The Squid's Ear Magazine


Sguera, Luca: Piano, Exploded (Shhpuma)

Performing on both piano and bass drum, Italian improviser & composer Luca Sguera presents six works based around the physical sounds of the piano, traditional acoustic piano progressions and rhythmic arrangements fitting the development of each piece's sound, as much sound art as piano composition through sophisticated hybrids of acoustic and sonic environments.
 

Price: $7.50



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units


EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Luca Sguera-piano, bass drum


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063800791

Label: Shhpuma
Catalog ID: SHH079CD
Squidco Product Code: 33153

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Tracks 1 - 6 recorded at RMC in Copenhagen, Denmark, on July 7th - 19th, 2020, by Luca Sguera.

Track 6 recorded in Colle val d'Elsa,Italy, on September 7th, 2022, by Francesco Toninelli.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Piano, Exploded is a different solo piano record, unique in its kind. Starting from simple and clear compositional ideas and limiting its materials on sounds coming from the piano, it portrays five sound sculptures built on ambient acoustic drones, living pulses, harmonic cascades and microscopic sounds. A rhythmic arrangement of the material, sometimes very loose and subtle, sometimes more evident and pushed up to hyperactive grooves, underlies the whole work."-Shhpuma



"Two years after the release of the collaborative album CTB, Few Hypotheses much appreciated by the press, Luca Sguera is back with a solo piano work, one of a kind.

Published on February 16, 2023 via Shhpuma, Piano, Exploded mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, is presented as a collection of six songs based on the sounds of the piano developed starting from simple and clear compositional ideas.

Piano and bass drum are used in their entirety, making full use of their materials and the possibility of making them play as a rhythmic part of the songs, sometimes making the tinklings more evident, others disguising them in the harmonic textures of the tracks.

Environmental acoustic drones, vivid pulsations, harmonic cascades and sound variations move between minimalism and avant-garde, modeling minimal design compositions.

Counterpoints, scattered percussion and plucked strings condense in the first track Polpo, a concentration of concrete music and free pianisms. The piece presents itself as a flow in different directions accompanied by a variable intensity created with a great expressive intensity. In Calcio the sound is decomposed obtaining a reverberated atmospheric drone on which rests the delicate and crystalline melody of the piano punctuated by the material tolling of wood. In the second part of the track, a resonant pattern is triggered which collides with the soft sounds of the piano, generating an interesting game of contrasts.

Iso is a short movement made from plucked strings and jingles transformed into a hypnotic electronic pattern. One of the most captivating moments of the disc, full of micro-variations, which grow until they flow into an organized chaos of repeated sounds.

In closing Il resto as always is a cascade of hypnotic harmonies, layers upon layers of piano lines on which the notes placed as a counterpoint highlight the grandeur of the instrument.

Luca Sguera passed with full marks: Piano, exploded is an irreproachable work, a listen to which to abandon oneself completely."-Mario Ariano, Radioaktiv (translated by Google)


Get additional information at RadioAktiv

Artist Biographies

" (1992, Milan, Italy) is a piano player, composer and improviser.Besides improvisation he investigates composition as layering of signs and meanings, through a practice in which rhythm and timbre play a main role. He is active in several projects (AKA, She's Analog) with which he released records (Aut, Auand) and performed in festivals and clubs among Italy and Europe."

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/6422954-Luca-Sguera)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Polpo 3:34

2. Calcio 8:01

3. Ruggine 7:07

4. Iso 3:22

5. Closet 7:54

6. Il Resto Come Sempre 9:08

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Organized Sound and Sample Based Music
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Piano & Keyboards
Organized Sound and Sample Based Music
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Experimental & Electronic Music
Squidco's Clean Feed 50% Sale

