Kasar is German electronicist/pianist Arnold Kasar. I don't know a whole lot about him, but I do know that I like what he does with a piano, which you can see and hear (both are recommended) for yourself in the live performance of his track "En Automne":
Kasar proficiently demonstrates just how many tools and sounds the modern solo pianist can have at their disposal with the aid of a laptop and some wires. For percussion, he bangs on the piano's boards. For a punchy bass sound, he mutes the piano's wires. Towards the end, you can even see him use his own personal percussive potential to further add to the song's color. It brings to mind the way other artists, such as Zoë Keating with her cello or Owen Pallett with his violin, take advantage of every part of their instrument and combine it with looping to create wholly unique soundscapes. And as a fellow pianist, I really admire what Kasar is pulling out of his instrument.
I'm admittedly partial to this area of music where the modernity of electronics meets the antiquity of the "classical" instruments, but you don't need to delve too deep to appreciate the bounciness of what is a pretty fun song regardless of its construction.
Kasar has a full debut album The Piano Has Been Smoking that is out now (in Europe at least) on Fabrique Records, where you can sample some of the tracks. If the rest of the album is as good as "En Automne," you can guarantee I'll be talking about him again.
No comments:
Post a Comment