Moves in the Field

ヤマハの自動演奏ピアノ「ディスクラビア」との壮絶なる超人的デュエット!
ニューヨークの作曲家兼プロデューサー KELLY MORANによるニュー・アルバムが発売!

ピアノの古典的な流儀に、現代的・実験的なアプローチで挑み、現代音楽の旗手として不動の地位を築いてきたKelly Moran。2018年にはOneohtrix Point Neverのツアー・アンサンブルに参加し、FKA Twigsのライブでも活躍。クラシックの領域ではMargaret Leng Tanの作曲を手掛ける一方、Kelsey LuやYves Tumorといったアーティストとも共演してきた。そんな彼女が、最新作『Moves in the Field』を3月29日に〈Warp Records〉よりリリース!本作は、ヤマハの自動演奏ピアノ「ディスクラビア」を実験的に使用し、ピアノ演奏における人間離れした不可能な領域を探求したデュエット作10曲を収録。Moranがリアルタイムで演奏する傍ら、ディスクラヴィアは、超高速アルペジオや、10本以上の指を必要とする和音など、ピアノの物理的限界を超えたモチーフを伴奏する。ミキシングとレコーディングは、Philip Glassのサウンド・エンジニアとして知られるDan Bora、マスタリングはTel AvivのJoshua Eustis。人間性VS機械性、技術性VS音楽性という2つの世界を優雅に行き来する、私的かつ豪快な作品がここに誕生!

Kelly Morans first few albums consisted largely of prepared piano and abstract electronics, resulting in a type of ambient-adjacent music that was often glimmering and beautiful but felt inherently experimental due to the uncommon, sometimes a-musical sounds it used. Her 2024 album Moves in the Field presents as less avant-garde at first, as the ten pieces here consist primarily of acoustic piano unaugmented by noisy treatments or extraneous weirdness. The experimental angle for Moves in the Field comes in the composition and execution of these pieces, which Moran wrote in part using a programmable piano instrument called a Disklavier. Throughout the album, she plays on top of sequences she wrote for the Disklavier, often utilizing the instruments ability to play faster, more complicated, and more intricate piano parts than human hands are physically capable of. Moran introduces this concept tastefully, beginning the album with the free-floating beauty of "Butterfly Phase." The song is delicate and cautious, with thoughtful melodies floating on a bed of fluttering notes that bounce between registers and always land with laser-focused precision. The Disklaviers powers are more apparent on the aptly titled "Superhuman," where computerized arpeggios whirr by, sometimes getting so fast they register as glitches. Moran never pushes this sound so far that it feels gimmicky, however, instead keeping composition and emotional expression at the core of each song. The Satie-esque "Sodalis (II)" is patient and aching, while the reverb spirals that engulf "Its Okay to Disappear" cloak any potential showiness of the performance with a warm melancholy. Moves in the Field is more Philip Glass than John Cage (in fact, Glass longtime engineer Dan Bora recorded and mixed the album), with Morans thoughtful writing and restrained use of what could have been show-stopping technology creating an insulated world of understated, wintery elegance. ~ Fred Thomas