[+] DAAN VANDEWALLE (BELGIUM)
Inner Cities
Inner Cities is a piano marathon performance, mostly notated, sometimes improvised, written by the American composer Alvin Curran. The work has often been described as ‘brutal lyricism’ combined with ecstatic sonic youth-like noise. Inner Cities, composed between 1993 and 2003, is one of those pieces that could not have been written in the 70s or 80s, simply because it is music of today that uses all of the available musics of today to create a soundscape that combines both avant-garde, minimalism, jazz, free improvisation, chorals, and hundreds of tunes. Inner Cities is not a regular concert but more an ‘event’, people are welcome to enter and leave the room and and lie down to listen.
‘Minimalist works, such as Alvin Curran’s Inner Cities, realign expectations, even if they don’t provide comfort. There is value in that. A Rauschenberg might be worth millions. A musical composition is not an object to be framed and hung in a chic gallery—it is a blueprint of a performance, which, if digitized, may be worth about seventeen dollars. Music, therefore, must be valued in a different way.
‘I have friends who avoid anything smacking of ‘new music’. But one must stretch, and as history inevitably becomes unwieldy, one must take risks to experience the lightness of the future. Disorientation takes courage, time, fortitude, and a suspension of memory in favor of rebirth. For those of us willing to journey, this CD is a rocket train. Inner Cities, then, in intrinsic terms, might be worth a lot more than a Rauschenberg.’ David Wolman, Fanfare Magazine
Daan Vandewalle enjoys an international reputation as a new music specialist, with a strong focus on 20th century American piano music. He studied at the Conservatory of Ghent, Belgium with Claude Coppens and at Mills College, California with Alvin Curran. He has given concerts and lectures devoted to American music throughout the world. He is a Fellow of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation and teaches piano at the conservatory of Ghent, Belgium.
Ever since his debut in 1992 (Ars Musica) his recitals and projects have become increasingly diverse and challenging. He improvised together with David Moss, Fred Frith, Han Bennink, Chris Cutler, Tom Cora in festivals all over Europe.
Daan Vandewalle was awarded the 2000 Jeanne and Willem Pelemans-prize by the Union of Belgian Composers.
In 2005 he released a 4 CD box of Inner Cities (Long Distance/Harmonia Mundi)