Slow, quiet and relaxed - Eva-Maria Houben’s first appearance at OTO touched all that heard it. Part of the Wandelweiser collective, Houben creates vast, incorporeal forms from almost nothing - music that lingers long after the last note has dissipated. Includes the premiere of Tiefe – Depth for Piano - a flawless study in decay and resonance.

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Eva-Maria Houben / piano

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Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Tuesday 30th August, 2016. Mixed by Abby Thomas. Mastered by James Dunn. 

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Transcipt from the evening: 

“I’m very glad to be here. I had some very nice days here in London before this night, and I am very glad this night to be here. We spoke about the programme for this night and we decided upon 3 sections, and if you allow I would like to say some words. On the whole, I will play two first performances, and then I will play a few other pieces, and the first section will be a piece form 2014, Loosely Connected. It is not the first performance, it had already been performed in August in Germany, and it was a full experience for me. And then I will play the piece Depth - it’s short, and this will be the first performance. So, both pieces together will come I think, to twenty minutes. Two ten minute pieces. And then we have the first break, and you could take something, and then follows Sonata Number 10 that will have a duration of twenty four minutes, and then, at last, I will finish with Dandelion, a new piece, a first performance, and then The Hanging Garden or The Suspended Garden. Yes. And now, Loosely Connected and Depth. Thank you very much.”

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"And now, the second set and it will be Sonata for Piano Number 10. This Sonata has a subtitle - it’s called in French, erm, Le Croche de Soils - Dreambirds. I have dreamt this piece and there were different sounds of birds from different countries and different towers and I listened before to a piece by Enescu, a Roman composer, and it was very impressive. And he imitated real birds by the piano, by sounds and keys which seemed to be wrong but they sounded like birds because there are birds which have disharmony partials - or harmonic partials but disharmonic partials too - and this was very fascinating for me and I tried to be on the traces of different composers. This sonata has 5 movements, and the first movement is dedicated to Mussorgsky, the second movement to Enescu, the third movement to Schumann, the fourth movement to Liszt, and the last and fifth movement to Olivier Messiaen. It is not their sounds but traces, smells, of those composers. Not more. You will listen to 5 movements and the whole sonata will have a duration of 24 up to 25 minutes. Then we will have the second break. Thank you."

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"So or the last set we have at first, Dandelion. Dandelion could be a very long piece - it is a collection with many pieces of paper and every sheet is a world on its own, and I will play 3 pages, not more. But I could play many pages and could have played only Dandelion this evening, it’s a collection with many pages, but I play 3. It is a study on partials of the piano. And then follows Les Jardins Suspendus - The Hanging Gardens, yes, and this piece closes the night. And both pieces together I think will last I think 15 minutes. The first perhaps 8 minutes, and then 7 minutes."

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"Thank you very much for your kind welcome. And I could play the famous Drei Choräles, they are very short. They have repetitions and I would think I will take about 4 or 5 minutes. Yes."

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Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC  

Tracklisting: 

1. Loosely Connected / Depth - 18:58

2. Sonata for Piano Number 10 - 21:24

3. Dandelion / The Hanging Garden - 12:29

4. Drei Choräles - 5:15