Read & Listen

BEAK> - BEAK>
[Invada, 2009]

Sensation of (help me here) year/season/whatever… BEAK> (mentioned in August) is a trio with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow as the centerpiece, with Billy Fuller who’s been performing with Massive Attack, and Matt Williams (Team Brick). Looks like for Barrow it’s a step away or vacation from Portishead approach. The music for BEAK> was recorded within 12 days in one room, almost without any post-production. (While with Beth Gibbons, Barrow massively processes and works on each and every sound.)

The BEAK> album is a tenacious, sticky improvisation flow. Intuitive composition is very emotional, but to feel through the whole palette, you need to get caught up in it from the start, and then, with each new listen, in different moods, you’ll be opened to new sides of it all. That’s why my main advice would be not to make my mistake and try to listen for the first time in a work environment. All you’ll hear would be slowing and speeding rhythms and occasional voices like from a horror movie. While the album as a whole can be compared to reading Sartre or Kierkegaard. With due revelations.

Read & Listen:
BEAK> website
Beak on Myspace
Beak - I Know mp3 download
Listen to/download Battery Point

Hauschka - Small Pieces [3'']
[Secret Furry Hole Recordings, 2009]

Volker Berterlmann (a.k.a. Hauschka), a pianist and composer from Dusseldorf, is the most talented composers of today. His every work, be that LP or EP, makes my universe a bit more balanced and good. This 5-track, 3” will refine your life for fifteen minutes of its length. Released on a small Italian label Secret Furry Hole Recordings, the mini-masterpiece Small Pieces is a practically non-prepared piano sketches. The number of copies is limited to 300. Very much like photos or postcards sent from a journey - without any general sightseeing wonders, but instead with a deep insight into small episodes of local life.

This music is perfect for “catching a moment” and seeing beauty in everyday experiences. Piano music often comes as sentimental (like Yann Tiersen, for example). Hauschka leaves melodramatic aside - his piano works are subtle, magical, romantic, but without sentiment. Crystal clear and open, like photographs, without impressionist fleur. The main theme of this EP is sadness, as the name of the first track, “Sehnsucht”, “longing.”

Read & Listen:
Hauschka website
Secret Furry Hole Recordings

Hauschka - Sehnsucht mp3