Hi all,

I have to apologize. We realized that we sent out a brief update about Tales to newsletter subscribers but failed to send one here. I'm aiming to rectify that now!

If I hadn't mentioned this before, all of the stories have been edited, and most of the front/back matter is prepared. We are putting the finishing touches on that and will be handing this off our formatter, who has just returned from a conference. My understanding is that formatting should be a fairly quick process, but we'll let you know if there are any hiccups.

As soon as that's done, we'll send the files to the printer for the physical copies, and you should be receiving digital copies of the Tales anthology! So, that should be wrapping up soon!

The Soundtrack

We are currently in the thick of composition with a lot still to get through. However, you have been waiting a long time for this literary and sonic awesomeness, and we don't to keep you waiting any longer. So, our plan is to begin sending you individual tracks one at a time, spread out to allow for proper composition and mixing.

Once we have sent you all the tracks, they will actually go through a mastering process, whereby we will compile them into a complete album and balance the tracks against each other, putting them into a proper order, etc. Once that is complete, we will send you the full album (again), as the tracks will sound even more glorious.


By the way, these stories have all turned out so awesome and we're extremely excited to be sharing them with you soon!


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

Hi Tales physical copy backers,

We need your help with a decision regarding the cover. Would you rather:

Please vote in the poll below to make your voice heard. The poll closes Saturday just before midnight PST, because we need to get some info to the designer.

Thank you, and feel free to drop any comments regarding your thoughts on the above, below.

Michael & The Black Piper Team

Hi everyone!

Refractions is here!

[Edit: you can check out a few samples here: https://play.reelcrafter.com/northernsky/totbp-refractions]

Have you ever felt lost, broken, or rejected? Our latest album reaches back into the past to find old, forgotten, and "broken" songs to polish them up and make them "beautiful". The work spans over a decade of effort.

After more than a year of polishing and updating, this "small" project has grown into something massive, with efforts from more than 80 people (it may be closer to 100) world-wide, and it includes the incomparable talents of such performers as:

Judy Kang (resident cellist for Celine Dion)
Stroma FilmWorks (New Zealand orchestra comprised of performers from prestigious groups such as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra)
Olivia Foa'i (singer on Disney's Moana)
... and many others

Because this album is meant to show you our rough edges, we have included a special look-behind-the-curtain. As an additional download for Refractions backers only, we are sending you Refractions Origins, a collection of the "original" tracks from which Refractions was born - the broken tracks (as many of them as we are able to share.) Some of these are snippets; many are unmixed reference tracks sent to creative directors during the process.

For those who haven't pledged for a copy of Refractions, but would like to, we've re-opened the "pre-order" store. Simply head to the campaign page (https://talesoftheblackpiper.com), click "Pre-Order Now!", find Refractions in the list, add to cart, and place your order.

We don't have a date yet for a wider release of Refractions. We are currently targeting May 2024, but we have a few things to work out first before fully committing to a date.

We also don't yet have any details on which, if any, platforms we will release it on. We will have it available for sale (at a higher price) on our website - at which point the "pre-order store" will be closed again. but beyond that stay tuned for updates.

Refractions has been broken up into several zip files. If you have ordered Refractions, you should get an email that directs you how to access your content and how to open the multipart zip files provided. (There are 5 zip files for the Refractions WAV format and 3 zip files for Refractions Origins.)

If you cannot find the instructions or have any trouble with the downloads - let us know!


As always, let us know if you have any comments or questions or just want to share some love!

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