Title from disc label. Tania Chen, piano ; Jon Leidecker, mobiles and mixer ; Thurston Moore, electric guitar ; David Toop, resonance, secondary amplification, swallowed instruments, and feedback. Tania Chen, David Toop and Thurston Moore recorded 2016 June 21 RAK Studios, London. Jon Leidecker recorded 2016 September 10 Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California. Program and biographical notes in English by Gino Robair and David Toop on container. Duration: 1 hr., 9 min., 12 sec.
Summary:
"The wide-open nature of Cage's score for Electronic Music for Piano gave us an opportunity to realize it in a contemporary way while staying true to the composer's intentions. The project began as three discrete duo recordings of the piece, each one pairing Tania Chen with a different collaborator-Jon Leidecker, Thurston Moore, and David Toop. We recorded the piano from a variety of perspectives, with microphones placed above the strings, under the soundboard, and around the room to capture the reverberant mix of the instrument and electronics. For maximum flexibility when mixing, each microphone was recorded on its own track, as were the individual electronic sources. To create the final mix for this release, we played the duos simultaneously and, using a chance-based system, selected which sound sources were heard over time. In addition to each track being treated as a separate element that could be individually turned on and off, we included options for hearing 'piano tracks only,' and, or course, 'none of the tracks.' The result is a realization of Electronic Music for Piano that has sudden (sometime drastic) transitions as well as silences lasting up to 3 minutes. You'll also hear artifacts of the performance--for example, the creak of the piano bench and the physical movement of the musicians--which addresses a statement in the score that reads 'Consideration of imperfections in the silence in which the music is played'"--Container (Gino Robair).
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