Two New Composers on Elsewhere

Of the twenty-nine Elsewhere albums that had been released before the two discussed below, well over sixty percent of them have focused on compositions for piano played by the composer themselves, such as Melaine Dalibert, or by other pianists, such as Reinier van Houdt and Dante Boon playing Jurg Frey's pieces for two pianos. (If double and triple disc releases were to be factored in, that percentage would be considerably higher.) The high proportion of piano is no accident, as Elsewhere has had an affinity with piano music throughout its existence, as evidenced by the label's two Piano Series to date, in July 2019 and autumn 2020.

Adrián Demoč
Piano
Elsewhere
2024

Adrián Demoč was born in Zvolen, Slovakia, in January 1985. He started having piano lessons when he was six. From an early age he was fascinated by other musics, including Slovak folklore and jazz, as it was freer than the standard classical repertoire he was playing on the piano. He started composing at grammar school, mostly pieces for piano but also chamber stuff and a very short orchestral piece.

Nowadays he lives in a fairly small Spanish town where he works as a music teacher at various schools. Prior to Piano, his discography was relatively small, with three albums on Another Timbre the most high-profile. His music has been performed by Apartment House in the UK or by various ensembles in Czechia. Fittingly, Piano is the first album to feature solo piano works by Demoč. The album's three pieces were all performed by pianist Miroslav Beinhauer and recorded at the Czech Radio Ostrava in November and December 2023.

Demoč has said before that as a listener or a composer he tends to prefer gentle and soft, non-violent music but he is also searching for different shades, possibilities and discoveries within this very broad category. The three pieces here, which clock in at 10:21, 14:37 and 20:57, all support Demoč's description of himself. The music is spacious, unhurried, soothing and melodic, the kind which handsomely repays the time spent listening to it; it sounds simple but is never simplistic, as repeated listening reveals more and more to appreciate and applaud.



Samuel Reinhard
For Piano and Shō
Elsewhere
2024

Born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1980, Samuel Reinhard earned an MA in Contemporary Arts Practice (Music & Media Arts) from Bern University of the Arts in 2015. He now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. With his history as an electroacoustic composer, it is not surprising that Reinhard's compositions here are not for solo piano but for a duo of piano and shō, a Japanese reed instrument; the piano was played by Copenhagen-based Canadian Paul Jacob Fossom, and the shō by Tokyo-based gagaku performer Haruna Higashida. They play two Reinhard compositions, "For Piano and Shō I" and "For Piano and Shō II" both composed in 2023.

According to the credits, the album was recorded at Studio Dede in Tokyo and at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In practice, this means that Higashida was recorded in Tokyo and Fossom in Copenhagen, with the results being sent back and forth. This is borne out by the first piece which features the sounds of three pianos and three shōs; piano notes resound for as long as possible, with shō notes matching them for duration. The combined soundscape does not sound cluttered but allows space for listeners to hear and savor every note as it fades away to silence, in the way that many Wandelweiser recordings do. Like the first piece, the second one runs for just over twenty minutes; it features one piano and one shō and has the same appeal and tranquility as the first piece.

These recordings by Demoč and by Reinhard are in keeping with Elsewhere's previous piano releases. Although these are the composers' first releases on the label, on this evidence they will not be their last.

Tracks and Personnel

Piano

Tracks: A Luca Marenzio (2018); Ma fin est mon commencement (2019); Gebrechlichkeit {2023).

Personnel: Miroslav Beinhauer: piano.

For Piano and Shō

Tracks: For Piano and Shō I (2023); For Piano and Shō II (2023).

Personnel: Haruna Higashida: shō; Paul Jacob Fossum: piano.

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