This Levinas’ score calls to mind the 17th century baroque suite (Louis Couperin), so varied are its episodes and so unleashed is its rhythm. His semi-consonant moving harmony conjures up the last works of Ligeti: the delicate polyphony of the pianist’s hands, the ambiguity and wiliness of the skills brought to bear, harnessing the full range of the pedal’s effects, twisting the harmony, encouraging the chords to ‘mutate’. As yearned for by Chopin and Debussy, the piano ceases to be an instrument characterised by notes, different kinds of attack and isolated sounds. It is transformed into an instrument of air and water, all ripples and slides: a realm of ‘inflections’.

“I wrote a score comprising highly intricate cumulative effects, poised between the acoustic piano and several sampled pianos played on two MIDI keyboards, producing arpeggio chord progressions that develop via micro sliding movements between the two keyboard players. [...] The music’s instrumental performance styles may call to mind both organ playing and the flowing movements of jazz. The chords are sculpted and sometimes twisted at the very core of the resonance and spectrum. It is also reminiscent of a Dali painting – but without being my source of inspiration or my point of reference.” (Michael Levinas)