Francesca Gemmo/Magda Mayas

Dual piano interactions may go back in history almost to the invention of that instrument with a particular purple patch of acceptance in the mid-20^th Century. On this series of eight improvisations however Italian Francesca Gemmo and German Magda Mayas create a provocative post-modern variant with Gemmo playing the regular piano and Mayas a prepared piano.

Their backgrounds are as different as their keyboards. Verona-based Gemmo is usually attuned to New music and composition, though she has performed with players ranging from Alvin Curran to Giancarlo Schiaffini. Berlin-based Mayas on the other hand is fully involved in free music, collaborating with the likes of among many others Angharad Davies and Tony Buck.

As Gemmo concentrates her expositions on balanced sweeps from the keyboard with repeated, glissandi, elevated tinkles and low pedal point affiliations, Mayas swoops into her instrument’s innards, concentrating on tolling pressure, soundboard quivers and vibrating small objects in the strings. Tracks’ parameters depend as much as the unbroken and sometimes otherworldly sounding pitches, whines and stops from the preparations as themes from the exposed keyboard.

A piece such as “Hieratic Links” for instance contrasts Gemmo’s wide romantic and emotional dynamics with Mayas’s preponderance of  woody stopped key cadences and thick string pops. Sometimes, as on “Returning” though, throbbing extensions and emphasized pressure is engendered by both players. At times like the giveaway titled “Strummed Song”, inner piano string plucks that create bell-like vibrations define the exposition.

Variations in sound and texture can originate from both players as well, with “Wires And Wales” initially expressed in quiet and languid tones and “The Sound Of Falling Sideways” doing so at a swift pace. The first’s moderated but percussive keyboard theme is later decorated by Mayas scouring an unyielding object across the piano’s harp’s strings. That then  thickens into pointed resonations that meet stentorian key patterns from the other piano. “The Sound Of Falling Sideways” meanwhile depends as much on Gemmo’s slick key chops that expose lower-pitched textures as Mayas’ gong-like soundboard resonation and string quivers. Pressure is then created equivalently.

While not visually reflected, the mirrored tides here mean that the constant movement and reflections confirm the CD’s singularity and distance from other piano duos.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Persuasion Mood 2. Between The Folds 3. Gravity And Glow 4. Hieratic Links 5. Strummed Song 6. Wires And Wales 7. Returning 8. The Sound Of Falling Sideways

Personnel: Francesca Gemmo (piano) and Magda Mayas (prepared piano)