MORTON FELDMAN : Triadic Memories (Aki Takahashi) (1989) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

MORTON FELDMAN (1926-1987)
1.    Triadic Memories    1:01:18
Piano – Aki Takahashi

MORTON FELDMAN : Piano And String Quartet (Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi) (1993) Two Version | APE + FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

New York native and avant-garde composer Morton Feldman composed this work just two years before his death in 1987, and it haunts the listener into a prism of melancholy. Shifting, unsettling, and yet every bit hypnotic, pianist Aki Takahashi and the world-renowned Kronos Quartet conjure up the ghost of Feldman to wander the streets of New York as if they were abandoned. This single piece, over 79 minutes in length, is like an icy flower that blooms almost undetected. Takahashi is so delicate on the piano as to whisper quiet clusters of notes, reverberated by the Kronos Quartet for further contemplation. Feldman often preferred his performances and recordings to be very quiet, almost inaudible at times. Truly, it would make no sense to play a Feldman piece at volume ten on the stereo -- it would be like shining huge spotlights on a Rothko painting. The beauty is in the shadows, and the chill of "Piano and String Quartet" opens it's vast arms and pulls the listener in alongside the darkness. Breathtaking. Glenn Swan
MORTON FELDMAN (1926-1987)
1.    Piano And String Quartet (1:19:33)
Credits :
Piano – Aki Takahashi
Ensemble – Kronos Quartet :
Cello – Joan Jeanrenaud
Viola – Hank Dutt
Violin – David Harrington, John Sherba

IANNIS XENAKIS : Works for Piano (Aki Takahashi) (1999) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Known for drawing unusual sonorities from conventional instruments, Xenakis strangely left the piano's potential for novel sounds unexplored. In these works, Xenakis stays on the keyboard without so much as a plucked string or any use of gadgetry to alter the instrument's sound. Although that might make these pieces appear less radical, even "safe," Xenakis exploits every other option available. Evryali is an energetically rhythmic piece that bursts into a chaotic roar of crashing chords, traversing the piano's range and achieving maximum volume. Dikhthas is also heavily dependent on loud, percussive playing, though the violin's glissandi and pitch-bending provide the microtones that are integral to Xenakis' sound and add a welcome timbral contrast. Herma, constantly shifting in mood with wildly variable gestures, is regrettably like many other avant-garde solo piano pieces. A kind of mini-concerto, Palimpsest is the most characteristic work on the disc, full of the sonic mayhem and ritualistic patterns for which Xenakis is best known. Mists darts everywhere, as if actively pursuing ideas only to find that they dissipate when grasped. A.r., the briefest piece, is a rapid toccata extrapolated from a fragment by Ravel, though the overpowering result is unlike anything by that composer. by Blair Sanderson  

AKI TAKAHASHI – Piano Space = 高橋アキの世界 (1973-2009) 3CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist + Credits :