Lubomyr Melnyk & Chantal Acda @ Roter Salon, Berlin | Monday, 21.04.2014

Lubomyr Melnyk is a Ukrainian composer and pianist who has pioneered ‘Continuous Piano Music’. Classically trained and greatly affected by the minimalist movement in the early 1970s, he has developed his own unique language for the piano, named after the principle of maintaining a continuous, unbroken stream of sound.

Lubomyr Melnyk is a true innovator, exploring new directions for contemporary music. Not only is he regarded as one of the world’s fastest concert pianists, his compositions also truly carry the listener to new realms. To witness one of his rare live performances is nothing short of a mind-opening experience.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=FuiUhnDf-qA

Melnyk has shown a remarkable devotion to the instrument, always striving to discover new ways of composing music in the continuous mode. His focus is on the actual sound of the piano as much as the harmonies and melodies of the music.

Using rapid and complex note patterns, Lubomyr’s virtuoso piano technique forms overtones that blend, collide or even create new melodies in rare moments, and thereby shape the composition beyond its original form. To accomplish this requires a special technique, one that has taken him many years to master.

Lubomyr Melnyk | Corollaries Tour Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=SjpAtnz6Sbc

April 2013 saw Lubomyr Melnyk’s his first release on UK label Erased Tapes. Entitled ‘Corollaries’, the album was recorded and produced by Peter Broderick with the additional help of Nils Frahm and Martyn Heyne. Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths knew it was time to share the great musical legacy of Melnyk, to which he simply responded: ‘Where were you guys when I was thirty?’

Lubomyr is currently working on new pieces for his second release on Erased Tapes and he is touring the world now. Upcoming dates of his Germany tour are:

20.04. MUNICH – Gasteig: Lubomyr Melnyk at White Noise / Black Silence-Festival 2014
21.04. BERLIN – Roter Salon: Lubomyr Melnyk & Chantal Acda
23.04. COLOGNE – King Georg: Lubomyr Melnyk
25.07. REUTLINGEN – Listhof: Lubomyr Melnyk at Burning Eagle Festival 2014

Dutch-born Chantal Acda (b. 1978) has worked under the Sleepingdog moniker since 2006, making three acclaimed albums that closed on the ‘With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields’ (2010) album for which she collaborated with Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid, A Winged Victory For The Sullen).

httpv://https://youtu.be/NCjMMTft_cM

They toured the UK and Benelux with Low in 2011.  After all this, it was time for her first real solo record. Playing in various formations had made her conscious of the patterns that we all, as humans, share in. So, she sought out kindred spirits with whom she might record an album filled with freedom and intensity, and who were conscious of the patterns we so often fall back on.

Nils Frahm was the first of these to cross her path. The inventive German pianist and producer is an intense and adventurous performer and was a perfect match for this project.  Acda also experienced a direct bond with Peter Broderick, a multi-instrumentalist known from his solo work (on labels such as Bella Union and Erased Tapes) and from his work with, among others, Efterklang.  Cellist extraordinaire Gyda Valtysdottir from Icelandic group Múm had previously worked with Chantal as a member of the Sleepingdog live band. And lastly, Shahzad Ismaily stumbled into this picture by chance, but when Acda and he found themselves in the same room they formed an instant rapport.

httpv://https://youtu.be/yDG2WsX5Tj8

The circle completed, Acda had found the 4 worlds that would enable her to record the album in full freedom. Power revealed through vulnerability.  Nils Frahm, who plays throughout the record, also took on the role of producer.  What began as a journey ended as this wonderful record – one wherein the five musicians were able to find their place and, together, and with great warmth, tell their nine-song story: ‘Let your hands be my guide’ (Gizeh Records).