Lisa Moore - Donnacha Dennehy: Stainless Staining (2012)

Australian-born, New York-based pianist Lisa Moore is known for her convention-smashing aesthetic; a prime example is her adventurous and virtuosic performance on various percussion instruments as well as piano in Martin Bresnick's Caprichos Enfáticos. Another is her use of the EP -- extended-play recording, longer than a single but shorter than a full album -- that was current in the LP era for pop releases, but that in the world of classical music, is a rarity in the age of CDs and beyond. She began her three-EP series with Don Byron's Seven (2009), continued it with Annie Gosfield's Lightning Slingers and Dead Ringers (2011), and completes it with Donnacha Dennehy's Stainless Staining (2012). The title track is scored for piano and pre-recorded samples of piano played conventionally and inside the instrument, and its premise is the rhythmically pulsing, gradual accumulation of overtones based on a single pitch. Ultimately over 100 overtones are in play, creating densely chromatic, micro-tonal textures. Its steady beat and harmonic stasis make it reminiscent of some strains of American minimalism of the last third of the 20th century, but that doesn't detract from its energetic immediacy. The second track, Reservoir, is scored for solo piano, and was inspired by a video by Bill Viola of a man being slowly submerged in water. It's a lovely, evocative Impressionist/post-minimalist piece that's suggestive of aqueous landscapes. Moore is a persuasive, poetic interpreter of Dennehy's appealing music, and this attractive CD should be of strong interest to fans of new music, especially new music for piano.