Journey Home by Marc Filmer

January 1st, 2026 |  Listen Now

A 12-track solo piano suite.

Following the themes of struggle in Dark Stain and stability in Being Anchored, Journey Home completes the trilogy by chronicling the physical and emotional return to one’s roots. Inspired by the winter streets of the composer's UK birthplace, this album explores the "invisible thread" that pulls us from the vast expanse of the world back to the warm, amber glow of childhood windows. It is a musical diary of nostalgia, the heaviness of time, and the ghostly feeling of walking familiar streets as a changed person, seeking the warmth of the hearth amidst the cold.

Official Track Descriptions:

1. The Weight of Time

The journey begins on the pavement of a familiar street. This track captures the heaviness of years accumulated on unchanged bricks and mortar. The restless, searching melody embodies the complex, ghostly feeling of standing outside one's past, realizing that while the buildings remain, the time that inhabited them has moved on.

2. Nothing Lasts

A meditation on the fleeting nature of the scene—the snow that will melt and the lights that will eventually go out. Opening with a fragile, music-box melody, the piece touches on the beautiful shell of memory. It is the sound of holding onto a cherished moment of scarcity—a snowy evening at home—knowing that even the most comforting places are subject to the decay of time.

3. Will

The instinctual pull to return. This piece dramatizes the will to run from the encroaching stormy sky of the future back into the arms of the past. A warm, nostalgic theme (the safety of the indoors) fights against a somber, complex refrain (the winter night), capturing the desperate, human need to find shelter before the light fades.

4. Life Story

Crossing the threshold. This track is a musical memoir triggered by returning to the place where it all began. A gentle, introspective melody builds into a powerful, sweeping climax, representing the flood of big life events that rushes back when walking through the door of a childhood home—seeing the whole narrative arc of a life contained within four walls.

5. Unlived Life

Looking through the window at a parallel timeline. A light, searching melody explores the ghost of the boy who never left. It is a poignant look at the missed opportunities and the unwritten book of a life that could have happened here, eventually blossoming into a soaring realization that the path chosen was the one that was meant to be.

6. Missing Out

The shadow of the ship that sailed. This piece confronts the reality that by leaving home to seek the world, one inevitably misses out on the daily life of those left behind. A delicate theme of innocence swells into a grand, hopeful fantasy of the "Yes" man who stayed, before fading back to the quiet resignation of the snowy street—the acceptance of the trade-offs made for a life abroad.

7. The Heart

The Hearth. This is the emotional center of the album—the invisible thread revealed. A restless opening theme (the anxiety of travel) finds its resolution in a warm, stable, hymn-like melody. It is the sound of the purest sentiment: the intuitive, magnetic pull that guides the traveler across oceans back to this specific, glowing window.

8. Expanse

The contrast of the journey. This floating, dreamlike piece abandons strict rhythm to capture the awe of the flight home—the mythical landscape of clouds and the vast Atlantic separating the adoptive home from the birthplace. It is the breathtaking, mid-journey perspective that makes the intimacy of the final arrival feel so profound.

9. Intuitive Truth

The confidence of belonging. The restless search of the traveler gives way to a simple, grounded theme—the knowing that you are home. The heart-voice takes over, confident and guiding, representing the moment the key turns in the lock and the golden line of intuition is proven right.

10. True Beauty

Finding the sacred in the ordinary. This track is the musical embodiment of the realization: "After the awakening comes the laundry." The ancient-sounding quest resolves into a grand, soaring climax, celebrating not a mythical palace, but the honest, true beauty of a terraced house in the snow. It is the sound of seeing the mundane with a fresh, "beginner's mind."

11. Lonely Choice

The observer on the street. This intricate, puzzle-like piece captures the solitude of the artist who stands apart. It reflects the lonely choice to leave, and the complex anxiety of returning. The unresolved harmonies mirror the feeling of being neither fully here nor fully there—a ghost in the machine of one's own hometown.

12. Stuck Inside

The sanctuary. The full circle resolution re-frames the concept of cabin fever into one of cozy safety. The vulnerable opening leads not to panic, but to the warmth of being stuck inside while the snow falls. It is the sound of the daylight blind obscuring the outside world, where the rabbit hole of subjective time becomes a safe haven, protecting the traveler from the cold Expanse outside.