Seth Horvitz — Eight Studies For Automatic Piano

Seth Horvitz is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and designer whose work revolves around the perception of sound and the idiosyncratic behaviour of machines performing sound. Horvitz is most known for his innovative & creative techno project Sutekh which mixers elements of funk, dub, free jazz , noise, musique concrète, and classical minimalism into a techno & glitch sonic frame work.  “Eight Studies For Automatic Piano” finds him creating modern classic works that are played in a live setting by machine operated piano's. The albums tracks mix together beyond human precision, detailed note patter-nation, and often harmonic/rewarding sonic detail.

All eight tracks were performed live on a Yamaha grand piano, which was sequenced via MIDI into tight, inhuman & machine like precise patterns that have both rhythmic, melodic and non-melodic qualities to them. The eight tracks run between just over the two minute to the twelve and a half  minute mark a picec, through most of the tracks hit between the three to five minute mark. The tracks move from racing then receding high key clunking ‘n’ hammering of the  opening track “Arch Study For The Highest Eight Notes”, onto the complex inter running & interlocking piano notes patterns of “echoes”, through to the stuck almost techno  pulse type piano note throbbing patterns of “Strumming Machine”. All the tracks take on the untiring and unflinching character of the machines that are play them, yet there’s also human touches with-in the harmonic and compositional elements of the tracks.

All told “Eight Studies For Automatic Piano” is an interesting experiment in  bonding  machine's with that most human and often emotional of instruments- the piano.  Of interest to those who enjoy rhythmic, repetitive and pattern based piano works of the likes of Steve Reich, Charlemagne Palestine, ect.