A baffling prepared piano vignette by way of Cramps' Nova Musica series, pounded out by an otherwise unheard of maestro by the name of Miguel Angel Coria. Not quite sure how Coria has rigged his piano, but it almost sounds as though a rake head was laid inside. Alternately sparse and frantic, Coria varies between dizzying sweeps and runs, stumpy chords, and a repetitious hand-and-peck typist approach. Progressively, the vibes grow weirder, as what are either tape treatment or ghost tones emerge and Coria's playing becomes less and less frequent. Comes as a whole or in easily rearranged pieces.
En Rouge et Noir
your review makes it impossible for me to resist this! i'm a freak when it comes to prepared piano, from classic cage to ferrante & teicher pop up to contemporary pianists.
ReplyDeletei'm a regular visitor here, but finally drop a comment here.
salut
Happy to have piqued your interests, Lucky. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the record. There are times when his hands are so actively doing disparate things that I'd swear it's a pair of overlapping takes. Straight forward piano is definitely not my thing, but twist it ever so slightly and I'm all ears.
ReplyDeletefirst, i expected a scratched vinyl-rip, full of pops and clicks, given the age of this thing. but this sure is a cd-reissue, which makes the sound debate rather irrelevant - it's superb.
ReplyDeletethe preparations are more sparse than what i know of cage's instructions to his music. but coria here makes uses the sound of his prepared piano to full effect, he even used a slight electronic effect on track 8 (materiali g), if my ears serve me right - which wasn't really necessary, i think - it doesn't add much. the special muting sounds like it is attached on the piano muting - it varies, but i may be wrong.
the tempo is mostly slow with lots of pauses, perfect to hear all the little details of tones. i really enjoy listening to this, and i'm in with you that i don't go for most of the straight piano oeuvre, but am getting excited on every altered piano piece i am able to hear.
thanks for the share!! (completely forgot to mention it above, lucky snob am i...)