P Festival was launched last year as a concert series featuring an international group of avant-garde artists who use piano to push all kinds of boundaries in music. It kicked off for a second time last Friday, and will run through early December with a schedule of 14 performances by musicians and groups that have taken piano from its classical origins to emergent genres roughly grounded in indie rock, experimental noise or even dance club techno — basically, anything but traditional chamber music.
International performers at this year’s P Festival include German experimental pianist Andrea Neumann, Japanese 33-year-old electronic music composer Haruka Nakamura, the Austin, Texas post-rock band Balmorhea, Danish slowcore, shoegaze band Sleep Party People and Berlin group Brandt Brauer Frick, which uses classical instruments to play electronic music.
“P Festival is about bringing a diversity of piano music to audiences, and we hope that listeners start from the perspective of creation rather than performance to understand this instrument and come to a new understanding of music,” says event organizer KK Yeh (葉宛青).
Photo Courtesy of White Wabbit Records
Yeh adds that a lot of people already have a pre-established notion of what piano music is.
“They think that performances of piano music need to be in a concert hall and need to mainly use classical or jazz styles. I think this is really dangerous and that this kind of attitude represents a lack of imagination towards music,” she says.
Each performance features two artists or groups. In most cases, an international group is paired with a local performer. Local musicians include the avant-classical group Cicada, award-winning singer-songwriter Wang Yu-jun (王榆鈞) and the Tainan-based experimental ensemble O. Indie band Sun of Morning (晨曦光廊) will create a special fusion performance by inviting a classical pianist to join their band.
Photo Courtesy of White Wabbit Records
The festival opened last week in Taipei with a sold out performance in Taipei by Andrea Neumann and Wang. Neumann, 47, is a classically trained pianist who since the mid-1990s has been creating music by playing directly on the piano strings with mallets, metal brushes and forks and spoons. The pianos are usually dismantled, with the keyboards and tops removed. The music is experimental and often improvised.
One of the most exciting performers in the series is Brandt Brauer Frick, known for reproducing electronic-style music — ranging from techno dance beats to ambient electronica — with the instruments of traditional chamber music, such as pianos, cello, tuba and so on, though also sometimes with a rock drum kit. Now playing as a trio, the Berlin-based group put out its first album, Mr Machine, in 2011 and has since been invited to the world’s largest rock festivals including Glastonbury and Coachella, while also performing in famous night clubs like Hamburg’s Boiler Room and elite classical music venues like New York’s Lincoln Center. They perform with Denmark’s Sleep Party People on Dec. 1 at The Wall.
Taiwan has a huge array of classical music offerings, most organized by government run or supported arts groups. P Festival, however, comes from White Wabbit Records, which Yeh started as a closet-sized CD shop for indie music 16 years ago. White Wabbit is now Taipei’s most established CD shop for indie music and they release works by both local and international bands, while promoting several concerts each year.
Photo Courtesy of White Wabbit Records
Yeh says she realizes that promoting avant-garde piano music is a bit of an anomaly and it took a bit of adjustment for the public.
“Last year a lot of people thought we were doing classical music concerts,” she says. “But this year, the audience is looking forward to see what kind of strange piano players we are inviting.”
■ P Festival takes place in Taipei and Tainan at various venues through early December. O and Haruka Nakamura perform Oct. 20 in Taipei and Oct. 23 in Tainan. Cicada and Balmorhea perform Nov. 13 in Taipei and Nov. 14 in Tainan. Sleep Party People and Brandt Brauer Frick perform Dec. 1 in Taipei at The Wall.
■ For more information and advance tickets, visit www.pfestival.tw.
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