CD of The Clouds are Gathered for the Final Storm with liner notes

Acclaimed pianist Ronan Apcar steps away from the piano for the first time in this electronic album of sweeping, immersive original music exploring themes of transformation, impermanence, and existentialism. Using a synthesiser and drum machine as well as incorporating field recordings and samples (whether of the Australian bush or his own singing), Ronan weaves together a rich soundscape evoking a sense of place, vastness, and etherealness across three pieces born out of improvisations.

Bondi opens the album as a response to the horrifying massacre that took place on December 14, 2025. Recreating the overwhelming roar of the ocean and claustrophobic clouds smothering Bondi, Ronan expresses his feeling of grief and overwhelm on a visit shortly after the tragedy. Released as its own EP on June 5, 2026, Break(ing)down is a three-part meditation on the two-sided coin of breakdown in nature: microorganisms breaking down detritus to complete the cycle of life versus ecosystem breakdown leading to the end of life.

The album’s titular work – taking its name from a lyric in Bill Fay’s Just To Be A Part – is an epic inspired by the slow shapeshift of clouds into storms. Air pervades everywhere, whether the wisp of an accordion, the filtered noise of a synthesiser, or samples of puffs and flaps that culminate in a bawling climax that swallows the listener whole before dissipating into nothing, just as all stormclouds end...

Released October 9th, 2026