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Introducing...Francesco Tristano

It's been almost three years since Italian pianist Francesco Tristano last graced our hallowed walls of Room Two with his sonic traverses of electronic and classical musical territories, the accomplishments of which have lead him onto some pretty major life time achievements for a man of just 29 years. Classically trained and accomplished in Ravel and Prokofiev, Tristano also has a string of self-penned album releases for French label InFiné under his belt and has clocked up a series of contemporary masterpieces on Deutsche Grammophon with collaborations in tow with techno pioneers, Carl Craig and Moritz Von Oswald. In the wake of Tristano's return for his Room One debut this Saturday, we spoke to the cultural crossover phenomenon detailing his extraordinary story so far and the workings of his live performance. Some of his clues indicate that we're in for a very special experience as he reveals he'll be bringing his hard to come by Yamaha CP-1 keyboard which he regards as pretty much the “Rolls Royce of Stage pianos”. Read on in our interview with Francesco Tristano below before he joins Petre Inspiresecu who's work he describes as 'remarkable' next to Cristi Cons and Craig Richards. Can you introduce yourself for the blog and reveal something about you that currently no-one else knows? Hello everyone, I'm Francesco Tristano and I'm very happy to return to fabric. Last time was in may 2010 but that seems like ages ago since I have been using a new setup for the past year or so. My revelation: this gig will feature the Yamaha CP-1 keyboard which is pretty much the Rolls Royce of Stage pianos and also quite hard to come by. What was the main influence for you to start combining your classical musical background with your DJing skills? It was never quite my intention to "combine" anything you know. I started to play the piano at age five, went on to study composition, counterpoint and jazz but when I got into electronic music I realized I wanted to be part of it somehow. How to make techno on the piano? So that's how you get a somewhat hybrid form of music-making I suppose. Tell us about your trio, ‘Aufgang’ and how you surprise crowds in your performance? Aufgang was born out of the complicity with fellow pianist Rami Khalife (from Beirut, Lebanon) and Aymeric Westrich (our drummer, from Paris). Our first gig was at Sonar festival in 2005. We have been searching for a sonic ideal ever since. We are about to release our second album on the French imprint inFine. I guess we are chameleons of sort since we play in a wide array of venues, from seated concert halls to festival stages etc. The main idea is always to explore the possibilities between acoustic instruments and electronics, since we also use analog synths along with our pianos and drum set. Clearly you don’t accept genre boundaries and conventions. Have you always been so far reaching? One sees boundaries only when one feels them. Music is free by definition, there aren't any boundaries attached to it. I suppose my upbringing has got a lot to do with this view since my mother listened to lots of Vivaldi, Bach and Wagner, but also Vangelis, Pink floyd and Ravi Shankar. How does it compare playing between a concert hall and nightclubs? What are the different methods of preparation you go through before you play each venue? They are really complementary. I like to adapt each time, not repeating the same experience twice. I like to surprise myself, surprise the audience. A seated audience doesn't necessarily always sits still, and a dancing audience can also be thrilled listening to some static synth drones. The preparation is mostly concentration and practice for a recital, and physical and technical for a club live set. We saw you’ve also performed as a conductor. What has this experienced taught you as a musician? Mainly to deal with other musicians, on a musical but also human level. A pianist works alone, a conductor is surrounded by musicians. For me, conducting was a means to project my ideas about sound from the piano onto other instruments. With twelve released albums already in the bag, including recordings of Bach Goldberg Variations and ‘Idiosynkrasia’ on the label InFiné, (recorded at Carl Craig’s Planet E-Communications in Detroit.) Can you pick just a couple of albums to briefly tell us more about and how they are significant to you? 'Auricle bio on' (iF 2008) is my most abstract work, no live piano is featured but only piano samples. The album consists of two 25 minutes tracks and goes from ambient to dub techno. This album was a liberation in many ways, most importantly because of the lack of my main instrument. The mastering was done by Moritz von Oswald and I think especially the vinyl pressing sounds good. 'Long walk', released last year by Deutsche Grammophon, is relevant for as it puts a contemporary context on old music, namely that of Johann Sebastian Bach and his master, Dietrich Buxtehude. The recording was made in Kyoto, Japan in an usual way for the classical industry: an array of 18 mics was used and each track features its live, automated mix. Recently, we released its accompanying 12" containing my composition 'Ground bass'with remixes by Brandt Brauer Frick and Kirk Degiorgio. What was it like when you played Electr.Oper with Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald? What’s the chemistry between yourself and the techno luminaries? The show is incredible to look back on… Thank you! It was a great night and a significant change on the Viennese scene. I'm particularly fond of the beginning of the show, when we ventured into some long improvisations reminiscent of early 70's fusion records. Moritz was in great form, we had a few nice dialogs between piano and his KMS synth and when Carl threw in the bass drum, the audience literally took off. How are you looking forward to playing live next to Petre Inspirescu, Craig Richards and Cristi Cons next Saturday? I'm very much looking forward to hearing their sets. And to play my own set! Last time I played with Craig was at Paris' La Gaite lyrique (with aufgang). Petre's work is remarkable. What does your live show entail? Can you educate us on your set-up? My set-up consists of 4 synths plus 32 tracks of MIDI and audio sequences out of my sound card. I'll handle most freely so as to find the right groove to get the dancefloor going and very likely play some of my tracks like The Melody, or my adaption of Derrick May's Strings of life. What other techno artists do you look to for inspiration in their live shows? Brandt Brauer Frick, Moritz von Oswald trio, A Guy Called Gerald for exactly one reason: the music is generated live. Finally, what are you most looking forward to about the rest of this year? I have just returned from Winter recess and I'm looking forward to a new musical season, both acoustic and electronic. I'll play a few new venues such as Cocorico Riccione and Hanoi Opera which should be fun. I return to Sonar on June 13th for a special show piano2.0 and in the summer, there's Ibiza. To purchase tickets for 2nd March go here.
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