Lubomyr Melnyk — Fallen Trees (7 Dec 2018)

                       Lubomyr Melnyk — Fallen Trees (7 Dec 2018)✹    Lubomyr Melnyk je nejrychlejší klavírista na světě, s ohromujícím stylem performancí, který nazývá „nepřetržitou hudbou“ — a proč trvalo 40 let, než vůbec byla jeho hudba ke slyšení?
✹    Melnyk nyní sdílí etiketu s velmi milovaným Nilsem Frahmem (b. 20 Sept. 1982, Hamburg, Germany) a Ólafur Arnaldsem (b. 3 November 1986, Mosfellsbær, Iceland), jehož projekt Kiasmos přetváří představu moderního piana. Melnykova ztracená, ale podivně futuristická hudba nakonec přinesla generaci otevřených hudebníků, ale touto hudební cestou je daleko dokončena. „Každý den pociťuji jako těžší, těžší a těžší pochopit, že jsem jediný klavírista na světě, který to dokáže,“ říká. „Je to strašná věc ... Nyní to jen hřebíme na hlavu, nebylo to náhle zasaženo bleskem a mohl jsem hrát souvislou hudbu. Lidé se bojí mé techniky, ale neměli by se bát. Nikdo mi neposkytl rozprášený prach a neposkvrnilo mě to. A tak mohu hrát „Windmills“. Nebylo to tak náhlé, bylo to spíš jako semeno, které rostlo ... byla to květina, postupně se otevírající a vy to můžete zažít též. Lidé prostě potřebují tuto zkušenost.“
✹    Melnyk je zjevně překvapen, že je to mladší generace, především z elektronického hudebního zázemí, kteří jsou nyní přítomni na koncertech. Rozhovor pořádáme v Red Bull Music Academy obklopeném modulárními syntezátory a řídícími systémy, které moderní establishment, včetně institucí podporují.
Born: 20 December 1948
Location: Munich, Germany
Genre: Classical, Modern Classical, Modern Composition, Piano.
Album release: 7 Dec 2018
Record Label: Erased Tapes
Duration:     22:56+21:23 => 44:19
Tracks:
1 Requiem for a Fallen Tree   7:18 
2 Son of Parasol   7:37 
3 Barcarolle   8:01 
Fallen Trees   21:23 
4 Pt. I. Preamble   4:22 
5 Pt. II. Existence   3:23 
6 Pt. III. Apparition   6:30 
7 Pt. IV. They Are Down   3:45 
8 Pt. V. Not Forgotten   3:23
℗ 2018 Erased Tapes Records Ltd. 
Personnel:
✹    Anne Müller — cello
✹    David Allred — singer
Description:
✹    ‘Continuous music’ pioneer and literal force of nature Lubomyr Melnyk releases his new album Fallen Trees on December 7th and shares a new piece, Son of Parasol. Known as ‘the prophet of the piano’ due to his lifelong devotion to his instrument, the release coincides with Melnyk's 70th birthday.
✹    Cascades of notes, canyons and rivers of sound: there’s something about Lubomyr Melnyk’s music that channels the natural world at its most awe~inspiring. In Fallen Trees the connection with the environment continues, taking its cue from a long rail journey Melnyk made through Europe. Glancing out of the window as the train passed through a dark forest, he was struck by the sight of trees that had recently been felled. “They were glorious,” he says. “Even though they’d been killed, they weren’t dead. There was something sorrowful there, but also hopeful.” That sense of sadness touched by optimism infuses the album, too: rarely has Melnyk made music so shot through with melancholy and regret, but which sounds so rapt, even radiant.
