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Home » Electroacoustic/Contemporary » GANN, KYLE: Nude Rolling down an Escalator

GANN, KYLE: Nude Rolling down an Escalator
Gann, composer and author of 'The Music of Conlon Nancarrow' here uses MIDI and the Disklavier to work through his own original and highly imaginative approach to the mechanical piano, in these pieces tackling not only rhythmic and polyphonic possibilities - like Nancarrow himself - but also mictrotonality and alternative tunings. Though all the pieces are fiendishly and impossibly complex, they are also easy to listen to - by turn, breathtaking, witty and intelligent. They mostly draw on Jazz, Blues, Folk and popular music forms, though in vastly alien configurations, and each works around a strong central idea. For instance: 'Petty Larceny' is all made from fragments of Beethoven piano sonatas, 'Bud Ran Back Out' references Bud Powell, but in multiple times and at impossible speeds over a walking Bass, 'Despotic Waltz' puts regular Nancarrow in the Left hand and rubato Chopin in the right, 'Folk Dance for Henry Cowell' uses Cowelesque subdivisions of beats in a simple Folk setting while 'Unquiet Night' uses seven bebop chords and seven tempo layers to stake out a mysterious soundscape. The title track is Gann's Ave and Vale to the futurists.10 very different pieces explore 10 very different ideas. Excellent. Sleeve notes. A jewel.L

Code: 80633
Price: £14.50