Melbourne pianist, composer, photographer (and cousin of Japanese Wallpaper) Luke Howard has just released Two & One, a limited edition photo book with accompanying music. The book consists of fifty-four carefully selected photos from Luke’s travels throughout Australia, North America and Europe, and the music was recorded in Melbourne and Iceland and features both solo piano and electronic works.
Having released his stunning debut solo effort Sun, Cloud last year, followed by a remix LP titled Night, Cloud in April this year, Howard has captured the attention of audiences worldwide with his hauntingly blissful brand of minimal classical compositions.
To celebrate the release, Howard has given us a track by track run down of Two & One which also features accompanying photos for each track. He’ll be launch the book and LP in Melbourne on the 8th of November at Conduit Arts, 83 Brunswick St, Fitzroy and in Sydney on the 13th of November at Join The Dots, 102 Victoria Rd, Marrickville.
Tunnel
“I wrote this when I was living in Reykjavík in 2011, for a physical theatre production there called Með berum augum (‘With the naked eye’).
The photo is actually from a rehearsal for that production. It used empty picture frames as a metaphor for how we frame our lives in different contexts. I was also helping Paul Corley with some music for the National Theatre (Þjóðleikhúsið) at that time. I owe the prepared piano and processing ideas to him.”
Cibi
“I wrote this tune a while ago for my trio, and re-recorded it on Danae Valenza’s Colour Piano for Chromatic Portraits earlier this year. This was this beautiful modified grand piano, where from each key a wire extended connected to a different coloured light bulb. After playing the piano for an hour or so, you could feel your brain starting to rewire itself to process harmony both in the visual and auditory realms.”
Hold Me Through
“This piece originally started as a collaboration with UK-based Bruised Skies, although his version seems to have disappeared now. (That was called ‘Hold You Through’.) I decided to finish off my original version independently. It’s based around a half speed piano loop with some other textures on top; almost all the sounds, including the distorted background, originated on the acoustic piano, but they are heavily processed. Leonard Grigoryan added some guitar.”
Longplay
“This piece is based on a composition I wrote for the Grigoryan Brothers. (You’ll be able to hear their version on their upcoming record This Time, released November 14 on Which Way Music, which features Icelandic percussionist Ólafur Björn Ólafsson.) It has an curious genesis. It is based around a repeating drone and a two-against-three motif (in this respect, it is somewhat influenced by Nico Muhly’s Drones and A Hudson Cycle).
Continuing the synesthesiatic theme, I started off by recording a bunch of ideas into the computer and colour coding them by motif. I then arranged them chromatically (visually). After that there was a lot of editing to turn it into a piece that would flow and work for two guitars. (Indeed, I’m not sure I ever ended up with anything particularly idiomatic to the guitar.) That version was recorded earlier in the year in Oslo; when I returned to Melbourne, I took the same motifs and improvised a piano version, which you hear here. And now I am attempting to commit that to memory so I can perform it. So there’s some kind of cycle there.
The slightly warbly/distant ‘school hall’ quality is from an out-of-phase cassette tape version mixed in with the original recording.”
Midnight Commute
“This piece was a quick improvisation as a thank you to Headphone Commute who, after months of hassling, finally reviewed my last record Sun, Cloud! (I know that sets a dangerous precedent.) Recorded at home with the moderator (felts) engaged. The photo is of Oberbaumbrücke in Berlin which you can see in Run Lola Run as well as few other films.”
Oculus
“This piece is based around an odd-time loop that is actually a vinyl record playing out (the broken record). Layers of pocket piano textures build over it. The photo is the oculus in the David Chipperfield-designed Neues Museum in Berlin. Leonard Grigoryan also features on this on guitar. I worked on this track with producer/engineer Hadyn Buxton.”
Island
“This track is actually a remix I did of Portrait Gallery from Sun, Cloud, although the original piano part is absent. Last year Hadyn and I were working on a bunch of pieces inspired by Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands and this is one of them.”
Nocturne
“This photo was taken from Potrero Hill in San Francisco, if you look closely you can see the silhouette of three people, a motif which reappears in some of the other photos. This piece, which is completely improvised, was recorded late one night in my apartment.”
Two & One is out now, to pick up a copy of the EP visit music.lukehoward.com
Book Launch Dates
Melbourne – November 8th 2014 – Conduit Arts, 83 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Sydney – November 13th 2014 – Join The Dots, 102 Victoria Rd, Marrickville
