Bleep

Inspired by playing Cage’s ‘In A Landscape’, Peter Broderick’s latest album for Erased Tapes marks his return to the piano: on Partners, the Portland composer uses chance as compositional technique. To create ‘Under The Bridge’, he assigned different numbers to different notes, and then rolled two dice to decide in which order to play them – even though as a result their pattern is less clear than the rest of the pieces, the sustained piano notes evolve organically into a volatile melody. Broderick also incorporates spoken word elements in the form of five poems which appear on the title track, with their number and order selected by chance as well. With his interpretation of ‘In A Landscape’ he pays tribute to John Cage, and his intimate vocals on the closing, cinematic piano epic ‘Sometimes’ bridge the album with earlier releases.