just back from hauschka playing in the most unlikely of places, Jurys Hotel.

room itself would usually be used for conferences. carpet, blinds, water dispensers, paper cups

his opening remark: 'i feel as if i should be giving you a powerpoint presentation'

nonetheless, simple lighting worked well and created a better atmosphere than might be expected

spent some time talking about his strong prottestant background, outlined differn tmusical project she has been involved in from heavy metal to punk to hip hop to his current venture

hilarious, well told story about one of the songs being based on time he spent in a hotel in budapest. he was the only guest for his entire stay with the whole staff waiting on him

the music was mainly from room to expand and ferndorf

all on played on prepared piano (full of different items, a lot of which were, apparently, from his local euro saver shop where he goes with his kids to pick up various items, chief of which was a plastic silver necklace which helped generate some of the evening's more appealing sounds

along with this,among other things, pieces of tape, ping pong balls, bits of old carpet, a tambourine. interesting to watch what was going on inside the piano as he played: you could see all the action in the reflection of the string from the udnerside of the piano lid. in itself, a complete visual entertainment

a couple of songs were accompanied by drones which, i think, came from a laptop

music you can hear on myspace but i though a lot of it while obviously like reich/glass particualry in the repeated figures and arpeggios, sounded uncannily like rachel grimes' band 'rachels' from chicago and, in particualr, the album the sea and the bells (i think thats the name). some of the piano figures come have come directly from it

a beautiful evening, wide variety of five minute soundscapes, introductions to pieces very effective thanks to use of that almost but not perfect grasp of the english language that non speakers have (which really personalises it in a way that native speakers, no matter how hard they try, can never manage)

a couple of thoughts crossed my mind: is prepared piano a form of mutilation (he talked about how harsh his upbrining was, how conservative his 'town' was although he did add that he is now reconciled with it and visits it every opportunity he gets): i wondered about this in relation to his music: what kind of physical/psychological act is preparing a piano), is prepared piano one of the better ways of trance meeting chance (the keyboard figures refigured randomly), i wondered about puritanism, purity, preparation of pianos, i wondered why he won't simply play the music as it is, as piano music, it seemed to me it would be equally good without the preparation, i wondered about 'difference'/character and the gaps in his sisters' and mother's front teeth that he said inspired a love song to and about them

finally: he talked about the pine forests and the low hills that surround his town. i felt that this offered a good image of the music: listening to it, i thought of a pine needle sinking slowly through snow, taking all winter long, touching the ground in spring