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At home by myself in 2010, with no real goal in mind, i began recording solo piano improvisations. I would do long improvisations starting from an elementary musical idea, then i would work on recordings (cutting, mounting, sound treatments, overlay...) leading me in directions that i would never have imagined while at my piano nor in front of a blank music score. About 12 short pieces emerged from these improvisations, pieces audible only by using amplifiers. Only 2 of these pieces still exist today : "L'horizon comme vouloir$" and "Mains et souffles". In 2011, i was asked to play these pieces in a concert. It would have been impossible as they existed then. I went back to work to be able to play them live. A digital sampler seemed to be the best way to exploit the wide possibilities of the piano. The sampler is merely an instrument that reads sounds, controlled through an electric keyboard which enables me to coordinate my hand movements on the piano to what i have prepared in advance by the mixing of re-worked piano sounds with other types of sounds . The mini-electric keyboard is placed on the music stand and the sounds come out of two mini speakers placed inside the piano (notes and sound effects coming from the sound board) and the amplified sounds blend to achieve acoustic equality. Little by little, i realized that the sampler had become an integral part of my piano, inseparable from my movements, but also and above all the language of sound. I found that i was nearly incapable of playing the piano if it was not in conjunction with an electro-acoustic object, resonance, environment or soundscape. Instead of correcting this, I decided to develop it. The piano that i imagine here is a sort of bionic piano. At this stage, i could have decided to write down the pieces before playing them in a concert. It seemed more honest to experience them as a composer-improviser that i am, instead of the interpreter that i am not. So i simplified the form, prepared the sounds and the sequences for the sampler, created atmospheres , memorized all that with the help of little pieces of paper, and i took advantage of the fact that i am the only messenger of this music to let it evolve from concert to concert. That was when i decided to call this pieces "studies". As a painter makes studies that other musicians will be able to play. In 2014 i was asked to record these studies. It was strange for me to have to render permanent what is actually something in constant evolution. This recording has become the trigger for the last phase of my work : the transcription of my research onto a written score. The process will end on a sheet of paper.
Samuel Sighicelli – january 2015
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