This evening explores the body of the grand piano, becoming a resonant chamber rather than a source, shaped by material, frequency and form. The result is an unfolding of sympathetic tones, subtle harmonics, and long feedback tones transforming the piano to an elegant geometry of waves.

“Damned Piano” is Bob Bellerue’s feedback project for grand piano. Melinda Faylor presents a new electroacoustic work “Everyday, a Hero”. Using a catalogue of single sound sources, this intimate and visceral piece centers craft and humility as it delves into the life of objects as microcosms for the zeitgeist. In his “Eigengrau” series Hans Tammen explores overtones and noises that are emerging from stringed instruments affected by vibrations from transducers. At Mise-en-place he is joined by pianist Shoko Nagai.

Bios:
Bob Bellerue is a sound artist, experimental musician, sound curator, and A/V technician based in Ridgewood NY. Over the last 35+ years he has been involved in creating and presenting a wide range of sonic activities – experimental music, sound art, noise, junk metal percussion ensembles, soundtracks for dance/ theater/ video/ performance art, Balinese gamelan, and sound / video installations. Bob’s sound work is based in improvised free noise within multidimensional feedback systems, using amplified instruments, objects, decontextualized field recordings, and resonant spaces, processed by electronics and software written in the Supercollider audio synthesis programming language.

Melinda Faylor is a pianist/composer based in NYC who works in various media to weave together dense and mercurial sound worlds using field recordings, synthesized sound and piano. Current projects include a solo album, Melia chamber trio, and Summer 2025 concerts and masterclasses in Tunisia with Cultures in Harmony. Starting in August 2025, she will have a residency at Spectrum in Red Hook, featuring solo and collaborative genre-fluid sets in a cozy, salon-style environment.

Hans Tammen is just another worker in rhythms, frequencies and intensities. He likes to set sounds in motion, and then sit back to watch the movements unfold. Using textures, timbre and dynamics as primary elements, his music is continuously shifting, with different layers floating into the foreground while others disappear. This flows like clockwork, “transforming a sequence of instrumental gestures into a wide territory of semi-hostile discontinuity; percussive, droning, intricately colorful, or simply blowing your socks off” (Touching Extremes).

Shoko Nagai is a versatile musical artist who improvises and performs with world-renowned musicians on piano and accordion and composes original scores for films and live performances. As a teenager in her native Japan, Nagai was trained on Yamaha’s electronic organ, the “Electone,” to perform popular music. Since moving to the U.S. from Japan and studying classical, jazz music, and compositions at Berklee, she has adapted her mastery of the keyboard to prepared piano, accordions, and other keyboard instruments, often inspired by the minimalist approach of composer Toru Takemitsu. Whether she is performing Klezmer, Balkan or experimental music, Nagai is a charismatic presence onstage, who hypnotizes audiences with her intense focus and virtuoso sound.