The album 'Family Portraits' is my second solo piano release, but the first to feature solely my original compositions. The pieces included in this collection are: Golden Strawberries, Soup Tin Baby, Fern Tree, Incomparable, Slim Jim, Belonging, Deep Blue, For Love, Paper Sandals, Without Voice, and Lineage. All the pieces are dedicated to members of my family tree. The music employs both improvised and composed elements, the balance of which alters for each piece.
NTRO Output Type
- Recorded or Rendered Work
NTRO Output Category
- Recorded or Rendered Work : Audio / visual recording
Place
Melbourne, AustraliaNTRO Publisher
https://andreakeller.bandcamp.com/album/family-portraitsMedium
audio recordingResearch Statement
The album 'Family Portraits' is my second solo piano release, but the first to feature solely my original compositions. The pieces included in this collection are: Golden Strawberries, Soup Tin Baby, Fern Tree, Incomparable, Slim Jim, Belonging, Deep Blue, For Love, Paper Sandals, Without Voice, and Lineage. All the pieces are dedicated to members of my family tree. The music employs both improvised and composed elements, the balance of which alters for each piece.
A significant research aspect of this project was the utilisation of a Boss RC50 loop station, a Line 6 delay pedal, and preparations inside the piano. The loop station, in particular, posed new ways of constructing music for solo piano, both in composed and improvised settings, obviously expanding the textural palette.
The shortest composition (an only entirely notated one) 'Deep Blue' has been recorded by Michael Kieran Harvey and included on the album Move 50 – Move Records a celebration of the Australian record labels 50 years (2019). As a previous Move artist, I was invited to submit a composition for consideration and possible inclusion. Deep Blue was accepted by MKHarvey. There was no personal correspondence or discussion about the piece with him, the score was the only form of communication. I was deeply pleased with MKHarvey’s interpretation and the recording. His rendition is very different to mine (which appears on my solo piano recording Family Portraits) which I find fascinating and very exciting. This was my first experience of having someone perform and record a fully notated composition of mine without consultation throughout the process of preparation. Other composers featured on the album include Tony Gould, Julian Yu, Linda Kouvaras, Brenton Broadstock and more.
The album has been favourably reviewed on numerous occasions.Size or Duration of Work
62 minutes
