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MOJO Rising: Hauschka

6:00 AM GMT 04/09/2008

MOJO Rising: Hauschka

There’s playing the piano and then there’s breaking it apart, sticking various objects (paper, bolts etc) inside and transforming the instrument into something entirely new in order to open up an as yet undiscovered world of sound. This is prepared piano and under the alias Hauschka, the Düsseldorf–based pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann has become a pioneer of this technique. His new album, Ferndorf, was released in September.

Trained in classical piano from the age of nine, he began to feel restricted by traditional methods while recording in Wales in 2005:

“Before that I’d made electronic music with laptops and suddenly I felt trapped in this…frame," he recently told MOJO's Andrew Male. "I wanted to open everything up so I placed a couple of plastic folders and bottle tops inside their grand piano and discovered a whole bunch of different instruments, without any technique involved.”

Ferndorf is named after the German village where Volker grew up, each song a tribute to the place he credits as the primary source of his inspiration. It attempts to capture his childhood experience of nature, and the result is a mix of purely improvised tracks, ordered compositions and true sonic invention.

Listen to two exclusive tracks below!

1. Blue Bycicle

2. Rodenull

Amy Bell

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 04/09/2008


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Hauschka

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