ANDREW MOORHEAD

MIRAGE

OA2 Records

Andrew Moorhead, piano/composer; Francois Moutin, bass; Ari Hoenig, drums.

Fifteen years ago, pianist and composer Andrew Moorhead suffered an unexpected accident. He fell 47 feet through the open center of a stairwell. The result was multiple injuries. Among them, spinal cord damage, and his right wrist was left immobile. Moorhead spent three months in a hospital.  Following that, several months of rehabilitation still did not give him complete mobility. Determined to still be a relevant musician, he explored electronic music. Moorhead built a synthesizer using the C++ programming language.  He had to rethink his musical style and approach to piano. Today, his music is a blend of jazz, classical, and electronic elements.

The “Mirage” album stands as a bold and unusual trio statement. It offers the listener true originality and uncommon creativity. They open with “Faster Etude,” one of several etudes that make up this album.  You can hear the way that Moorhead cycles sequences of music.

“I became interested in this kind of thing years ago, when I lived in Colorado. … I discovered that the accenting of cycles could produce an entirely mechanical delay effect on the piano. There are no additional effects used in this recording, aside from standard compression and reverb used by any piano trio (excluding the obvious reverb fade at the end of the title track),” Moorhead explains in his liner notes.

Surprisingly, all of the reverb and delay is produced entirely by the resonance of the piano itself. It is created by means of a partial sustain that can be achieved by playing deep in the keys.  These etudes are a kind of personal journey for Moorhead as a composer and musician.

“In my opinion, it’s the gap between the void of nonsense and the skeletal safety of memory where the most compelling and mysterious stuff can happen,” Moorhead shares.

His composition titled, “Intro Tune” that runs for 8 minutes and 54 seconds, becomes a good example of this perspective.

The repetitious nature of Moorhead’s musical undertow inspires him to improvise wildly on the piano, fingers dancing over the repeated grooves.  This is experimental music, mixed with electronics, and his own unique composing skills. Together, they create the artist’s total liberation.  Andrew Moorhead offers a musical landscape born from spontaneity, physical constrictions, electronics and melodic cycles.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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