of Music, Memorial University
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by John D.S. Adams at stonehousesound.com
Artwork, layout, and design by Andrew Mercer
Distributed by Wharf Records
All compositions by Rob Power (SOCAN)
“A Time and a Place” words by Rob Power
Scores available at The Canadian Music Centre
This project is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, ArtsNL, MusicNL, and Memorial University.
All of the tracks on this album were recorded using Dolby Atmos immersive sound technology. For the best results, use headphones and stream the music from Apple Music, Tidal, or Amazon Music.
Each of these pieces are dedicated to people who have inspired my creative growth, both musically and personally. Some are no longer with us, but live permanently within all that they have touched. Thank you Kellie Walsh, Lady Cove Choir, Erin Donovan, Bill Brennan, Don Wherry, John Wyre, Kjellrun Hestekin, and Paul Bendzsa.
Thank you to my dedicated friends in percussion. Your artistry is the heart and soul of this recording, and my biggest inspiration!
~ Rob Power
Liner Notes
A Time and a Place (for Kellie Walsh and Lady Cove Choir)
The words and music for A Time and a Place are based on my own experience with Time-Space Synesthesia, a type of synesthesia where individuals perceive time units, like years, months or days, as having spatial representations, such as shapes, in the mind’s eye. Composed in 2025, the work is dedicated to Kellie Walsh and Lady Cove Choir, who are renowned for transforming Canadian choral traditions over more than two decades. The percussion and choir weave together with a rich blend of sound, including marimbas, vibraphone, drums, tuned gongs and more.
Lady Cove Choir - Kellie Walsh, director
Bill Brennan - marimba, bombo, bass drum, wind gong, almglocken
Étienne Gendron - vibraphone
Amy Parsons - tamtam, tuned gongs, cymbal
Rob Power - marimba, glass marimba, cymbal, wind chimes, crotales, tuned gong
Phil Yetman - shaker
no colors, just shapes
in the mind's eye
decades fade
weeks roll down
days in a loop, round and round
and years rising up and up
but where are we
in the mind's eye?
can you see?
the future must be there
if I can see it
can you see it?
are you here?
we don't know
we can't see
is this your time?
time wraps around us
flowing and waiting
hiding and revealed
we are here
here a place in time
here a timeless light
bright colors
warm colors
time guides us
yet somehow
your light
shines more
glows more
means more
than time
Ballyhack (for John Wyre)
Ballyhack was premiered by the Scruncheons Percussion Ensemble in 2023, and was revised in 2025 for this recording. It is dedicated to the late John Wyre, a renowned percussionist and composer who was a member of the Canadian percussion quintet Nexus for over 50 years, before retiring in St. John’s in 2002. Scored for seven percussionists, the music guides the listener through both rhythm-based and melodic passages, always in motion.
Bill Brennan - marimba, shaker
Erin Donovan - vibraphone, tamtam, tuned gong
Étienne Gendron - bongos, temple blocks, cymbal, tuned gong
Jenna Grant - vibraphone, tom toms
Mason Power - bass marimba, bass drum
Rob Power - marimba, cymbals
Phil Yetman - congas, cowbells, cymbal, glockenspiel
Mahone Bay (for Erin Donovan)
My first piece for solo vibraphone, Mahone Bay, was written in 2025 and is dedicated to Erin Donovan, a distinguished Nova Scotia based percussionist, inspirational musician, and director of Hear Here Productions. The vibraphone is accompanied by other resonant sounds, such as temple bowls, tuned gongs, cymbals, and a crotale. The title refers to the stunningly picturesque town of Mahone Bay, on Nova Scotia’s south shore. The music explores several melodic variations, culminating in a chorale-like ending.
Erin Donovan (solo) - vibraphone, tuned gongs, temple bowls, cymbals, crotale
Red (for Kjellrun Hestekin)
The original version of Red was premiered by the Saltwater Percussion Trio in 2015, and the work was then revised in 2025 for this recording. It is dedicated to Kjellrun Hestekin, a prominent figure in Newfoundland and Labrador’s music community and Memorial University’s School of Music for nearly three decades, until her passing in 2015. Written as a theme and variations, the piece integrates conventional tuned percussion instruments like marimbas and vibraphone with less common textures, including the waterphone, temple bowls, and almglocken (tuned cowbells).
Bill Brennan - marimba, wind gong, tuned gongs, almglocken
Erin Donovan - vibraphone, tuned gongs, temple bowls, almglocken
Rob Power - marimba, cymbal, tuned gong, waterphone, almglocken
Fearless (for Paul Bendzsa)
Fearless is a solo work that explores multiple unpitched percussion instruments in a structured improvisation, utilizing overdubs to create a unique world of sound and color. It is dedicated to the late clarinetist Paul Bendzsa, with whom I collaborated extensively in the duo Spanner for seventeen years. The title refers to Bendzsa’s boundless and adventurous approach to music and life, and is a tribute to his passion for exploration and experimentation.
Rob Power (solo) - bells, bowls, artillery shells, tuned pipes, almglocken, cymbals, gongs, bass drum, tom-tom, tambourine, log drums, rattles, wind chimes
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