Harold O'Neal - The Adventures of Mr. Grey (2022)

Pianist, composer, and storyteller Harold O'Neal debuts a new and exciting project. The Adventures of Mr. Grey is a music and NFT collaboration with renowned illustrator and cartoonist, Thomas Deisboeck. Release date: April 15th. Label: Piano Cinema Music.

Deisboeck’s eight illustrations have a 1920s art noir feel, which O’Neal first encountered in the music studio while the tape was rolling. “I didn't know what to expect," he says. “I wanted to experience the full potential of each illustration. And stay true to Thomas’s vision.”

“Each illustration stimulated my imagination by prompting questions,” he explains. “‘Where has Mr. Grey come from?’ ‘What’s in the bag?’ ‘Is he choosing to ignore the dog, or has he not yet realized what the animal is up to?’ I visualized the answers as I was playing, adding musical dimensions through rhythm and tone.”

The Adventures of Mr. Grey is a witty and thematically substantial work. It explores everything from conformity and choice to equality and individualism in an increasingly technological age. “The brilliance of Thomas’s illustrations is that they not only speak to his character’s inner world, they speak to our shared everyday reality as well,” says O’Neal. “There are metaphors and meanings, all waiting to be unpacked.”

O’Neal was delighted to collaborate once again across artistic genres. He believes passionately that for artists, NFTs represent more than just the next digital gold rush. The ability to preserve the integrity of an artist’s work across platforms heralds the arrival of a new era in fine art, one that is at once a renaissance and a revolution.