Postcards of Nostalgia

microtonal prepared piano + live sound installation

Musicians: Matt Choboter, Simon Mariegaard

"He understood that the task of molding the incoherent and dizzying stuff that dreams are made of is the most difficult work a man can undertake, even if he fathom all the enigmas of the higher and lower spheres - much more difficult than weaving a rope of sand or minting coins of the faceless wind." (Jorge Luis Borges: Fictions, the circular ruins, pg. 46)

"Much like LaMonte Young’s well tuned piano and what Morten Feldman refers to as scale, I’m interested in fostering liminally-suspended psychological spaces where one can explore simple motifs through spontaneous composing." (Personal journal, 2022)

Stream of consciousness postcards of sound. 

 A fair quantity of the project’s process has lacked pre-meditation. It’s been primarily action-based research where ‘results’ and reflections have taken place away from the ‘doing’. It’s involved many spontaneous recording sessions: improvised and sketch compositions for solo microtonal prepared piano; duets between piano and pre-recordings; and electronic drone improvisations. Only in the album’s mixing and production stage did a pre-meditated architecture emerge. 

Reverse abstraction as a guiding methodology

“Reverse Abstraction” is a term expressed by my grandfather and painter, Don Choboter. This concept, creative method and it’s realization through his paintings have had direct impact on my solo project, Postcards of Nostalgia.

"Taking an image that is already clearly recognizable (realistic) and then taking elements from that image and changing them or rearranging them to make a new image based upon the original (realistic) image might describe a process of visual abstraction. We do it all the time naturally, say with bad eyesight, a change in lighting or atmospheric conditions. If this describes taking something that is already complete, realized and “whole” and then changing it, or abstracting it, then reverse abstraction would be taking unrealized elements which appear to be random or chaotic and then finding the most elegant way to put them into some order or formal construct, which again we all naturally do to some degree. The experienced painter who has developed his visual acuity and technical expertise is able to do this with better results than the casual observer, and neither does he force or contrive those disparate elements but instead finds a way to make his composition seem planned, or preconceived from the very start which of course, he did not, but rather had no idea what he would end up with".  (Eric Choboter, curator of Choboter Fine Art Gallery) 

"If the painter is free of mind to make any composition he likes, then maybe it is only his state of mind that constrains him, if at all.  And it seems to me that if you are working this way it is best to be clear and relaxed for at the same time, one cannot paint while sleeping. If one could somehow tap into the way we make things while dreaming then maybe there would be less consciously deliberate decisions. Why is it that in most of the “horse and rider” paintings (by Don Choboter) the rider is not holding any reins?”

Phase #1 - recording 

An exploration into spatialization, we’ve used transducers (attached to the piano soundboard) for re-playing textural drones and pre-recordings. Some tracks reflect me improvising, in real time, with these textural drones. This creates interactive interference patterns on a single sound-board speaker. Recorded in a rather dry large room, I later re-amped the 8 channel recording into a beautiful old Jesuit church in Copenhagen. Thus, the music floats in and out of the two spaces to give multiple listening perspectives.

What are the expectations for a solo piano release?

Using a mixture of spatialization, electronics, pre-recordings and post-production, Postcards of Nostalgia questions the expectations that might issue from a solo piano release. Although situated between experimental improvisation, contemporary classical and electronic music, the project addresses sound, or timbre, from a South-east Asian perspective. In general I’m uninterested in conventional technique, including chords and harmony. I’m uninterested in virtuosity for its own sake. I’m uninterested in preconceptions and rationalizations relating to western musical theory, which includes form and dramaturgy. Much like LaMonte Young’s well tuned piano and what Morten Feldman refers to as scale, I’m interested in fostering liminally-suspended psychological spaces where one can explore simple motifs through spontaneous composing. 

Phase #2: How can spatiality be explored for audience interactiveness and embodiment? 

Live performnace from Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen WinterJazz Festival

Possible future Contexts

Postcards of nostalgia: Decolonizing the acoustic piano

Forest concert and sound installation for microtonal prepared piano, transducers and sound objects.

Empowering the forest, decentralizing the piano

Harnessing spatialization and transducers, we invite audiences to take on active roles in embodying and empowering the forest's liminal spaces. Placing transducers on surrounding trees, the forest becomes the natural speaker, or voice of the piano. Using the piano's wooden soundboard as a speaker for electronics and pre-recordings, we confront the friction-points found between technological advancement - symbolized through the piano - and its clash with declining embodied sound experiences within natural forests.