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Elodie Lauten "Piano Works Revisited", Notes by John Schaefer and Elodie Lauten
WNYC's New Sounds host, John Schaefer, revisits his relationship to the piano music of Elodie Lauten, and Elodie Lauten provides her own extensive notes.
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2CD collection of piano works by postminimalist composer Elodie Lauten, most of which is available for the first time ever on CD. The albums Piano Works (1983) and Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory (1984), both reissued here in their entirety with remastered sound, incorporate found and prerecorded sounds into lyrical, minimalist piano works in a highly personal, even baroque, style. They are deeply meditative and expansive but do not require the epic lengths enjoyed by Glass, Reich, Riley. Pop-song length seems to be the standard on these albums, and yet the deep sensitivity of the work is never betrayed by brevity. Contemporary luminaries Arthur Russell and Peter Zummo contribute to the Concerto.
Also included in this set is Lauten's performance of her later masterpiece Variations on the Orange Cycle (1991), which was included in Chamber Music America's Century List, and other previously unreleased tracks.
Press
"Elodie Lauten made important works for the stage, like The Death of Don Juan, and also the keyboard, where her music has a touch of both Riley and Young in its mix of repeated ideas and improvisation. Variations on the Orange Cycle began as an improvisation, recorded and transcribed for others to play. It’s meditative, bluesy, and reins in free passages with the insistent call of a single, repeated note." - George Grella, Bandcamp Daily, October 2022
"I was sitting somewhere in a dangerous world, wondering what would happen to the girl at the piano. She changed my mind with mantras that shifted slowly from one troubled mood to the next, the new one only slightly – but subtly – different from the last." - Gregory Sandow, Village Voice
"her [Lauten's] assembled “orchestral memory” (which consists of a combination of sequencers and processed tapes with a real time performance by Peter Zummo on trombone and a trio of string players, among them the late, lamented split-personality—minimalist and disco—composer Arthur Russell on cello) offers a fascinating compositional model for composers who want to explore the powerful us-versus-them paradigm of the concerto form. Overall this collection of Lauten’s piano works is a wonderful portal back into an era when the Downtown New York scene promulgated a music that combined so-called compositional rigor with the energy of the nascent punk rock and new wave scenes." - New Music Box
Track List
DIGITAL TRACK LIST
Piano Works
1. Cat Counterpoint (3:26)
2. Revelation (5:55)
3. Adamantine Sonata (2:55)
4. Alien Heart (6:34)
5. Imaginary Husband (5:01)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory
6. Allegro Vivace (4:34)
7. Andante (Dedicated to the Impossible) (9:22)
8. Orchestral Memory (5:59)
9. Con Spirito (5:01)
10. Moderato (5:52)
11. Tempo di Habanera (4:51)
12. Andante Cantabile (5:18)
13. Orchestral Memory Exit (0:55)
14. Tango (Vocal Version) (4:07) (Bonus Track)
15. Variations on the Orange Cycle (36:02)
16. Sonate Modale (1985, Live at Music Gallery, Toronto) (24:59)
Credits