On his latest recording, Hyperchromatica, Kyle Gann expands on Conlon Nancarrow’s work with player pianos and multiplies it. This expansive new work was written for three computer-controlled disklavier pianos that Gann tuned to an intricate system of his own design, with the express goal to “reinvent tonality.” Gann treats the work not as a piano trio but a work for a single instrument with 243 keys. Hyperchromatica extends the possibilities of the piano well beyond the range of human possibility, utlizing complex polytempo and polymetric techniques that would be impossible for even the most virtuosic of players.
That’s not to say that Hyperchromatica is cold and mechanical. There are moments of frenetic chaos, to be sure, but Gann is focused on making microtonal music not accessible, but more “attractive and seductive.” Gann manipulates our suspension of disbelief, moving seamlessly from typically pianistic passages to figures almost too complex to comprehend. The strata of mictrotonal pitch and polytempo provides an unfamiliar lushness.
Hyperchromatica is a mammoth work, more than two years in the making. After years of working with a variety of microtonal tunings, Gann devised a tuning that provided him with enough heft to cover the piece’s two and half hours. By covering the gamut of styles and techniques, Gann has created a touchstone of microtonal music. The future is now, and Kyle Gann is leading is the way.
Kyle Gann’s eccentric and extravagant double-disc set Hyperchromatica is easily one of the year’s most fascinating releases. Nick Storring, Musicworks, Issue 132
In his stunning new two-CD sequence Hyperchromatica, the Bard professor extends the work of the ascendant American outsider composer Conlon Nancarrow, who found his ideal performer in the player piano. John Burdick, Chronogram, June 2019
There is no other real way to understand the music except via the senses, over time and much more than a few times. The effort is well worth it. Bravo! It is a major landmark in microtonal music. Grego Applegate Edwards, Classical-Modern Music Review, June 2018
…music based on intervals other than those you can get from the 12 equally-spaced notes on the piano needn’t be problematic. It could even be beautiful… Gann’s Hyperchromatica may be as close to divine as we get. Theater Jones
Hypochromatica (2015-2017)
by Kyle Gann
For three retuned, computer-driven pianos
Disk 1
1 · Andromeda Memories (8:24)
2 · Futility Row (8:53)
3 · Orbital Resonance (11:33)
4 · Pavane for a Dead Planet (9:10)
5 · Star Dance (6:44)
6 · Ride the Cosmos (6:22)
7 · Dark Forces Signify (8:21)
8 · The Lessing is Miracle (9:43)
9 · Busted Grooves (7:16)
Disk 2
10 · Rings of Saturn (13:33)
11 · Pulsars (10:26)
12 · Neptune Night (14:16)
13 · Spacecat (4:28)
14 · Reverse Gravity (5:58)
15 · Romance Postmoderne (8:37)
16 · Liquid Mechanisms (13:29)
17 · Galactic Jamboree (7:18)
Total time: 155:42
