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The Composer Plays Revisited

by Steve Layton

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    72
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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Eight Tracks, Peace, 68, Life Askew, ALT (Pop and Dance Hits), Stand Up, Music 1997 - 2001, No Mind, and 64 more. , and , .

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1.
And Then It Rained (2002) 04:14
2.
Box Springs (2011) 02:37
3.
The Door to the North (1999) 05:30
4.
Garuda (2001) 03:47
5.
Hanuman (2001) 03:26
6.
Cadenza Sans (1999) 03:43
7.
Jemma (2000) 01:56
8.
A Fixation (2013) 08:27
9.
Beating Against the Sky (2002) 04:39
10.
Tripped Up (2013) 03:18
11.
Medea (1998) 04:19
12.
Lumbre (1999) 04:53
13.
Unseen Figure (2003) 05:12
14.
Taffeta Phantom (1998) 02:48
15.
One Summer's Night (1999) 03:29

about

For over 20 years now, I've been creating, performing, and recording compositions for 'imaginary piano', and releasing them on a series of CDs subtitled The Composer Plays. The word 'play' is used in both senses; as the act of playing the piano, and the act of playing with the idea of the piano and piano performance. The pieces are for 'imaginary piano' because there is no actual, physical piano, and no actual physical hands playing. Of all of these pieces, on only two (Tripped Up and Taffeta Phantom) did I actually play any physical piano keyboard; the rest are all composed, interpreted, and recorded straight from a music-sequencing program 'piano roll', each note entered into the score with the click of a computer mouse.

Yet there's no machine-music here; each note was chosen, placed, and massaged by my own hands. Through all of these compositions, I 'play' with the idea of mixing the possible and the impossible in a natural and convincing way, with extra fingers or hands materializing and disappearing as the music demands. Even the sound of the piano changes from piece to piece, as I chose different virtual pianos to suit each performance. This album is a revisiting of a number of earlier pieces from 1998 through 2002, giving them new interpretations and new, higher-quality recordings. As well, there are a few newer pieces in the same vein, composed for this album in 2011-2013.

credits

released May 23, 2013

All tracks performed and recorded between Jan 2011 and Jun 2013, using Propellerheads Reason and Adobe Audition.

license

Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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Steve Layton Seattle, Washington

Composer, performer, recordist, connector, facilitator. Editor of Sequenza21.com, a long-running website reporting on contemporary classical music.
Collaborator at ImprovFriday/Sound-In, a weekly web gathering of musicians from around the globe. NiwoSound is an umbrella for innovative art music / art sound. ... more

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