✹    The five~part, 20~minute Fallen Trees is one of the most ambitious and demanding pieces he has ever created. Though the music is — as ever — Melnyk’s own, Fallen Trees once again features a number of Erased Tapes artists. Japanese vocal artist Hatis Noit, whose first EP Illogical Dance came out to much acclaim earlier this year, lends ethereal vocals, floating mysteriously above the surface of Melnyk’s eddying piano lines before diving far beneath. Other contributors include Berlin~based cellist Anne Müller, a sometime collaborator with Nils Frahm, and American singer David Allred, the most recent addition to the label family. “More than any of the albums that I’ve done, it’s a real collaboration,” Melnyk insists, emphasising how much he owes to his producer, Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths.
✹    It is true to say that there is nothing quite like Melnyk’s work: a unique musical pioneer, he has defiantly carved his own path. “I don’t say to people I’m a composer,” he declares. “I don’t know what I am.”
✹    Melnyk composes, as he plays, at the piano, feeling out lines and individual rhythmic cells that bubble, undulate and gradually expand into vast, interlinked frameworks. Asked to describe what it’s like to live inside his music, he says “my whole body is transformed as I play, it honestly feels like that. My fingers feel like the winds of the world; it feels like you’re physically transcending dimensions.”
✹    Despite the autumnal hint in its title, there’s little suggestion of Melnyk slowing down. Having received critical acclaim and co~headlining the prestigious Royal Festival Hall as part of the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary celebrations, after many years his audience is now both global and growing. The composer is finally gaining a momentum in his career that matches the vibrant, highly active energy of his playing.
About:
✹    Ukrainian pianist/composer Lubomyr Melnyk is best known for his groundbreaking “continuous music” technique, which involves playing extremely rapid, complex patterns of notes, often while holding down the sustain pedal in order to produce overtones. The result is a dense cascade of sound that can be trance~inducing for both the performer and the listener. Melnyk has gone on record as the fastest piano player in the world, as he has been able to sustain over 19.5 notes per second in each hand, as well as more than 93,000 individual notes in a single hour. While his music recalls the mind~bending complexity of Conlon Nancarrow’s studies for player piano, Melnyk’s melodic compositions never sacrifice grace or heart for the sake of technical ability. In addition to his solo piano works and performances, Melnyk has also composed orchestral and chamber works.
✹    Melnyk was born in Munich, Germany to Ukrainian parents in 1948. His family moved to Winnipeg, Canada in the early 1950s in order to flee the Communist expansion. After graduating from St. Paul’s College in Winnipeg with a degree in Latin and Philosophy, and earning an M.A. in philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Melnyk moved to Paris and played piano for modern dance classes. While in Paris, inspired by the minimalism movement and frustrated with what he viewed as a lack of innovation in the previous three centuries of piano playing, he developed his technique. He moved back to Canada in 1975 and began composing works, as well as presenting lectures on continuous music throughout Canada and Europe. His debut album, KMH, was issued by Toronto~based Music Gallery Editions in 1979, followed by the double LP The Lund — St. Petri Symphony (Apparition Records) in 1981. Also that year, he published Open Time: The Art of Continuous Music, a book explaining his method. Numerous LPs of his music were released through Bandura Records, or self~released as cassettes.
✹    Despite his prolific release schedule and his record~setting abilities, Melnyk’s work largely went unnoticed until the 21st century. Avant~garde classical label Unseen Worlds reissued Melnyk’s debut album in 2007 (minus the first ten minutes of the original recording, as the beginning of the master tapes had been damaged), and the release received critical acclaim. This led to additional releases on labels including Hinterzimmer (Windmills) and Erased Tapes (Corollaries, Evertina, Rivers and Streams), as well as a collaboration with guitarist James Blackshaw titled The Watchers (Important Records). In 2016, Melnyk made his major~label debut with Illirion, released by Sony Classical. ~ Paul Simpson
HIS Voice: http://www.hisvoice.cz/cz/articles/detail/928
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lubomyrmelnyk/
Label: https://www.erasedtapes.com/
Website: http://www.lubomyr.com/
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Lubomyr Melnyk — Fallen Trees (7 Dec 2018)

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