The Squid's Ear Magazine


Mayas, Magda: Heartland (Another Timbre)

Berlin pianist Magda Mayas, working with Tony Buck as recording engineer, performs inside and out of the piano in an amazing display of timbre and technique.
 

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Magda Mayas-piano


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Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: AT25
Squidco Product Code: 12757

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2010
Country: UK
Packaging: Jewel tray, not sealed.
"Shards" Recorded and mixed by Tony Buck, November 2008, Berlin. "Slow Metal Skin" recorded live at Roulette, New York by Stephen Cooper, September 2008. Mixed by Tony Buck.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The surface of Heartland, by Berlin based improvising pianist Magda Mayas, seems at first to zone into that same textural ballpark - the inside of the piano, it transpires, has as many recognisable mannerisms as the keyboard - but the potency of her creativeness soon asserts itself. Mayas reminds us that the piano has physical dimensions, as she wires up its insides, elevating its inner mechanisms to the status of the keyboard, and deploys her instrument's wooden frame as an added sound source. Put together, it's an exhilarating sonic brew: after her introductory drones disperse, the music flies with cartoon-like velocity. Metrically intricate, brittle patterns ricochet against the instrument casing like it's a pinball machine, strings twanging together like the expressive tuning of a blues guitarist. Towards the finish, keyboard harmonies get more empathically struck - Mayas began with the future and has worked back to the instrument we already know."-Philip Clark, The Wire

Magda Mayas

Studied Jazz Piano and Improvisation at the University of Arts in Berlin and finished her Diploma at the "Hanns Eisler" Conservatory for Music, Berlin with Georg Graewe. Living in Amsterdam in 2001, the international network of musicians, improvisers and composers, n- collective, was founded and includes the Quartett Mayas /Nutters/Olsen/Galvez (www.n-collective.com). Magda Mayas performs internationally with various ensembles e.g in a duo with drummer Tony Buck or with her trio phono phono (Michael Renkel guitar /electr., Sabine Vogel flutes/electr., Magda Mayas piano/synth.) She appeared on various festivals, such as the the "Total Music Meeting" in 2005 and 2006, at "Konfrontationen" 2007 and did additional performances with Johannes Bauer, Christoph Kurzmann, Andy Moore, Tristan Honsinger, Frank Gratkowski and Michael Moore. Besides she is co organizing an international festival for improvised and contemporary music since 2005, especially featuring piano players: "Tasten-BerlinerKlaviertage"


Artist Biographies

"Magda Mayas, born 1979, is a pianist living in Berlin. Developing a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage.

Alongside the piano, Mayas has recently been performing on a Clavinet/Pianet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices.Mayas performs internationally solo and in collaboration with a large number of musicians and composers.Current projects are "Spill", a duo with drummer Tony Buck, a duo with Christine Abdelnour (sax) and "Great Waitress", a trio with Monika Brooks (acc) and Laura Altman (cl).

She is currently undertaking Phd studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and investigating extended instrumental techniques, spectral music and psychoacoustics in an improvised music context.

Since 2013 she has also been producing radio pieces for ABC Australia and Deutschlandradio Kultur and has released 20 CDS to date.

Magda Mayas has performed and toured in Europe, the USA, Australia, Mexico and Lebanon and collaborated with many leading figures in improvisation and composers such as John Butcher, Andy Moor, Zeena Parkins, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lovens, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Peter Evans, Andrea Neumann and Axel Dörner. She has performed at festivals and exhibitions such as Maerz Musik (2012,2015), Documenta (2012) or the Berlin Biennale ( 2014)."

-Magda Mayas Website (https://magdamayas.jimdo.com/bio-cv/)
3/25/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Shards 19:06

2. Slow Metal Skin 32:32

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Piano & Keyboards
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Free Improvisation

Search for other titles on the label:
Another Timbre.


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