One might think, that the express train in Christian Zanési's “Grand Bruit” has been replaced by Friedl’s piano. And the title, “two into one” is perfectly justified: it's a single material, a single thought that emerges. A music of gentleness and violence, one single thought in motion. Kasper T Toeplitz, revue & corrigé, 1/2025
[…] an immediacy and, above all, a form that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end of the album. The feeling of a live performance through your stereo system, captivating. Phontas Troussas, Diskoryxeion, 1/2025
The boundaries of the audible and acoustic are transcended, the visual-musical unity becomes a sensual experience. Kostas Karderinis, mic.gr, 2/2025
It crackles (electro)statically, metallic scraping and whistling roars from the speakers, piano strings and condensers growl in chorus. Astonishing, but true: not a single sound to be heard does not come from the Blüthner grand piano! Westzeit, 3/2025
overwhelming vitality, approaching an animalistic proto-electro-acoustic with twirling emotions. Highly recommended. SilenceAndSound, Roland Torres, 3/2005
ta amfótera en (two into one)
zeitkratzer records is glad to announce the forthcoming release of a new Duo-project by pianist and composer Reinhold Friedl and the Greek composer and electronic musician Costis Drygianakis, known as founding member of the legendary experimental music project Optical Musics. Reinhold Friedl and Costis Drygianakis first met in Thessaloniki in 2017 and exchanged recordings since. The pandemic gave Reinhold the opportunity to revisit his record collection and was stoked by the rediscovery of Costis last releases. The plan to work together came up immediately and was realized in summer 2021.
Costis Drygianakis recorded Reinhold Friedl’s special piano sounds on a Blüthner grand piano with a bunch of extremely diverse microphones, ranging from a beautiful old Neumann U67 to a cheap tape cassette machine and even a Dictaphone. The resulting recordings have been classified, selected and processed at his home studio in Kritharia, Greece. No other sounds have been used.
Drygianakis turns Friedl’s piano sounds into a futuristic landscape, keeping always a mediterranean feeling; e-bows on the strings mutate into ship horns, huge piano intensities create foggy sound clouds, prepared notes turn into beautiful bells. The music starts overwhelming, loud, dense, a Ken-Russel-like sound circus. The sound masses transform slowly in a transparent, almost romantic Lied; airy breaks take it further to an even more sensual level: it is not a single piano that you hear, but a huge variety; intimately close-miked sounds, juxtaposed with sonic atmospheres, evoking long forgotten memories, dreamy and chanting… more and more enriched with cheap, wonderfully noisy recordings, transforming the sophisticated instrument into an industrial machine. In this one hour long piece, reminding huge orchestra compositions, the multifaced and radical recording techniques reveal spatial deepness: A sound trip and a love declaration to this Blüthner grand piano in Volos, a survivor from another century. Always fluid, semper mutantes, piano, recording techniques and electronic treatments finally merge in the great final structure and become pure music and turn “two into one”! As the title states: “ta amfótera en” (Ephesians 2.14)
[…] as the two musicians opened the piano and revealed its soul, may each of us let his own soul speak, because when we speak with freedom, boldness and virtue, I think we have God’s blessing. Enjoy the music!
Ignatius the Metropolian of Demetrias, Greece
Costis Drygianakis studied physics and social anthropology, while he is an electronic music autodidact. Nevertheless he is internationally renowned as composer and record producer since the legendary project Optical Musics (1984 – 1998). He released experimental electroacoustic music, but also edited important ethnographic recordings. He widely cooperates with Greek and international independent artists and musicians, including among others Nikos Veliotis, Savina Yannatou, Hector Mavrides, Ross Daly, Thanasis Chondros & Alexandra Katsiani, Thanos Kois, Matt Atkins, Matthias Fritsch, Christos Tziztimikas. He also works in the Department for Chanting and Musicology of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies. His music “using unorthodox relationships of composition, recording and re-composition, employs randomness and improvisation, balances in-between ambiance and surprise and explores new grounds without abandoning its sentimental space”.
Reinhold Friedl is one of the leading figures in international avantgarde music, a pioneer of new physical sound qualities ranging from precise sensuality to noisy harshness: he makes the piano sing, his internationally acclaimed ensemble zeitkratzer opened up new horizons for ensemble playing by developing new musical practices. Music and collaborations from Xenakis to Lou Reed, from folk music to Stockhausen, from Keiji Haino to dance, performance art and video. Reinhold Friedl's compositions take up here: orgies of sound for orchestra, noise choreographies for string quartet (Quatuor Diotima), extended techniques worthy of the name turning the solo piano into a sensual sound orchestra.
Reinhold Friedl: piano, Costis Drygianakis: sound processing
all music composed by Costis Drygianakis and Reinhold Friedl
piano sounds recorded at the Conference Center of the Metropolis of Demetrias, Melissatika, Volos, Greece, on July 4, 11 and 12, 2021 (no other sounds have been used)
Piano sounds selected, processed and edited by Costis Drygianakis at Volos, Greece
