On Modes

With his third solo album for Alpha, Anthony Romaniuk, the master of all keyboard instruments, returns to the piano and dedicates himself entirely to the seven church modes. These are derived from the major scale, formed the basis of ancient Greek music, and are now an integral part of folk, jazz, and many other genres – each mode holds its own world full of character and mood. The starting point is John Adams’ Phrygian Gates. From here, Romaniuk has developed a program that combines pieces by Arvo Pärt, György Ligeti, Radiohead, and Björk with his own compositions, which he supplements with arrangements of traditional Catalan and English-Scottish folk songs and free improvisations. In his ongoing search for a distinctive personal sound, he employs two grand pianos, including a Klavins upright grand from Nils Frahm’s collection. Its enormous soundboard and bass strings up to four meters long create an overwhelming, almost physically palpable sound. Through the additional use of analog and digital effects as well as novel recording techniques, a unique soundscape is created that is reminiscent of an expansive sound installation.