Yokohama Flowers is the title track from Griswold’s latest collection of works for prepared piano, due for release in November via Room40. This piece is a collaboration with Australian experimental filmmaker Louise Curham with whom he has developed a unique approach to live audio visual performance.
Erik Griswold is a composer and pianist originally from San Diego, and now residing in Brisbane. Aside from his compositional work he performs as a soloist and in Clocked Out, an experimental music interarts & intercultural collaborations company he runs with percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson. You can read our review of 2010’s Foreign Objects here.
We really like the way the label describes his music:
“Griswold’s compositions remind us that the piano is never truly knowable, or known. Each composition collected here reveals another detail or way of knowing the piano. The preparations release something in excess of the instrument itself.”
This is what Griswold has to say:
“There’s a mystical aura surrounding my old piano. I imagine the 19th century workshop in which it was hand-crafted and the German parlours in which it played Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Satie, or Joplin. I imagine its journey from Stuttgart, by ship to Sydney harbour, and overland to the semi-tropical heat of Brisbane. Playing it I feel connected to its 131 years of history – the people, places and music that have come before.”
Yokohama Flowers will be released via Room40 on the 23rd of November. You can find it here. And on Bandcamp here.