Search for other titles on the label:
Shhpuma.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Sguera, Luca
Piano, Exploded
(Shhpuma)
Performing on both piano and bass drum, Italian improviser & composer Luca Sguera presents six works based around the physical sounds of the piano, traditional acoustic piano progressions and rhythmic arrangements fitting the development of each piece's sound, as much sound art as piano composition through sophisticated hybrids of acoustic and sonic environments.
Other Recommended Releases:
DNS
Taking Big Bites Of The Khandas Three Cafes Deep [2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)
Live improvisations from the North Carolina duo of Alexander Cooper and Joseph Schlam, a double album of eight extended journeys through textural sound, drone and veiled reference, influenced by Costin Miereanu, Jaap Vink, Lionel Marchetti, Luc Ferrari, and Dagar Vani, as the duo work in stereo using two amps for drums, voice, live electronics, and field recordings.
Remondino, Nicolas / Ocra Rosa
Each Falling Stick Is A Necessary Gesture, Every Sonic Action Being Perfectly Voluntary And With Its Own Dignity
(Shhpuma)
Italian percussionist, sound artist, improviser and composer Nicholas Remondino expresses the sentiment of the 18 recordings on this solo album of prepared drum improvisations through a single sentence, each piece flowing into the next through unusual punctuation, gestures and intersections, as the listener is carried along curious landscapes of extraordinary technique.
Suter, Sheldon
Berceuses & Nocturnes
(Shhpuma)
Percussionist Sheldon Suter steps out from groups including Musique Brute, Big Bold Back Bone, Marco von Orelli 6 or Jurg Wickihalder Orchestra for a seductive album of solo percussion, using zithers, portable turntables, a shruti box and harmonica in immersive works intermixing six pulsing and serene lullabies with five ominous nocturnal environments.
Baraque a Free
Silex
(Shhpuma)
Formed as a collective in 2016, Baraque à Free brings together young free improvisers from Toulouse, France, who leverage influences from jazz, contemporary and rock forms, creating passages that include harmonious tranquillity, noisy spaces, rhythmic rage, math rock, and hints of orchestral chamber music; a positive album of musical statement and emotional release.
Lopes, Luis
Lisbon Paris, Stereo Noise Solo
(Shhpuma)
Taking advantage of stereo placement and strong effect processing, Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes (Humanization 4tet, Lisbon Freedom Unit) releases the antithesis of his recent Love Songs series with this improvised guitar album, splitting his signal through two unique sequences of analogue pedals into tube amplifiers, creating hypnotically corrosive music.
Almeida, Goncalo
Improvisations on Amplified and Prepared Double Bass
(Shhpuma)
Performing on double bass, amp and a volume pedal, Gonçalo Almeida (LAMA, Albatre, The Attic) explores new sonic environments and possiblities for the large strings, using feedback that modifies based on the physical location between the amp and the resonator of the double bass, Almeida improvises with bowing strokes, pizzicato and unusual string preparations.
Silvola, Juhani
Wolf Hour Roundelay
(Shhpuma)
Finnish/Norwegian guitarist Juhani Silvola describes the music on this fascinating solo album, performed on acoustic and prepared acoustic guitars (using objects below and above the strings) and augmenting his playing with electronics & amplifiers, as "speculative sonic archaeology" or "ritual music made by a civilisation that could have stepped off the pages of a Jorge Luis Borges story.
Too Tall To Sing (Flin van Hemmen / Jozef Dumoulin)
New Dance Moves
(Shhpuma)
A collaboration recorded in New York City and Paris through the exchange and evolution of sound files between sound artists and instrumentalists, percussionist Flin van Hemmen and pianist Jozef Dumoulin, each using samples, field recordings, percussion, keyboards, voice and programming to create sound portraits of propulsive impetus and reflective evocation.
Lopes, Luis Love Song
Emmentes
(Shhpuma)
The third release in Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes' Love Song Project is a solo album performed on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, six beautifully peaceful and introspective improvisations revealing a calm side to Lopes' often assertive electric guitar work, instead allowing harmonics and notes express his curiosity of life and love of music.
Goncalves, Andre
Instrumentals
(Shhpuma)
A compilation of compositions for conventional, acoustic, musical instruments, performed through synthetics and computer processing as an album of electronic music, composed by Lisbon based sound and media artist André Gonçalves, each of 9 parts simply titled "Instrumental", and each a fascinating microcosm of kinetic, synthetic-acoustic potential.
Hein, Nicola L.
The Oxymothastic Objectar
(Shhpuma)
Using an electric guitar, preparations, and objects as a tool of reflection, Nicola L. Hein presents an album of philosophical bent, about the question of skepticism in music, or a skeptical form of improvisation, through tumultuous playing of impressive technique caught live at Spectrum in NYC, as each track title presents observations or questions that Hein seeks to resolve.
Holy Mountain, The
Toad Of Light [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)
