Salon des Amateurs

VINYL FORMAT. Salon des Amateurs is at once a bold departure and a logical step forward for FatCat's prepared pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann, aka Hauschka. Where his previous two albums Ferndorf and Foreign Landscapes, have seen him exploring a more traditional composition style and fuller orchestration, Salon des Amateurs finds Hauschka focusing on rhythmic possibilities of his own prepared piano, as well as his first recorded collaborations with kit drummers - specifically the immensely creative Samuli Kosminen (of Mum and others), as well as Calexico's John Convertino, Joey Burns, also of Calexico, and Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn provide additional instrumentation.

The result is exciting, propulsive, and unlike anything Hauschka has done before. Tense with its seeming contradictions - sitting at the meeting point of fluidity and rigor, organic and mechanized sounds, and the seemingly opposed genres of the golden-age house/techno that inspires its thumping low-end rhythms, and the sharp elegance of modern classical composition. Salon des Amateurs is like nothing you've heard before, but because Hauschka merges its disparate influences so successfully, there is nothing of the novelty here: the album is a beautifully-crafted and thrillingly unique sonic achievement.