Kelly Moran – Moves In The Field

»Conversations With Myself« was the name pianist Bill Evans gave to a 1963 album on which he played three different piano parts simultaneously on each track using a multitrack recorder. Kelly Moran didn’t need a tape recorder for her latest album. She had a Yamaha Disklavier, which is basically an acoustic piano with recording and playback capabilities, a kind of modern self-playing piano. Moran had planned to use it to compose a duet for herself and a fellow musician. But the pandemic forced her to change her plans. On her 2018 album »Ultraviolet«, she used a prepared piano and electronic effects; now the instrument is, at least sonically, unprocessed. Kelly Moran has used the piano to have a conversation with herself and to push herself beyond what she can do with two hands in the sense of augmented reality. There are chords with more than 10 notes and notes that are so far apart that they can’t be played by one person alone, as well as accelerated patterns. The result doesn’t flaunt these achievements or make them gimmicky. Much of the superhuman stuff on »Moves in the Field« is barely noticeable when you listen to it. The whole sound is introspective, even when Moran picks up the pace. It’s great when technology is used to support poetic ideas.