Bourne Matthew

Matthew Bourne follows 2017's Isotach album, and recent collaborations with Keeley Forsyth and Nightports, with a collection of prepared piano pieces. Irrealis was recorded in a single session, each take played as live without any overdubs. Having taught himself the basics of prepared piano by throwing confectionary into his school's instrument, elements of these experimentations played a key role in Bourne's early performances. This culminated in an infamous performance piece which saw the explosive musical demolition of an upright piano with a sledgehammer. Far from the staid academic process the discipline is often approached with, Irrealis sees a restless improvisational musician explore the possibilities of his instrument with a box of nuts, bolts and Blu-Tak, and a sense of playfulness and spontaneity.

On Montauk Variations, pianist Matthew Bourne has reinvented his approach by stripping away the clutter and quirkiness characteristic of previous work. Fragility and romanticism have now become key focal elements in highly personal performances that still carry the Bourne hallmarks of unpredictability and elliptical intensity.

Following his celebrated moogmemory project, Matthew Bourne returns to the piano for Isotach. Once again, spontaneity is the keyword where Bourne is concerned, catching on tape that pregnant moment when a piece begins to form. Skeletal piano motifs, an aching use of space and sparing cello arrangements are deployed to devastating effect. Recorded in his rural Yorkshire home, Bourne's piano placed to overlook the moors while he works, the album title is a nod to the weather, which played a part in its creation. The recordings took place during what Bourne describes as "extreme weather". If you listen carefully you can hear the wind and rain picked up on the microphones, the sparse instrumentation providing the calm in the eye of the storm.

Bourne Matthew: Moogmemory [Vinyl LP]