Kai Schumacher - Insomnia '2015

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Sleepless Night (Arr. K. Swift for Piano)
02. Dream
03. A Little Midnight Music: I. Nocturnal Theme
04. A Little Midnight Music: II. Charade
05. A Little Midnight Music: III. Premonition
06. A Little Midnight Music: IV. Cobweb and Peaseblossom
07. A Little Midnight Music: V. Incantation
08. A Little Midnight Music: VI. Golliwog Revisted
09. A Little Midnight Music: VII. Blues in the Night
10. A Little Midnight Music: VIII. Cadenza with Tolling Bells
11. A Little Midnight Music: IX. Midnight Transformation
12. Summer Phantoms: Nocturne
13. Urban Nocturnes

Insomnia is the story of a nocturnal journey, reassuring and disturbing at the
same time, both mystical and unpredictable. An escape from ourselves into the
soft focus the night, but then leading us back again at the end, taking us even
deeper inside ourselves. Insomnia is the aimless wanderings of the Sleepless
One, through inner and outer worlds which remains hidden during the harsh light
of day. Insomnia is five Hymns to the Night, composed by five American composers
over a period of nearly 100 years. While at first glance, they may seem
stylistically very different, when taken together; these five works are the
perfect soundtrack for a journey through the long hours after the sun has set.

At the center of this journey stands A Little Midnight Music, George Crumbs
adaptation of the Thelonious Monk Jazz Standard Round Midnight. He leads his
listeners and performers past the neon signs of the New York jazz clubs of the
1940s into the oppressive darkness of the avant-garde pianist. Sleepless Night
and Urban Nocturnes by Bruce Stark not only reference jazz, and are the
outgrowth of the composer’s long-standing interest in improvisation. In
George Gershwin short Prelude we can almost imagine the clinking of glasses at
last call. John Cages Dream and Brian Belet‘s Summer Phantoms - Nocturne
function as the album’s centerpieces and provide a pair of contrasting
soundtracks for nightly inner escapism.

To describe Kai Schumacher as a “punk pianist” would be excessive.

His deeply thoughtful style of playing blurs the boundaries of the classical
avant-garde and pop culture without getting stuck in all-toofamiliar crossover
paths. One focus of Kai Schumachers solo repertoire has been on American piano
music of the late 20th and the 21st centuries. His debut album of Frederic
Rzewski’s monumental variation cycle The people united will never be
defeated! (2010) was celebrated by FonoForum magazine as a pianistic sensation.
With his second album Transcriptions (2013), he ventured into the musical heroes
of his youth - Rage against the machine, Nirvana, Slayer, etc., transforming the
concert grand in his piano remixes into a tone generator of monstrous
proportions, sound effects board or a set of tuned percussion instruments.

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