What I hear on Miniaturen are those miniature little boxes, interesting sketches and scribbles mostly based on the piano, a piano with prepared tones speaking clearly and artfully.
Shining breaths of music that sparkle and then dissolve
A collection of short tracks, a kaleidoscope of gems. One of the themes could be the idea of transitions, sparkling moments that are pauses between larger events; small things that could come from between the cracks of other music and other albums. Recorded with almost no post-processing or editing, this is a luminous modesty, shining breaths of music that sparkle and then dissolve, between one activity or another, one still moment to the next. In short, to quote, this is an anthology of tiny but powerful “snapshots, gems,” that “lived for a while” on the computer of Uwe Zahn, aka Arovane.
A prepared piano is where odd sounds are produced by creative objects (paper, foil, coins, etc) that are placed directly on the strings which are activated (or just played in the traditional sense) in various experimental ways. For me when I am operating a prepared piano, sometimes the hardest part is instrumentally reproducing the same sound some time later. What I hear on Miniaturen are those miniature little boxes, interesting sketches and scribbles mostly based on the piano, a piano with prepared tones speaking clearly and artfully. Twenty-six tracks, each with “the focus on one idea, the beauty of a single tone, created without a specific idea or concept behind them, short, self-contained, music box-like pieces.”
Miniaturen begins with “Insich” (2:14). The leftmost pedal on a traditional piano is sometimes called the soft pedal, which changes how the internal little felt hammer hits and allows for playing one string instead of the cluster of strings that sound each note, this is also known as una corda piano. I am listening inside a deep cavern and the physical notes seem to scratch as they pass by, perhaps there is water working deep below, and the mechanization sounds close. In another room, on another piano, “Miniaturen Eins” (3:09) in the echoing notes I can also hear those piano parts moving, the reverberating echo returns from up above somewhere. Deep inside the piano there are strange sounds—a repeating cluster of four notes in a row, plus probably ghosts created by synthesizers, “Bogen” (2:28). Next a larger number of instruments sounding in a wondrous cacophony, “Drift” (1:59), keeping a steady beat. “Kleine Melodie” (0:37), the little melody makes me think of a piano with automatic notes building a melody from an idea fragment.
The sixth track is “Kein Zurück” (2:42). No turning back now, there’s a piano with some kind of electronic counter, blasting away somewhere in a distant hall, weaving “Woben” (1:32) into the piano melody with a nervous beat accompaniment. Now I hear sentimental crying amongst machines in a dark hall, “Never Let You Go” (3:22). This track gives me a feeling that might be nostalgic, a pleasingly ploding melody, perhaps using a piano as a glockenspiel, there is wonderment in the wall. “Albedo” (2:23) allows a hammered piano (those little internal felt hammers) with ringing effects in cautious exploration of the melody. The longest track, “Thin Lines” (4:28) is said to be made by running asynchronous loops and improvising over them on the keyboard. I find this to be much more energized than the previous track, a modified piano with an odd tale to tell, all instrumental so no words, only imagined feelings, and layered repeating elements, yes, this is my favorite so far, this one. I like the wavering repeating melodic fragments that shimmer.
Wavering repeating melodic fragments that shimmer ::
“Uber” (1:31) descends with layers of tempos, piano & chimes, the sound of moving parts, back and forth, ringing and rocking in the old sense, into a nice warm fade. With continuing piano and chimes, now with odd echoes reverberating, “Oob” (1:45) comes from the same world as the previous track, “Uber,” the same musical setting but employing a different compositional form. “Einander” (1:24) brings me into a big echoey room. There are four or five note melodic phrases, each with different textures, and are all probably from a prepared piano. Perhaps this next track is about measuring the area inside a circle, “March 14, 2022” (2:56) features birds and alternating rugs, some sly building crackly tones seeking a pattern, now some of the bird recordings are played backwards. “Loss” (0:41) is short, and is that the sound of a pinball mechanism played slowly?
Sparkling and even more short, “Inii” (0:35) is followed by “Verlauf” (1:35) and the course includes tones plucked with tiny layers showing sometimes, probably all of these interesting sounds came from a prepared piano—patterns that work themselves out, sometimes with surprises, with sparkling odd reverse tones, “Dimmer” (2:18). Sometimes high pitched with trembling groaning tremors somehow from below, with very inventive melody fragments. The night sounds are layered into an instrumental quilt image, “Nachttal” (3:00), owls? Possibly also crickets by the thousands, with a pretzel note piano and harmonium pumping.
This final section consists of the Digital Only bonus tracks, “Drei Formen” (1:09)—a slow electronic tone pattern, followed by “Einton” (2:40) and the electric organ drones expand. The Capital of the Czech Republic is “Prague” (2:42), where fast clusters between long sustained reverberations reside; faster spinning, a harpsichord dream, shimmering sparks linger and a little call and response in the echoes of melodic phrases. Okay, now I like this one best too.
“Punktuel” (1:14) makes me think of hesitating and slow drone loops eventually fading. “Sensell” (2:31), now we are slow, so slow, with long reverberations and sounds of mechanical motion. The next track, “Wenn” (1:04), might have the same configuration as the previous track, of course with different content—slow tempo with lots of reverb and tiny details. From the sky, lights on bright cacophony joyful and just plain loud, “Wolke” (1:02) gives me the impression of fragments of melodies on hammered string instruments. Gently fading.
Music by Arovane
Mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12k
Artwork by John Whitlock
Miniaturen is available on Puremagnetik. [Bandcamp | Site]
