PRELUDE Piano: Sam Bailey The Prelude project opens up the music of Chopin's Preludes to a fresh, 21st century approach. Familiar harmonies are used as a starting point for acoustic and digital improvisation as Sam Bailey and Matt Wright delve inside the body of the piano and pull Chopin's music through the prepared piano experiments of the early 20th century and into 2010. Prelude is an evolving open-form composition in which Bailey and Wright are developing a way of working that draws on their diverse experiences as composers and improvising performers. Chopin is reworked via piano preparations ranging from static objects placed inside the piano to mechanical or electrical items such as e-bows and finally to real-time sampling and surround sound mixing. The performance dynamic is deliberately kept open to allow for new timbres and textures to arise from the piano and the performance space itself. Each performance is conceived as a new departure based on Chopin's material. Bailey and Wright invite the audience to share the same sense of exploration and discovery that they have experienced in the gradual, organic development of this project. Prelude was first performed during the UK's Sounds New Festival in 2009, to mark the 160th anniversary of Chopin's death. for bookings please contact: mattwright1977@hotmail.com
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