DIE TAGESZEITUNG - Tim Boehme
A piano duo on Staubgold? That's what Markus Detmer, operator of the electronic label specializing in experimental sounds, probably first thought. But Chris Abraham and Simon James Phillips need no other means than their two instruments to be heard.
Chris Abraham is here primarily as a jazz pianist of the Australian trio The Necks. His colleague Simon James Phillips, who still has to be discovered, is also from Sydney. In their joint excursions, at least 100 years of piano music come together: The reductionism of a Morton Feldman, Terry Riley repetitive mantras or the prudishness of Erik Satie - all that plus some inspiration from Impressionism and a little romance. If this occurs not spectacular enough, the two will prove you wrong. Under their fingers, the sound languages they are inspired by, become completely present and their music is definitely on it's own. With a cautious touch they paint quiet, slightly blurry mood images. The two grand pianos sound so soft, as if a filter has been used, which makes the misty nature of their improvisations even more present. The word "beauty" may no longer be en vogue, but for the music of Pedal you can use it in good conscience.
Ein Klavierduo, und das bei Staubgold? So ähnlich hat Markus Detmer, Betreiber des vor allem für experimentelle Klänge bekannten Elektronik-Labels, zunächst wohl auch gedacht. Doch Chris Abrahams und Simon James Phillips brauchen keine anderen Hilfsmittel als ihre beiden Instrumente, um sich Gehör zu verschaffen.
Chris Abrahams ist hier vor allem als Pianist des australischen Jazztrios The Necks bekannt. Sein noch zu entdeckender Kollege Simon James Phillips stammt ebenfalls aus Sydney. In ihren gemeinsamen Exkursionen fließen mindestens 100 Jahre Klaviermusik zusammen: Der Reduktionismus eines Morton Feldman, Terry Rileys repetitive Mantras oder die Sprödheit von Erik Satie - all das versetzt mit Anklängen an Impressionismus und ein wenig Romantik. Wem das zu wenig spektakulär vorkommt, wird von den beiden eines Besseren belehrt. Unter ihren Fingern bekommen die Klangsprachen, die sie inspirieren, etwas vollkommen Gegenwärtiges, das die Musik definitiv zu ihrer Eigenen macht. Mit verhaltenem Anschlag malen sie ruhige, leicht verwaschene Stimmungsbilder. Die beiden Flügel klingen dabei so weich, als sei bei der Aufnahme ein Filter verwendet worden, was den nebligen Charakter ihrer Improvisationen noch verstärkt. Das Wort "Schönheit" mag ganz sicher nicht mehr die höchste Konjunktur haben, für die Musik von Pedal kann man es aber guten Gewissens bemühen.
CALEIDOSCOOP – Jan Willem Broek
The ever surprising Staubgold label from Berlin has once more come out with something very special. They've just released a CD by Pedal with the same title. Pedal brings together pianists Chris Abrahams, better known from his work with the Necks, and Simon James Phillips. Abrahams usually makes an experimental mix of jazz, rock, and improv music, while Phillips has a more classical background. On this CD they both play concert grands. Without adding any other instruments, this might seem rather boring, but nothing is less true. First of all there is the sound that they manage to conjure from their grands, which is wonderfully beautiful. Next to that, their minimal way of playing together is so intense and captivating that it transcends the two. They create very emotional and at times rather filmic sonic landscapes that quite simply make you go quiet. At the same time both gentlemen from Sydney experiment and improvise enough to keep things exciting. As the CD evolves, you almost forget that you're listening to piano sounds. This is pure emotion, pure melancholy that is delivered by four hands in a soft and intimate way. Rarely has beauty announced itself so silently and surprisingly. Pedal to the medal. Wonderful.
Het altijd weer verrassende Staubgold label uit Berlijn komt wederom met iets heel bijzonders op de proppen. Ditmaal brengen ze de gelijknamige cd van de gelegenheidsformatie Pedal uit, waar de pianisten Chris Abrahams, beter bekend van zijn werk bij The Necks, en Simon James Phillips elkaar de toetsen schudden. De eerstgenoemde maakt meestal een experimentele mengelmoes van jazz, rock en improvisatorische muziek, terwijl de tweede meer van het klassieke werk is. Hier spelen ze beide op een concertvleugel. Dat lijkt zonder aanvullende instrumenten wellicht een saaie opzet, maar niets is minder waar. Ten eerste is het geluid dat ze uit de vleugels toveren al wonderschoon. Daarnaast is het veelal minimale samenspel zo intens en meeslepend dat het in alle opzichten het tweetal overstijgt. Ze creëren een uiterst emotionele en soms ook behoorlijk filmische klanklandschappen, waar je gewoonweg stil van wordt. Tevens experimenteren en improviseren de heren uit Sydney genoeg om het spannend te houden, zonder te vervallen in overdreven gepiel om hun virtuositeit eens flink te benadrukken. Naarmate de cd vordert vergeet je haast dat het om pianoklanken gaat. Het is pure emotie, pure melancholie die door vier handen zachtjes en op intieme wijze bij de luisteraar naar binnen wordt gemasseerd. Zelden dient schoonheid zich zo stilletjes en verrassend aan. Pedal to the medal. Prachtig!
MUSIQUE MACHINE – Roger Batty
Pedal is an atmospheric and hypnotic collection of pieces for two Steinway and Sons grand pianos played by Chris Abrahams (The Necks, etc) and well respected Sydney based pianist and conductor Simon James Phillips.
