PRICE:
$15.50
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
Inland
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
IF 1050CD IF 1050CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
4/26/2019

Inland is Vanessa Wagner's continuation of the exploration of the minimalist composers register to complete the solo continuum of the Statea released in 2016 with the Mexican producer Murcof. Inland highlights a set of pieces, mostly rare or unavailable to date (Moondog, Nico Muhly, William Susman, Bryce Dessner, Gavin Bryars...) and some other well known (Philip Glass, Wim Mertens, Michael Nyman) that Vanessa Wagner performs with her classic pianist background and velvet sound. The title of the album refers to John Cage's Imaginary Landscape (1939), one of the first works to use electronic devices. Making more with less, the album turns long harmonies into multicolored prisms, miniature detailed embroidery, sighs and breaths, syncopated or restrained chants. The choice of works and their sequencing was dreamed up as a sort of storytelling. Between familiar melodies and unknown rarities, the pianist dug deep to find previously unreleased pieces. Within the cornucopia of Wagner's career, Inland stands as a hitherto unknown intimate and dream-like space. The album is both the fruit of her maturity and a new temporality that she is now exploring -- a secret conversation between her spirituality and the deep connection she maintains with nature, the elements, and living matter. The Inland journey begins with the vision of iconoclastic Moondog, who claudicates over a modest ritornello, and continues with French composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's "Louella", like a volatile caress. On the way, you come across familiar figures like Philip Glass, and rediscover Michael Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First", as Wagner's fingers transfigure the cult piece, rendering it with delicate sensuality. At the origin of the source, German composer Hans Otte plays entrancing magic tricks with the fluids that spring henceforth; on the horizon, the inescapable Meredith Monk draws you into her hypnotic circles; elsewhere, Bryce Dessner is takes you on a dream-filled odyssey with characters who guide you to boundless territories, and William Susman breaks down boundaries under the harmonic mists and mute rhythms of "Quiet Rhythms". At the end, you find a blank canvas of quiet nature, a clearing in which Latvian composer Peteris Vasks invites you to listen to the suspended silences. When the album is over, the spirit of Inland continues to stir inside the listener's mind, in hazy reverie, clouds of nostalgia emanate from Vanessa Wagner's piano.