Magda Mayas - Chant [Unsounds Records 092]

Released on May 15th, 2k26 via the Dutch Unsounds Records imprint is "Chant", the latest album outing by long time active piano player x explorer Magda Mayas who brings forward three extended pieces on this 59 minutes spanning longplayer. Opening with "Embodied", a live recording of Mayas' performance at SoundOut Festival in Canberra, Australia, we're drawn into a world of prepared piano and undefined objects which is as tender and comforting as a mothers womb, radiating calm and timelessness with its minimalist, widely spread out piano repetitions accompanied by mostly metallic quasi rhythms and percussions which add an additional layer of ritualistic, at times even trance-inducing nature even at times in which their tonalities seem to counteract the slow flow of the piano which, at least for a while, seemingly gives way to the process of falling apart and being overwhelmed by the ever increasing intensity of non-piano movements. "Halcyon" sees Mayas installing a guitar amplifier inside her prepared piano accompanied by an additional guitar pickup on the instruments strings, resulting in an interesting build up of corresponding feedbacks which evoke the illusion of a stripped down, yet expertly executed and well Psychedelia-infused guitar performance with an exceedingly screaming twist rather than reflect the actual sound of the piano before the title piece "Chant" combines the sound of two different chords performed on a total of 16 - !!! - upright pianos into one rather majestic composition living off of the different states of maintenance and, in parts intended, degradation the individual instruments located at Piano Mill are in which gives each and every chord expression a slightly different and varying aural texture and therefore creates the impression of something larger, deeper and more atmospheric than the single chords combined on a single instrument would allow for. Defo an album for multiple listening sessions throughout dark and long winter nights.

Album artwork on Instagram!