5 KLAVIERSTÜCKE

"5 Klavierstuecke" means five piano pieces. This is what it is. Nothing else than the solo piano is used here (although quite a bit uses it in nonstandard ways, particularly plucking the strings, maybe with some physical preparation/manipulation). This is very minimalist "modern" classical music, there is no rock at all on this one, and it has hardly anything in common with his catalog up to this point. Although given his classical education and maybe his age (turned 81 in 2018) this may not be such a big surprise.

The music on this album is very minimalist and meditative indeed. Silence and patience are needed to appreciate this. The music is mainly not atonal but not very melodic either; it clearly goes beyond the harmonic and melodic range of the 19th century, but it doesn't want to shock or demonstrate complexity or extravagance for the sake of it. There is the occasional rhythmic part in it, even percussive sounds are occasionally used (in fact the fourth piece has quite some movement to it), but silence and slow evolution are more important for this album. Much of the music has a coming from nowhere and going nowhere feel to it; as in meditation there here and now is all that counts.

Do I like this? Yes, but I am too rarely in the mood for this kind of music. I can't exactly tell how original this is in recent academic/"classical" music, but I know a bit and I suspect that this is pretty unique. Some 30 years ago I heard a piece by the Hungarian Karoly Binder (Kontinentspiel) that used a prepared piano in similar ways, but was far more restless and less meditative than this. Ultimately I'm delighted that this pioneer of prog in his eighties once more takes a new and artistically worthwhile direction. If it's your cup of tea obviously I have no idea. The description "Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection" doesn't fit it for sure so just from reading the rating labels I should give this three stars, but I round it up to four out of the joy of getting something this fresh and original from Irmin in 2018, 50 years after Can took off!