There's not enough music like this
4
By dmstith
I remember my first taste of prepared piano: my mom played piano for our church choir and could be found many hours of the week sitting straight backed at the piano in our living room. Before I was too old to fit, I would lay down in the space between the wall and the open back of the upright piano where the floor was warm from a heating vent hidden back there. Often I would find back there quarters or hiarpins that had fallen off the back of the piano, and watching the hammers hit the strings, I'd find ways to play along with my mom. I think my tinkering was too minimal to be noticed: to this day I don't know if she knew!
I suppose it's with that memory that I approach prepared piano: I look for a playfulness and some sort of respect for the big warm untameable animal the piano can be. On tracks like 'Ginko Tree,' 'La Seine,' 'Kein Wort' and 'Morning' i think he's got it: the piano is a fragile thing again, it's pangs not so certain, and something in the crooning of wood and wire deepens the piano's capacity to emote. On other tracks, 'Firn,' 'Traffic,' 'Kreuzung,' and 'Two Stones' he uses recording techniques to isolate lines and layer for synchopation: it's on these tracks that I lose him. The pieces become little more than live techno -- simple rhythmic ideas taken a little too far. Still, I think the best use of prepared piano in the last ten years was on Aphex Twin's 'Drukqs' -- check out tracks like the opener 'Jynweythek,'Ruglen Holon,' and closer 'Nanou 2' for some stunningly sensitive treatments.
There's enough inventive sensitivity in this album that I'm sure to keep listening for a long time. There's not enough music out there like this -- 4 stars for bravery!