Cinematic aesthetics and themes from the Norwegian Holy Mountain duo, performing on the uncommon pairing of two instruments--accordion played by Andreas Angell, and drums with acoustic and electronic parts and vintage synthesizer played by Aleksander Tidemann--in their 3rd release inspired by the dystopian sci-fi visions of John Carpenter, Philip Glass and Daft Punk.
Fake Humans (Fisher / Didur)
Exegesis [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)
The Toronto-based duo of Colin Fisher on woodwinds and percussion and Carl Didur on keyboards and bass bridge acoustic and electronic improv with science fiction sensibilities in their two part "Exegesis", a critical exposition of un-genred music that borrows from global sources in service to their unusual and exotic tale; a wonderfully perplexing album.
da Rocha, Maria
Beetroot & Other Stories
(Shhpuma)
Using violin, viola, synth and effect pedals, Portuguese string player Maria da Rocha creates rich environments of sound and unusual rhythmic structures over which she plays with subtlety and transcendence, in her first solo album, using her unique language as she tells the story of a beet and a witch, inspired by Odyssey Ulysses and Circe from Cortazar.
Martins, Luis Jose
Tentos - Invencoes E Encantamentos
(Shhpuma)
Luis Jose Martins uses classical guitar, prepared guitar, electronics, and percussion in a solo album of incredible detail and lyrical, beautiful playing of original compositions that blend his playing with modern techniques and electronics into melodic masterpieces, performed in the natural resonance of the church of the convent of S. Bento in Avis.
Vanoli, Raphael
Bibrax
(Shhpuma)
Amsterdam guitarist Raphael Vanoli in a solo record of discovery, hiper-amplifying his guitar so that slight motions create forceful statements, where gently blowing on the strings creates dynamics and harmonics rarely explored, effected to create complex sonic compositions with unique, unusual and fascinating properties.
Goncalves, Andre
Currents and Riptides
(Shhpuma)
Andre Gonvalves, known for the ADDAC System brand of modular synthesizers and several devices for electronic music, in a solo album combining analog and digital sounds and tools, processing of field recordings and ready-made materials, a rich and beautiful work.
Gama, Joana / Luis Fernandez
Quest
(Shhpuma)
Classical pianist Joana Gama and live electronic processing artist Luis Fernandes bridge compositional and experimental forms in this lyrical work, where Fernandes transforms, dissects, loops and otherwise mutates the Gama's playing in unexpected and elegant ways.
Costa, Simao
ANO PRE CAU TION PER CU SSION ON SHORT CIRCUIT
(Shhpuma)
Portuguese composer and pianist Simao Costa in an album of solo prepared piano in the style of John Cage, using transducers, speaker & objects, paced like a Morton Feldman composition, balancing tones and percussive sound in exquisite compositions.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Surak, Jeff
Eris I Dysnomia [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Eh?)
Washington DC-area sound artist and Zeromoon label-leader Jeff Surak, creating audio environments since the 80's home taping days, in a set of sound recordings of electro-acoustic drones, tape generated musique concrete, "plus a heavy dose of weirdness"; five tracks of diverse approaches to sonic experimentation, particularly the epic "Parasite Lost".
Lareau, Charles
Stasis (CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD)
(Eh?)
Sound artist Charles Lareau, a member of Naturaliste with Bryan Day, Chris Fischer & Lonnie Methe, in six solo compositions of assertive electronics and noise, using recordings, found sounds and various electronics while often incorporating his environment to add aural excitement and unexpected moments between sections of slowly shifting, static textures.
Euphotic (Bryan Day / Tom Djll / Cheryl E. Leonard)
Isopleths
(Public Eyesore)
A fascinating trio of West Coast sonic explorers exploring the isopleth, the zone of seawater that receives enough sunlight for photosynthesis to occur, from improvising trumpeter Tom Djll employing electronics with his horn, Bryan Day on invented instruments, and Cheryl Leonard using natural objects including driftwood, feathers, marsh reeds, penguin bones, &c.
Brasilia Laptop Orchestra
BSBL0rk: 10 yEars aLive
(Public Eyesore)
For more than 10 years since its inception as a spin-off from founder and principal programmer Eufrasio Prates's doctorate research in 2012, the Brasilia Laptop Orquestra has become a regular institution on the Brasiliense experimental and electronic scene, the orchestra an ever-changing collaboration of musicians, heard in 11 recordings captured live between 2013-2020.
Skumsnes Moe, Guro / Philippe Petit
Guro Skumsnes Moe & Philippe Petit
(Public Eyesore)
Bringing together two noise improvisers and experimenters, Guro Skumsnes Moe from Sult and MoE performing on octabass & electric bass, and Philippe Petit (who has albums on Aural Terrains, Monotype and Bolt) performing on synthesizer and turntables, both also providing vocal utterance, for two thick journeys of twisted, diverse and often deep sonics bridged by an abstract interlude.
Dunmall, Paul Ensemble
It's A Matter Of Fact
(Discus)
Following his previous Discus release Yes Tomorrow, UK saxophonist and composer Paul Dunmall expands his quintet to a septet with legendary vocalist Julie Tippetts and trumpeter Charlotte Keefe joining the exemplary ensemble of Martin Archer on sax, Richard Foote on trombone, Steven Saunders on electric guitar, James Owston on double bass and Jim Bashford on drums.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC