RELEASE DATE: MAY 23, 2025
Composer Johannes Malfatti returns to LINE with a beautiful new piano work. His previous work for church organs, In the Glow of Distant Fires (LINE_144) was released on LINE in 2023.
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Fragments was composed for the first act of The Day I Became a Cloud, a dance work by choreographer Emanuele Soavi, which premiered in September 2023 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The performance unfolded in front of Henri Matisse’s three monumental canvases from ‘The Unfinished Dance’, with four performers moving through a series of nine dance miniatures.
At the heart of the composition is a sharp, two-note piano dissonance that serves as the foundation for the musical development. This motif is repeated and permutated throughout, continuously shifting in scale, expanding and contracting as the piece evolves.
The piano’s sound is processed through multiple chains of modular synthesizers and digital effects, extracting its spectral and harmonic essence. As the piece progresses, the voids between the motif’s reiterations become animated, gradually dissolving the crystalline piano texture into a soft, hovering presence.
Conceptually, Fragments explores the relationship between two seemingly incompatible forces. It delves into themes of transformation, entropy, and the resolution of maximal dissonance. These opposing elements do not remain separate but gradually dissolve into one another, creating a sense of convergence and subtle unity.
For listeners who enjoy the sparse lingering notes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jürg Frey, and Morton Feldman.
