Pianolab Festival: Inner Time Spaces – Reprise

Anatolian/Armenian roots and music by Paul Motian, Komitas Vardapet, Tigran Mansurian, Anastassis Philippakopoulos

Vahé Hovanesian (ARM) · duduk, Tom Arthurs (GB/D) · trumpet, Christian Thomé (D) · drums, Isambard Khroustaliov (GB) · electronics, Stevko Busch (D/NL) · piano, Keiko Shichijo (JP/NL) · solo piano, Dante Boon (NL) · solo piano

“Stevko Busch brings together music from East and West perfectly.”York Schaffer in Weser Kurier 15.2.2015 (read more…)

Courtesy of Henning Bolte

The current program of Gallery of Tones has as its starting point and orientation the unique playing style and sound world of the American percussionist and jazz legend Paul Motian who was in contact with music from this region through his Armenian parents. Motian, a phenomenal listener with a deep musical memory, created open spaces with his playing in a special way in which deeper layers of the musical memory were addressed and unlocked. As a result, Western, African-American and Eastern sources came together in a unique way.

Komitas

The composer Komitas Vardapet – already 30 years before Béla Bartòk in Hungary – collected the traditional music of Armenia and put it to paper in compositions for piano, orchestra or choir. In her performance of Komitas´s ‘Six Dances for Piano’, the Japanese pianist Keiko Shichijo revives the traditional playing techniques that the composer incorporated into this piece. In the work of contemporary composer Tigran Mansurian, these techniques reappear in a contemporary guise.

“Under her hands, the instrument produced a purity of sound, truly breathtaking. Her entire appearance exudes purity, and so does her intensity while playing” (audience reaction about Keiko Shichijo)

In some of the concerts Dante Boon will also play Komitas´s ‘Six Dances for Piano’, and an interpretation of ‘5 piano pieces 2005-2011’ by Anastassis Philippakopoulos (born 1969).

The pianist Stevko Busch brings together Eastern and Western modes of playing in his group of improvisers. From the point of departure and orientation, the musicians involved explore intersections of Eastern-Western sounds. They interpret and improvise with Eastern and Western coloring, phrasing and timing. Through the possibilities of liquefying, repeating, distorting and moving in space, the live electronics of Isambard Khroustaliov play a central role. The Dutch-Armenian Vahé Hovanesian represents the Eastern side of wind instruments with the Armenian oboe, the dovetail with its penetratingly beautiful sound, and the emerging British trumpeter from Berlin, Tom Arthurs, the Western side. Last but not least, there is the well-known German percussionist Christian Thomé, who, like the electronicist, plays a central role in connecting and lighting disparate sound worlds.