Felt Piano Night, by Binaural Space

Felt Piano Night

by Binaural Space

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FoxPuppy Binaural Space has many different sounds (some of which have their own names) but I absolutely love his Piano series where it is just him and a treated piano. Though he is a master craftsman of electronic music of many different styles, albums like this one put the miracle that happens when it's just his hands and the keys into the spotlight and show the brilliant artistry and musicianship that is at the core of everything he makes. Get this one. Then get the rest.

Quittiie Do yourself a favor and listen to this freakin' good album. Have a walk with your headphones on and dive deep into the beautiful piano-sounds, Binaural Space is creating on Felt Piano Night. I'm enraptured. Favorite track: Felt Piano Evening.

LovelyJoan Another successful Piano album. I just wish somewhere there was a recording of the process of making one of these. I enjoy the show of his fingers flying over the keys. Favorite track: Felt Piano Evening.

Cat Temper Are you one who thinks all piano music sounds the same? Binaural Space once again shows how uncommonly expressive the instrument can be with subtle manipulation. A cozily muffled tone and repeated melodies allow the listener to meditate on additional creaks and sounds that have a dynamic all their own. Even clashing chords take on the characteristic of chiming percussion. Another magical edition in this series.

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Cassette + Digital Album
It’s Piano Day today, and because tomorrow marks the first anniversary of “Felt Piano Night”, we’re bringing the album to you on tape for the very first time!

C48 Felt Red Transparent Cassette with Metallic Yellow Handwriting, signed and dedicated by Binaural Space.

Each copy was real-time recorded directly from analog master played on a fabled Marantz deck to a warm and beloved old Nakamichi deck. Every single copy is unique and has desired little artefacts like warble, flutter or wow, making your cassette a hearty lo-fi original.

Sent as a registered shipment with tracking number as always.

Because of Easter holidays, shipping won’t start until Tuesday.

Combine with other Binaural Space releases to save on shipping:
binaural-space.bandcamp.com/merch

Includes unlimited streaming of Felt Piano Night via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

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4 remaining

270 CZK or more

1.	Early Evening 03:58	buy track
2.	Felt Piano Evening 19:41	buy track
3.	Felt Piano Night 19:14	buy track
4.	Felt Piano Morning 04:09	buy track

about

Our Piano Day series began in 2020 when we released "Untuned Piano Day". The album featured binaurally recorded improvisations played on an old, Viennese piano, untuned and broken. In accordance with the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi it embraced transience, imperfection and finding beauty in the uniqueness of the moment of playing all the improvisations on the old instrument in one go.

A year later, in 2021, we released "Chopped Piano Day". This album began as a recording of an improvised session on a small upright piano I had learned to play when I was a kid – a recording that failed and result of which was 100% silence. What saved the day was my old sampler on which I chopped (hence the name) parts of "Untuned Piano Day" and using a workflow resembling plunderphonics made a completely different, unique album from the source material.

Last year, once again on the Piano Day, we released two albums: "Unfrozen Piano Day" and "Unfrozen Piano Nite", both finally featuring the small upright piano that had been "frozen" in my parents' flat for two decades and which got finally "unfrozen" in my studio after all this time, untuned but magical. By adding granular effects to the recordings the result sounded as if a second layer of melodies arose from icicles dancing on a frozen water surface. The names of the two albums were coincidentally confirmed by a photo my friend had made of a piano on a frozen lake, which he allowed me to use as the albums' artwork.

Today, on March 29, 2023, it is yet another Piano Day and we're introducing the fifth album in our Piano Day series, called "Felt Piano Night". Once again it is very different than its predecessors.

On an evening a couple of months ago when my family was away I dismantled the upright piano featured on "Unfrozen Piano Day" and "Unfrozen Piano Nite" and carefully applied felt on its internal mechanics to dampen the sound.

After several attempts and experiments I ended up with a haunting sound where some hammers activated not only the strings they were supposed to but also adjacent ones, result of which were eerie overtones.

It was tricky to record the result so that the sound of high strings would be in balance with that of the low strings, and the sound of the mechanics of the piano would be in balance with these tones. When I, after some experimenting, ended up with placing my binaural microphones on a perfect spot, the evening turned into the night already.

I then recorded two short improvisations using a single layer of felt, followed by two long-form improvisations using the aforementioned setup with double felt layer. My playing was inspired by the tones, overtones and sounds I could make on the piano, including the "whispering" of my fingers running over the keys without activating them and other techniques possible in this setting.

The result is rather enchanting I'd say but it's the ear of the beholder so listen to the album and find out how it will affect the very them – you.

Oh and because everything Binaural Space is proudly DAWless, I’m happy that there were no effects used on this album – no hardware FX, no guitar pedals, no VST’s; everything is just the natural sound of my felt piano committed through binaural microphones directly to tape. Yay!

Thank you for reading and thank you for listening.

Binaural Space, March 2023

credits

released March 29, 2023

Artwork by pH

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Binaural Space

Ambient traditionalists say to Binaural Space what the Emperor said to Mozart: “Too many notes.” In both cases, the rest of the world tends to disagree.

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