Better get out there and find yourself a tux and cummerbund and girdle and hoop-skirt and whatever-the-hell else a member of the elite class wears: because Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle label is kicking off it’s first release of 2020 IN STYLE.
Seriously. Like: FERRARI-level style.
Brunhild Ferrari — wife of French/Italian composer Luc Ferrari and (per the measured prose of Forced Exposure) “a very refined and talented German composer” in her own right — has partnered with everyone’s favorite cosmopolitan American experimentalist Jim “Steamer Time” O’Rourke for a new collaborative album comprising “two side-long realisations of Ferrari’s tape compositions recorded in concert at Tokyo’s SuperDeluxe in 2014, revised and mixed by O’Rourke in 2019.”
The stupifyingly high-end long player that resulted from the duo’s well-mannered interactions is entitled Le Piano Englouti (“The Sunken Piano”). INTRIGUED by that classy title? You bet your graceless little ass you are:
The title piece weaves an immersive web of electronics, pre-recorded piano, and field-recorded sounds, including the raging Aegean sea, the tranquil atmospherics of a Japanese island, and the roar of a pachinko parlour. Far from a slice of audio vérité, these geographically distant sites intermingle in an unreal space where they often become indistinguishable. Shadowed by electronics and reverberant snatches of piano, the field recordings rise up and recede like ocean waves, creating a constantly shifting texture that is nonetheless warmly inviting. Chirping birds are confused with their electronic doubles; snatches of footsteps and voices are engulfed by ambience of unclear origin. Increasingly present throughout the piece, the piano rises up one last time before being swallowed up for good by the pachinko parlour.
And that’s just SIDE ONE, baby.
Soooo, yeah: quit combing the beach with that metal detector of yours, RSVP yourself a copy of the vinyl release — complete with its “deluxe gatefold sleeve” and liner notes from Ferrari herself — ahead of its January 10 release date now, and maybe (just maybe) you’ll finally fucking CLASS YOURSELF UP a little bit, for god’s sake. Yeesh.
Le Piano Englouti tracklisting:
01. Le Piano Englouti (The Sunken Piano)
02. Tranquilles Impatiences (Quiet Impatiences)
More about: Brunhild Ferrari, Jim O'Rourke
