Over the past few years London based musician JP Hartnett has been steadily developing a distinctive approach to the medium of solo piano. The improvisations on previous volumes of ‘Whittle’ were characterised by a ‘composed feel and an overarching sense of melodic order’ (Byron Coley, The Wire). On Vol. 3, Hartnett continues to spontaneously shape musical narratives, deftly playing with listener expectations. If the orthodox approach to prepared piano is to enrich the timbral character of the instrument, the preparations here instead seem to have an expressive power all of their own: whether elegant, rough-hewn, subtle or peculiar. They are not merely a means of colouring the instrument’s sonic palette, but rather an integral part of the compositional intent, adding more than a hint of the uncanny to the music as a whole.
As with the previous volumes in this series the mood remains somewhat elusive, a characteristic echoed in the choice of titles, which combine lightheartedness with shades of the existential. This is music which is always on the verge of breaking the frame – structurally, sonically, affectively – as liable to follow unexpected lines of enquiry, as to suddenly pause or circle intently around a particular idea for reasons obscured from view. It is Hartnett’s keen sense of intuition that enables the works to express their own oblique, non-linear logic, which creates a listening experience that is always absorbing and wonderfully strange.
Purchase Cassette: JP Hartnett – Whittle Vol. 3
Joyful Union Cassette Resource 