Going from awkward, sadden yet beautiful opener Security which feels likes the weary rhythmic pitter-patter of melancholy rain. To Performance's playful bright note wonder from one piano while the second piano's archers out a slow rising melodic march, but in the end the second piano joins the playful wonder of the first piano. It brings to mind a playful youngest trying to get it’s elder to play along with him and in the end he does. To the last slow melodic, sustained, felt slow shimmer and tentative movements of The Passenger, which keeps feeling like it’s going to slow to a stop but just keeps edging out its elegant yet shy wonder. All in all Pedal takes in just short of an hours worth of compelling piano music that sits somewhere between classical, jazz and expressive piano playing.
A charming, rich and varied emotional touched collection of tracks played and homed beautiful, that manages to follow the trail of great piano music yet adds its own distinct air to the proceedings.
THE BOSTON PHOENIX - Devin King
Pedal are an improvisational piano duo who synthesize the languid and slightly dissident chords of Morton Feldman with the more familiar repetitive drones of early minimalism. The surface of the music isn’t particularly intriguing; any undergrad who has a few Satie discs in his or her collection — for studying and making out! — would find the same passive ambiance on this album. What is remarkable about the record is the patient investigation of the happened-upon melodies of improvisation. On the second track, “The Afterwards,” the pair begin with pointillist tone clusters and eventually push the music out of ambiance toward a repeated descending melody. As this melody falls away, the tone clusters return with renewed harmonic purpose — having grown used to the melody, you apprehend more readily the tension between the duo’s flickering chords and the composition’s inherent musical “space.” In a moment, the descending melody reappears, and the players now reinvestigate it through modulations in different keys. This unfolds over 17 minutes (!) — a unity of structure combined with improvisational foresight that typifies the disc.
BOOMKAT.COM
An album of improvised piano duets from Simon James Philips and The Necks' Chris Abrahams, a pianist with a growing reputation thanks to some impressive releases for Room40. The music on this album is far from pastoral or easy going: from the nervy pianissimo of 'Security' to the trills and melodrama of 'The Afterwards', Pedal explore a very modern kind of improvisation, even stepping into an offset contemporary jazz setting for 'Performance'. At times the pianists exhibit a remarkable degree of synergy, fashioning two-man discordance from trickling scalar runs on 'Herzog' for a captivating, watery effect, only to dismantle this electrifying pace for the extended closing number 'The Passenger' which finds these two accomplished musicians subtly drawing melody from their quiet, dialogic meanderings. Excellent.
SOUNDS LIKE YOU AND ME
Pedal, Sump, Pedal, 2008, Staubgold Records. This piano duo from Sydney just released this album of improvised piano awesomeness. Some of the tracks are brilliantly unnerving, and some are just brilliantly moving like Sump. Staubgold says this: “What are they thinking? These guys are doing a record of acoustic piano music in this day and age! And let me tell you something, my prejudice was totally crushed within the first minute of listening to this CD. Just when I was thinking two grand pianos, four hands have nothing to say in this 21st century...”
MAPSADAISICAL
In Pedal, Abrahams teams up with Simon James Phillips to form a four-handed two concert grand piano monster (raaar!). Phillips comes from a classical tradition, being no stranger to the work of Grieg and Janacek, but has improvisational tendencies also; Abrahams...well, we know what he can do – in particular the mesmerising minimalist flurries which light up the Necks’ extended spontaneous compositions. Together they engage in thrilling dialogue over this hour-long album which totally transcends genre. “Performance” jabbers with the glee of a reunion between two old friends, clumps of rapid-fire notes bouncing off each other, asking and answering and following up and clarifying. Light and shade are provided by the next two pieces: the dense bottom-end tumult of “Burgeon” and the free-floating melodies of “Sump”. “The Passenger” is a brooding and ruminatory end to this marvellous record, only giving up its secrets in flickering moments of lucidity.
ALLMUSIC.COM – Ned Raggett
Given the Staubgold label's interest in electronic music on the general calmer tip, it's almost no surprise to hear something like Pedal's debut album on it -- where there are no electronics involved beyond the means used to record the duo's work. Instead, what Chris Abrahams and Simon James Phillips create are piano duets, seven total recorded at an Australian university hall, which probably would not have caused anyone to bat an eye if it had appeared on, say, ECM. In the context of Staubgold it's an intriguing contrast, but of course the key point is whether or not the recording works in its own right -- it does, happily. The precedents for the work of Pedal -- a contextually sly choice of name, given the instruments used by the two performers -- can be heard in everyone from Erik Satie to Arvo Part, a seeking to use the piano to move beyond its immediate and obvious classical employment, while at the same time well aware of the past and not simply a torpedoing of it. If a song like "Performance" can begin with a few calm notes that Beethoven would not have been surprised at, the addition of a more skittering series of them from the second piano would have pleased John Cage in turn. Though the notes do not make clear if the performances are improvisations, or if they were recorded fully live, the latter is a reasonable assumption to make, and Abrahams and Phillips sound utterly comfortable with each other, either obsessively matching each other's lines in close proximity, as on the quarter-hour-long "The Afterwards," or each playing against the other in subtle but clear fashion, as noted earlier. It's a fine listen overall -- and titling one effort "Herzog" serves as a nice calling card should that filmmaker be considering further soundtrack contributors.
OTHER MUSIC –
A powerful and provocative duo piano performance that brings an edgy vitality to a traditional medium through passionate playing and non-linear composition. Intense, dreamlike flourishes circle around an imaginary center, building layer upon layer of emotion and ingenuity. Heavy stuff, but extremely engaging and listenable.