Don't Forget: Amnesiac

When I discovered one of the most beautiful of Radiohead's album, Amnesiac, I tied a knot in my nose, to remind myself not to forget... to work on it. And the challenge was primarily one of converting to voice-with-piano pieces that were noisy and electronic, obliging me sometimes to invent from scratch a melodic vocal line, and rebuild my own soundscape. The project has been extended until it became a personal juke-box, including songs by Nick Cave, The Who, Tori Amos, Nick Drake, Beth Gibbons, and lesser known jazz standards... And last but not least, a completely different piece: a paraphrase for voice and piano of a piece by Frederic Rzewski, To the Earth (1985, for speaking percussionist), based upon a Homeric hymn to the earth. I converted the speaking part into a song, and composed a new piano score, saving the original rhythm of the percussions (four terracotta vases with different intonations). Frederic Rzewski liked it.

 

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