Saturday 20 December 2014, 8pm
A showcase from cult German label Denovali Records featuring three artists with a variety of approaches to the piano.
Poppy Ackroyd is a performer and composer from London who is currently based in Edinburgh. Classically trained on violin and piano, she fell in love with contemporary piano music and with the piano beyond the keys, discovering the world of sound that could be made from other parts of the instrument. Realising the violin had the same potential, she has spent the last few years composing delicate, intricate and beautifully atmospheric music by manipulating and multi-tracking sounds from these two instruments.
Her songs stay true to this idea. Every sound, with the exception of a few field recordings, is created using only either the piano or the violin. The songs are a combination of piano melodies and chords - played both conventionally or created inside the piano using fingers, e-bows and plectrums - violin textures, melodies and pizzicato riffs and finally delicate beats composed of hits, plucks, taps and scrapes made using hands, drumsticks, beaters and small cymbals on either the frame, strings or dampers of the piano. There are often five or more different percussive lines working alongside each other.
Piano Interrupted is the brainchild of London-based pianist and composer Tom Hodge and French electronic producer Franz Kirmann. Coming from two very different musical worlds (electronica, pop and techno for Franz; classical and minimalism for Tom), the two musicians had been friends for a long time before deciding to make music together.
Their working process involves digital manipulation of musical phrases originally played by Tom on the piano but that has now extended to other instruments or any sounds that the pair find interesting to sample and process sonically. The resulting music is a blend of post-classical and ambient, where organic electronic beats pulse over intricate sonic textures and unusual time signatures, where contemplative moments contrast with elaborative and complex melodies.
Carlos Cipa discovered his passion for music very early in his life. At the age of six he began taking classical piano lessons with various renowned teachers. Ten years later after he started playing drums he became more and more interested in composition and improvisation. In the following years he made lots of experiences in many music styles like jazz, punk, indie rock and orchestral music.
Influenced by Eric Satie and Claude Debussy his piano music impresses particularly because of its intensity and great attention to detail. It's not only enhanced by his classical background and symphonic film music works, but also by the experiences he made as drummer in different bands. Besides the piano he is interested in all different kinds of instruments, as experimenting takes an important role in his work. Carlos currently studies composition at the academy of music in Munich.
