22-005 Mattering And Meaning - Dan Nicholls

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London-based keyboardist/producer Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS) introduces a new album project ‘Mattering And Meaning’ to be released by We Jazz Records on August 13th. Nicholls' music uses acoustic piano as its key element, transporting the instrument into new territories that sound remarkably natural and organic, whilst displaying a strong kinship with the world of abstract electronic music. The music utilises piano loops and field recordings as its key elements, forming what might be described on the surface as a fascinating ambient jazz record – but at the same time there's so much more at play here on deeper levels. Dan's music sounds at once otherworldly and immensely inviting.

After years of unlearning and unravelling the knots of a music college education – moving from a career in jazz, via electronic music, to a heartfelt embrace with rave culture and the feminist and queer theories which have so challenged perspectives across many disciplines on the objectified world and the values of capitalism – Dan Nicholls has spontaneously reimagined his relationship to the piano, that edifice of the decaying foundations of european classical music.

Here the emphasis shifts from the Work (as object) to the work (as activity). Recorded with only a mobile phone voice...  more

Produced by Dan Nicholls
Mastered by Juho Luukkainen
Photos by Louise Boer
Design by Matti Nives
Donna Haraway interview courtesy of Donna Haraway and Fabrizio Terranova. Ursula K. Le Guin interview courtesy of David Naimon (Between the Covers) and the Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Trust. Interruptions courtesy of Liv Nicholls.