Over the past decade, New York-based composer and producer Kelly Moran has solidified her status as a trailblazing figure in modern music, challenging the piano's traditional, classically-imposed school of thought with a more contemporary, experimental approach. An accomplished and highly sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated with artists the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never as part of his touring ensemble for 2018 album Age Of, as well as singer and composer FKA Twigs' live ensemble. Moran has also composed for classical musician Margaret Leng Tan and worked with other visionary contemporaries like Kelsey Lu and Yves Tumor. As a solo artist, Moran's critically acclaimed albums, Bloodroot and Ultraviolet, have explored a variety of extended piano techniques like John Cage-inspired prepared piano and exercises in improvisation. Her unique strand of experimental piano compositions, which conjure hypnotizing textures and dramatic compositional arcs, have been included on year-end lists across classical, avant-garde, and metal genres.

Moran’s upcoming album, Moves in the Field, is a series of duets for herself and the Yamaha Disklavier – a technologically advanced version of a player piano. Able to perfectly replicate humanlike playing through intense fine-tuning and programmable dynamics, the Disklaviers used on Kelly’s new music act as a foil to her own striving for a balance of technical perfection and emotional expression in her performances and compositions.

Kelly Moran Shares: “In early 2020, Yamaha loaned me a Disklavier player piano - a special instrument that allows you to record your performance for the piano to play back on its own. I was initially working on a duet for myself and another pianist, but when the pandemic hit, the player piano became my duet partner. I began writing a series of duets for myself and the Disklavier, exploring all the different ways I could utilize this instrument to merge its inhuman capabilities with my own playing. The Disklavier allowed me to record multiple layers of my playing so I could create music on the piano that would require more fingers or greater endurance than I physically have - like chords that had more than 10 notes in them, or chords that were spaced out farther than my hands could stretch. Sometimes I’d record a pattern and then speed it up to play back faster than I could ever physically play. My imagination exploded at all the possibilities this instrument allowed me to create, and these explorations culminated in my new record Moves in the Field.”[info sheet from distr.]