Sometimes, when you dream of recording an album, you end up with a recorded dream. Simple Past is that kind of dream. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Robert’s musical activity has been focused more or less on improvised contemporary electric chamber music and includes groups and projects like Fragile (with Arvo Urb), Weekend Guitar Trio (with Mart Soo and Tõnis Leemets), Three Corners of The World (with David Rothenberg and Petri Kuljuntausta), Quartet for The End of Time (with Weekend Guitar Trio and Markus Reuter), UMA (with Aleksei Saks, Iris Oja and Andi Pupato), Slow Electric (with Peter Chilvers and Tim Bowness feat. Tony Levin) and This Fragile Moment (with Toyah Wilcox, Markus Reuter, Chris Wong and Arvo Urb).

After Robert Jürjendal’s first two solo albums, Source of Joy (2013) and Balm of Light (2015), Simple Past puts more attention into the wider and rockier sound, produced mainly with U8 Deluxe Touch Guitar, an arsenal of effects, and drums played by the highly acclaimed Estonian drummer Andrus Lillepea.

Simple Past is a 10-track instrumental concept album based on the notion of temporality of the human world, conveying the realization that even when we work hard and try our best, our lives will sooner or later disappear into the endless emptiness.

The music of Simple Past, composed by Robert Jürjendal, is carried by certain nostalgic, candidly intimate feelings charged with fresh energy and leading into unforeseen turns. Robert’s personal composition style smoothly connects echoes from 1970s prog and fusion with contemporary ambient sounds and techniques.

Compared to Jürjendal’s previous albums, Simple Past puts less effort into loop-oriented music. Based mostly on the relations of guitar and drums, the album provides a wide range of sounds and includes passionate exchanges between players.