Andrew Shapiro (Guest rec from Kevin Plessner)
Today we have a guest recommendation from Kevin Plessner, a guitarist, songwriter, and producer for the project Pale Ramon, created with Emanuel Ayvas. Pale Ramon has released a self-titled EP and a full-length album, Annie, with a new record, The Yawn, arriving in 2026.
For Flow State I’m highlighting the work of musician and composer Andrew Shapiro, a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, who has performed throughout the United States and Europe. Career highlights include appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., TED, and the Wordless Music Series, with features in The New York Times, The New Yorker, ABC News, CNN, and The Independent. He now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and child.
Intimate Casual (2012) is a beautiful album with a singular sonic character. Recorded on a Suzuki upright piano, the music carries a gently ambient, almost toy-like warmth. The record feels unrushed, like staring out the window on a long European train ride, perhaps from Vienna to Budapest, on a bright afternoon where the landscapes stretch endlessly in tones of yellow, brown, and weathered gold. Andrew’s musical voice arrives in tight, minimal clusters – slight, brief, fluttering gestures. Listen to “Jean Blue”: the harmonic shift midway through is quietly revelatory, opening into something hopeful.
Numbers, Colors, and People (2009) feels shaped by the gravity of its setting – Philip Glass’s studio – captured in a single day of recording that leaves a subtle but indelible mark on the American ambient tradition. Andrew’s delicate, minimal touch, guided by his soft-pedal approach, sits naturally alongside the tonal richness of Debussy and Satie. He is deeply intentional about sonic space, almost like a mix engineer sculpting a vocal; with his collaborators, he places lyrical movement inside a soft field of white light. Listening can feel like looking into the sun—vision blurred into yellow-white openness. When I enter the Shapiro world, I travel somewhere defined by empathy, sadness, light, and gentleness.
Intimate Casual - Andrew Shapiro (41m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Numbers, Colors, and People - Andrew Shapiro (49m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Have a great Wednesday.
