On previous recordings where he has collaborated with various people, Mr. Mortensen has shown that he has an understanding of how sound can be utilized to create emotional soundscapes. On Time Waits For Everyone he uses the same principles that he's employed on those earlier recordings but has narrowed the focus down to just what can be created with solo piano.

This is not the type of music that you can just put on in the background and expect to get anything out of it. Yet while each of the 18 pieces requires the listener's attention, the rewards of doing so make the investment worthwhile. Mr. Mortensen has taken great pains to make each of them unique so there's not a moment anywhere on the disc where you feel like something has just been tossed off or is filler.

The majority of the pieces are tied to either a geographical location or a physical object and the emotional response that these places or things have generated in Mr. Mortensen. Tracks 16 and 17, "munchen morning poem" and "treblinka poem," are good examples of how individual pieces are distinct from each other. They also clearly show how different sounds and tonal qualities are capable of eliciting different emotional reactions on the part of the listener.

"munchen morning poem" is series of notes, tones, chords, and silences taken from an octave in the higher range of the keys. The bright, sometimes sharp, sounds made me think of the clean brightness of an early morning where the light is so clear that everything appears to have sharp edges. Yet, I've always felt rather uncomfortable listening to those same notes, finding their pitch rather jarring and disconcerting. They are almost too clean, too strong, and because of that leave me with a sense of disquiet. It's sort of like the descriptions you read of somebody or something that is so beautiful that looking at it hurts your eyes; in the end you're left with the impression that it is something you don't really want to have anything to do with.

Of course I'm quite prepared to admit that when it comes to this piece I could be influenced by my own feelings about the city in question. Munich, Germany has always, unfairly or not, brought Nazi Germany to mind for me; that can't but colour how I react to anything representing it on an emotional level. Yet, the choice Mr. Mortensen made by utilizing the upper end of the scale, was to use sounds that were cutting and sharp - ones that didn't offer any of the softness that would come with a peaceful or calm early morning.