The German composer and experimental musician Hauschka will release his upcoming Abandoned City LP on March 18th via Temporary Residence Ltd. Recorded at his home studio on a prepared piano, the artist created the bulk of the album in a burst of creative activity following the birth of his son. As the stunning track “Elizabeth Bay” demonstrates, Hauschka is able to get an amazing range of sounds out of his single piano, and he uses them to build amazingly complex and ultra modern compositions that travel the boundaries between classical and avant-garde, while still sounding urban and of-the-now! On “Elizabeth Bay”, the musician used drum sticks between the strings of the piano to get percussive sounds from his instrument. In addition, like the rest of the tracks on the album, it was recorded using nine microphones. Six of them were used to record the piano strings themselves, and the sounds were then fed thru an analogue console into a computer, with the goal of preserving their warmth, while the other three mics were routed thru a mixer full of effects like distortion, echo, and delay. He explains:
“Most of the songs were played on one piano; I was mixing as I played. If I needed more piano, I overdubbed with another twiddling of effects. All the sounds – harp, balafon, Melodica, drums – are produced by the keyboard.”
Each of the tracks on Abandoned City is inspired by a particular and real local, with “Elizabeth Bay” evoking a deserted mining town in Namibia…This coming January Hauschka will travel to the States to play select US dates, in anticipation of his new record. Don’t miss the dates below.
Hauschka Live US Dates 2014:
Friday, January 10th-Cincinnati, OH @ Contemporary Arts Center
Saturday, January 11th-Chicago, IL @ Constellation
Sunday, January 14th-Minneapolis, MN @ Aria (Liquid Music) (w/Hilary Hahn)
Sunday, April 20th-San Francisco, CA @ Yoshi’s
Tuesday, April 22nd-Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever
Wednesday, April 23rd-San Diego, CA @ The Loft – UCSD (ArtPower Music Series)
Thursday, April 24th-Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
Sunday, April 27th-Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Sanctuary
