Hauschka - What If

New album from Academy Award, Golden Globe & BAFTA-nominated composer Hauschka

Album download included, offer subject to expiration

Since 2004, Volker Bertelmann — aka Hauschka — has, steadily earned a remarkable reputation as a purveyor of imaginative, distinctive, prepared piano music. On What If — which finds him adding player pianos (also known as pianolas) to his arsenal — Bertelmann expands his range even further, defying expectations and delivering what is without a doubt his most ingenious album yet. While engaging with his trademark technique of utilizing unusual objects — art erasers, for example — to treat (or ‘prepare') the piano, Hauschka also programmed parts for player pianos, exploiting the speed at which they could play, manipulating the resulting sounds, and building layers to emphasize a composition's meter.

What If aims to provoke reflection beyond the musical sphere with the titles of the both the album and its individual tracks. Overflowing with haunting melodies, mysterious sounds, and complex patterns, What If crowns an extraordinary couple of years for Hauschka. Likely to prove one of 2017's most original albums, What If redefines the very notion of piano music in dramatic and exceptional fashion. It stands as a rebuttal to those who lazily shoehorn Hauschka's work into the so-called, uncomfortably broad "new classical" category, and instead underlines his status as a unique and invaluable artist.

Side 1

01 I Can't Find Water

02 Constant Growth Fails

03 My Kids Live On Mars

04 I Need Exile

05 I Can't Express My Deep Love

Side 2

01 Nature Fights Back

02 Familiar Things Disappear

03 Trees Only Exist In Books

04 We Live a Thousand Years

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