AlbumRelease date:
11.10.2019
Kai Schumacher
RAUSCH
There are not many classical musicians who recommend a Berlin electro-punk album from 1993 on their Facebook account. Or celebrate the 25th anniversary of Grunge mastermind Kurt Cobain's death with a link to his key song "Lithium". Whether Atari Teenage Riot or Nirvana, pianist Kai Schumacher moves stylistically confidently and knowledgeably in the realms of popular music. Schumacher appreciates progressive approaches, but would never have the idea of drawing rigid boundaries between pop and avant-garde. Since 2009 he has released four solo albums. These include "Transcriptions" from 2012, on which he translated grunge and indie rock songs for the piano. "RAUSCH" is now the first time the focus is on his own compositions. Schumacher does without overdubs, no electronics are used at all. Instead, he has prepared his instrument analogously, i.e. manipulated the mechanics and strings of the piano in such a way that "weird" tones are deliberately created. Even the choice of words for the tracks goes beyond the usual format. Song titles like those of the first single "BRNFCK" would be more likely to be in the realms of metal or techno. Like "RAUSCH" as album title at all deliberately allows for ambiguities. Is it about excess? Should the sober everyday world be blurred by the music? Do we find ourselves in a state of sensual exaggeration when we listen? Kai Schumacher makes the conditions dance, lets them float, plays a game with acoustic perception. All this with a "broken" piano...
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Kai Schumacher
Kai Schumacher delights in pushing the boundaries between classical and popular music while avoiding the wellworn clichés "Crossover". Boasting an impressive pedigree, Kai studied at the renowned Folkwang University Essen with Prof. Till Engel, passing his "Konzertexamen" with distinction in 2009.
Since then, like a musical mad scientist, he has been constantly experimenting and combining seemingly incompatible elements with surprising results. His solo performances are acts of pure musical - and stylistic - alchemy, serving up heady mixes of Dadaism and Dancefloor, Avantgarde and Pop culture – sometimes all at once!
When not engaged in genre-defying pursuits, Kai Schumacher‘s repertoire focuses on American piano music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His debut recording of Frederic Rzewski‘s monumental "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" (2009) was hailed by Fono Forum magazine as a "pianistic sensation" and voted recording of the month.
On his second album, "Transcriptions" (2012), he bravely turned to the musical heroes of his youth - Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Slayer and others – remixing them and transforming the concert grand into a foursquare-meter sound monster, a mechanical sound-effects board, complete with prepared percussion.
His third album "Insomnia" (2015) is the story of a nocturnal odyssey, at once soothing and disturbing. It´s five restless "hymns" to the night feature the works of five American composers written over the past 80 years.
On his current album "Beauty in simplicity" Kai Schumacher is combining original piano compositions with his own arrangements for "enhanced piano" to create a repetitive set between meditation und mania. Including works from three centuries ranging from Erik Satie through Steve Reich to Moderat Minimal Music meets its classical pioneers and descendants in Ambient, Techno and Post-Rock.
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