Powell // Piano Music 1-7 LP

This is the latest work released by Editions Mego in December 2021 by Powell, a techno writer from London, England, who has announced in the past from Diagonal and XL.

It is an ambient work with the piano as the main source, which is different from the previous works. DL code included.

Below is a description of the label.

Editions Mego is proud to release Powell's strange and bizarre computer work LP, Piano Music 1-7.

With the opening of his Diagonal Records, XL Recordings, and more recently the audio / film platform A Folder [afolder.studio], Powell has established a solid foothold in the modern electronics world.In his light and stubborn musical life, he has explored and expanded the territory of post-punk, techno, noise and computer music, creating a myriad of synthetic forms.Last year alone, he released four high-definition abstract albums, inspired by the formalization of music proposed by Iannis Xenakis.

As an extension of this intense work / research / play using stochastic functions (composing with probabilities), various processes were born and Powell began to apply them to more traditional musical events.Usually in his work, probabilities and relationships are used to define parameters such as waveforms, wraps, FM, filter modes, but now he can now play music formations and visions using any software / MIDI instrument. I started using them to make a target score [one of them is on the back cover of the LP].While mapping this relationship, he used the basic Grand Steinway sampler as a placeholder instrument, but as the process prolonged, he embraced the acoustics of synthetic pianos and made it into this new piece. It came to be the foundation of.

Piano Music 1-7, under the subtitle "Music for Synthetic Piano and Assorted Electronics," combines seven different synthetic islands into one composition.All were composed using the process described above, which allowed Powell to play the piano, even if he did not learn to play the piano by hand.After all, "in writing electronic music, you have to direct the invention of new tools," Robyn McKay once wrote.

At one point, the piano happily flies over a shadow-like synthetic sound, and at another point, a group of synthetic sound sheets wraps around the keyboard.The interaction of the two creates a fantastic different world, a cosmic machine that erodes, shrinks, and expands time, like wax with manipulations and relationships.In many works, a bunch of piano sounds are danced and inserted with electronic gestures that are never repeated, expressing playfulness and optimism that is close to vitalism.The atmosphere is like a flower bed with colorful flowers in full bloom.This acoustic-electronic interaction builds on a pioneering process developed by David Bearman in works such as Leapday Night, and Piano Music 2-1 is for Konron Nancallow's player piano. You can think of the survey as a modern arrangement.Similarly, the sharp sound characteristics and the development of non-human events are reminiscent of Xenakis' computer work and the surgical accuracy of Mego's protagonist Florian Hecker.

Recorded in late 2020, Powell's new album not only offers a bold and bright vision of electronic music, but also serves as a navigational map for at least 35 minutes to get out of the current environment.As the artist himself states in the sleeve note, "... .. This fog and soup is a positive and life-threatening idea and process that I always convey in my music. It was a feeling I wanted to do. Perhaps the optimism and positivity I felt in the development of this musical event, these clusters and knots rolling in different directions over time also felt to you. I hope you can. " "

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Text by Editions Mego:

"Editions Mego is proud to welcome Powell to its roster with a bizarre and strangely emotional new LP of synthetic computer works entitled Piano Music 1-7.

Via his own Diagonal Records imprint, his work on XL Recordings and, most recently, the opening of audio / film platform A Folder [afolder.studio], Powell has firm footing in the contemporary electronic landscape. During a wry and obstinate musical life he has twisted myriad synthetic forms into shapes that explore and expand upon the districts of post-punk, techno, noise + computer music, and in the last year alone he has released four albums of hi-def abstractions, each inspired by a formalisation of music proposed by Iannis Xenakis. 

As an extension of this intense period of work / research / play with stochastic functions [using probabilities to compose music], various processes emerged that Powell then began to apply to more traditional musical events. Where ordinarily in his work the probabilities and relationships are used to define parameters such as wave-shape, folding, FM, filter modes etc., he now began to use them to create musical formations and visual scores that could be played back using any software / MIDI instrument [one of these can be seen on the rear cover of the LP release]. While mapping out this cartography of relations, he used a basic Grand Steinway sampler as a placeholder instrument; the longer the process went on, though, the more he began to embrace the acoustic properties of the synthetic piano and make it the bedrock for this new constellation of work. 

Piano Music 1-7, subtitled'Music for Synthetic Piano and Assorted Electronics', consists of seven different synthetic islands strung together into a single composition. After all,'In writing electronic music,' Robin Mackay once wrote,' you also have to direct the invention of new tools.'

At times the piano skips gleefully over shadowing synthesis, whilst at others the synthetic sheets swarm and envelope the keys. The interplay between the two create a fantastical alternate reality, a cosmic machine in which time is eroded, shrunk and expanded, like a wax upon The feel is of a brightly colored flower-bed. Many of the pieces express a playfulness or optimism verging on vitalism, as bundles of piano notes dance and interpolate with a never-repeating range of electronic gestures. this interplay of the [artifical] acoustic and the electronic builds on the pioneering processes developed by David Behrman in works such as Leapday Night, and Piano Music 1-7 could also be posited as a modern take on Conlon Nancarrow's investigations for player piano. Similarly, the razor-sharp sonic properties and unfolding of non-human events recall the computer works of Xenakis and the surgical precision of Me. go mainstay Florian Hecker.

Recorded in late 2020, these new Powell works propose not just a bold and bright vision of electronic music but serve also as a map with which, for 35 minutes at least, we can navigate our way out of the current milieu. As the artist himself. remarks in the sleeve-notes,'. .. What emerged from this fog or soup [for me] were ideas and processes that felt affirmative and life giving — sensations I had always hoped to convey in my music. Perhaps the optimism or positivity I felt at these musical events unfolding, these clusters and knots tumbling in different directions across time, can also be felt by you.' "

Artist: Powell

Label: Editions Mego