Boomkat (UK)

Long before the current tide of outstanding piano meets electronica albums (to coin a naff, inadequate turn of phrase) Kenneth Kirschner released the beautiful Post_Piano CD alongside 12k boss Taylor Deupree on Sub Rosa back in 2002. At the time the realisation of how important this kind of interplay would become was only fleeting, now in hindsight we may have missed out on embracing same album as the birth of today’s micro-scene. Kenneth relates that this time he actually had an old piano in his studio rather than relying on samples as before, the episodic original composition here “11.11.2003” is the actual unaltered piano notes mixed alongside environmental sound effects (like the sound of the passing New York subway trains outside his window), again Morton Feldman’s shadow looms large over these pieces that are based more on classical minimalism than the warmer works of Goldmund, Sakamoto et al. The three Taylor/Kenneth duet pieces recorded between September 04 and January 05 alternate between fairly sinister midrange drone scapes to pink noise cut ups and found sound processing around the spiked piano notes. The “09.15.2004” piece with it’s lingering static sounds a lot like the finer works of Phillip Jeck. Pieces, “08.09.2004” (11:10), “01.09.2005” (10:04), “09.15.2004” (12:08) and “11.11.2003” (18:48). A serious album from two seriously underrated musicians in my opinion. A refreshingly different style of piano/electronics album that’s very highly recommended.